Harrington destructor ready for market

Manufactured by South Australian firm deBruin Engineering, it will be distributed throughout Australia this year by McIntosh Distribution, which has set up a dealer network of specialist combine harvester dealers in WA, Victoria and South Australia.

The 2017 production run will see IHSD units fitted to New Holland, Case IH, John Deere and CLAAS headers.

“There’s no colour focus with the IHSD,” McIntosh & Son Katanning, Kulin, Esperance and Albany branch manager Devon Gilmour said.

“We want them on all brands as soon as possible.”

Farmer demand already indicates deBruin Engineering will be in full production mode for the 2018 harvest.

“This is a game-changer in weed seed control,” Mr Gilmour said.

“We fitted and trialled 12 units last harvest making changes in the paddock to improve the efficiency of the unit and we are very pleased to see this has resulted in several upgrades.”

In fact the units fitted to two New Holland 10.90 and 9.90 headers in the McIntosh & Son Katanning yard last week look part of the machine making it hard to distinguish it as an add-on.

“We have placed a new stainless steel shroud around the mills which is double the thickness (3mm) and as a precaution we’ve strengthened the base plate to stop any possible flexing in the bottom of the mills.

“Two exclusively designed Rexroth Bosch hydraulic motors drive the rotor mills at a constant 3000rpm, which is the critical feature of the unit to achieve the tested weed seed kill results, something not possible with a mechanical drive system.

“We’ve found 3000rpm is the sweet spot and when we deliberately dropped back to under 2900rpm we encountered bridging and clumpier material coming from the mills that lessen the efficiency of seed being impacted by the rotor mill against the stator mill.

“Hydraulics at this point in time is definitely the way to go to maintain that constant 3000rpm. Customer reports indicate horsepower drawdown between 50 and 60hp (37-45kW), which was not having as significant an impact on the combine as we first thought.

“The focus for us was maintaining the header capacity so there’s an independent 120 litre oil reservoir with its own pump and own upgraded cooler and with a flow of 220 litres a minute it’s now achievable to maintain that 3000rpm.”

This year’s production units also will feature the new cooler with a rotary screen option mounted at the rear of the engine bay and an integrated cooler option for the larger combines.

According to Mr Gilmour, customers trialling the IHSD last harvest dealt with blockage problems with the cooler.

“The new one is a significantly larger straight-through cooler with a 60 per cent larger reversing fan with newly fitted rotary screen,” he said.

“We tested the cooler, by blocking 40pc of the unit with a cardboard sheet, on a 40˚C degree day and raising the oil temperature to 100˚C degrees.”

Despite the conditions imposed on the cooler, the oil reduced the temperature down to 63˚C under load.

A new chute design also eliminates material build-up or bridging and the area behind the sieves is now completely enclosed so all material coming off the sieves goes directly into the mills.

According to Mr Gilmour, last year’s harvest provided the perfect test for the IHSD units.

“We tested them in different bulky and frosted cereal crops and green canola so it was a good trial,” he said.

“We got a lot of feedback from customers and it was a collaboration of ideas that resulted in the upgrades that have all been adopted by deBruin Engineering for the 2017 units.

“The 2016 units also showed the IHSD units didn’t affect anything on the headers with combine manufacturers approving dealer warranty claims.”

Mr Gilmour said the IHSD was compatible to Class eight, nine and 10 header models.

“This is a major achievement by a WA farmer in developing an effective one pass system that will have big ramifications in the battle to control weed seed burdens and chemical resistance problems,” he said.

The effectiveness of the IHSD has now been tested with 25 weed seed species.

Research undertaken by the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) has determined the mills can destroy 93-99 per cent of weed seeds, preventing the majority from entering the soil seed bank.

AHRI director Professor Steve Powles said it was satisfying to see farmers adopting harvest weed seed control tactics.

“All of our research shows this is the way to help keep weed numbers down and grow more crop,’’ Steve said.