Kinze Goes Electric

Say this about Kinze Manufacturing: It isn’t afraid to mess with success. Kinze’s new flagship planter has optional electric motors—instead of mechanical or hydraulic drives—for its meters. For a company known for innovation but also known for pride in its hydraulic vacuum meters, that was a bold move.

Going electric was “not an easy decision,” says Luc Van Herle, Kinze’s director of global sales and service, because Kinze’s hydraulically driven vacuum meters are “the family jewels.” But once the decision was made, “We changed just about everything we could” on the metering system, even the tubes that deliver seed to the ground.

Faster. Greater ground speed was a major goal for the change, and Kinze claims the electric version of its 4900 planter will produce 99% accuracy in seed placement when traveling between 2 and 8 mph. Unlike hydraulic drives, there is no lag time with electric, Van Herle says.

The lack of delay helps the new 4900 individualize row unit performance in ways not previously possible. That can be especially helpful when going through curves, because row units on the outside of the curve travel faster than those on the inside. With the speed of electricity, the 4900’s row units now can vary seed drop for each row with “infinite variability and accuracy,” Van Herle says.

Each unit requires a high-torque 24-volt motor. To keep up with electrical demand, Kinze had to give the planter its own alternator, which is powered by a hydraulic circuit.

The idea of using electricity for agricultural implements rather than hydraulics is more common in Europe than in North America. In part, that’s true because Europeans pay much higher prices for diesel fuel, so efficiency affects their bottom line greatly. They have found that making electricity is more fuel efficient than turning hydraulic pumps.

Fewer parts. Electric switches and motors require less auxiliary equipment like hoses and towers. Without those, the 4900 has a sleeker, simpler look, Van Herle says. “Think of all the things that aren’t on there: drive shafts, gearboxes, chains. It looks like a naked planter.”

Kinze had help on the electric project from hardware and software suppliers more familiar with the automotive industry than with farm equipment. Military design elements also played a role to give the 4900 the durability to operate in harsh conditions. Three years of testing preceded the launch.

Will something so radically different sell? Van Herle admits to some trepidation when he first asked dealers to forecast customer requests. “We expected the earlier adopters would want them. But the actual results blew us away.”

Van Herle predicts 90 to 95% of new orders for Kinze planters in this category will be for the electric models instead of those with mechanical and hydraulic drive meters.

Kinze will start accepting actual orders in May. The 4900 also can be ordered with mechanical or hydraulically driven vacuum meters.

(BS)

Copyright 2013 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.