XtraBlatt Issue 01-2023
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THE SPEEDSHARP BLADE GRINDER<br />
Sharp as<br />
you like<br />
Sharp blades on the cutting system of a forage wagon are essential<br />
for ensuring high-quality grass silage. <strong>XtraBlatt</strong> visits<br />
contractor Wesch in northern Germany to find out about the<br />
three advantages of using the Krone SpeedSharp auto grinder –<br />
excellent grinds, time savings and fuel savings.<br />
2<br />
1<br />
D<br />
ennis Jenk opens the side door of the<br />
forage wagon with practised ease. The<br />
employee of contractor Harry Wesch<br />
from Moorausmoor (a village in the<br />
Lower Saxon district of Cuxhaven) unlocks the<br />
blades and pulls out the blade cassette. He then<br />
swings it to the side and lifts the blade sharpener<br />
into position. Once the two hydraulic hoses are<br />
connected, it’s all set. At the press of a button,<br />
the shaft of the 24-disc blade sharpener begins<br />
to rotate, automatically starting the grinding<br />
process. Sparks fly and after a little over a minute,<br />
all 24 blades are sharp again. The blade sharpener<br />
repositions itself and grinds the second set of 24<br />
blades. Then Denis Jenk returns the cutterbar to its<br />
working position, switches off the blade sharpener<br />
and carries on forage harvesting. The whole process<br />
has taken just under 5 minutes.<br />
“The alternative would have been to drive back to<br />
the yard and replace the blades,” explains Dennis<br />
Jenk, adding: “Provided everything went to plan<br />
in the first place, that would have taken a good<br />
hour, including driving there and back!” Time that<br />
nobody can spare at silage time. “That’s why we<br />
decided to invest in an automatic blade sharpening<br />
system when we were looking to replace a forage<br />
wagon a few years ago,” says contractor Harry<br />
Wesch. They then purchased two more forage<br />
wagons with blade grinders.<br />
abrasive flap discs. These grinding discs with<br />
individual, widely overlapping abrasive flaps<br />
ensure excellent grinding performance and long<br />
service life. Each flap disc is specially contoured<br />
to maintain a consistent grinding angle until<br />
the wear limit of the blade is reached, while the<br />
springs between the grinding discs ensure uniform<br />
contact pressure. A “cold” grind in several stages<br />
prevents annealing of the blades, which increases<br />
the service life of the grinding discs and prevents<br />
the blade edges from overheating.<br />
Since its introduction, the on-board grinding<br />
system has become a frequently selected option,<br />
says Krone Product Manager Benedikt Lambrecht-Speller,<br />
who is also in charge of the Speed-<br />
Sharp system. About one third of all forage wagons<br />
leaving the assembly line have the SpeedSharp<br />
blade grinder and this percentage rises to as much<br />
as 50% on the high-capacity RX and ZX models.<br />
“The system is particularly popular with customers<br />
who operate on sandy or stony ground where<br />
blades need sharpening more often,” he adds.<br />
<br />
1 Sharp blades<br />
within minutes: the<br />
SpeedSharp grinding<br />
system sharpens the<br />
blades on the cutting<br />
system within a matter<br />
of minutes. There is no<br />
need to remove them<br />
from the machine.<br />
2 All must play ball:<br />
premium-quality<br />
forage is the result<br />
of meticulously<br />
orchestrated processes<br />
– including regular<br />
blade sharpening.<br />
Krone launched the SpeedSharp system in 2<strong>01</strong>3.<br />
At its core lies a shaft fitted with 24 spring-loaded<br />
40 1|<strong>2023</strong> <strong>XtraBlatt</strong><br />
<strong>XtraBlatt</strong> 1|<strong>2023</strong><br />
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