XtraBlatt Issue 01-2023

THE SPEEDSHARP BLADE GRINDER
Sharp as
you like
Sharp blades on the cutting system of a forage wagon are essential
for ensuring high-quality grass silage. XtraBlatt visits
contractor Wesch in northern Germany to find out about the
three advantages of using the Krone SpeedSharp auto grinder –
excellent grinds, time savings and fuel savings.
2
1
D
ennis Jenk opens the side door of the
forage wagon with practised ease. The
employee of contractor Harry Wesch
from Moorausmoor (a village in the
Lower Saxon district of Cuxhaven) unlocks the
blades and pulls out the blade cassette. He then
swings it to the side and lifts the blade sharpener
into position. Once the two hydraulic hoses are
connected, it’s all set. At the press of a button,
the shaft of the 24-disc blade sharpener begins
to rotate, automatically starting the grinding
process. Sparks fly and after a little over a minute,
all 24 blades are sharp again. The blade sharpener
repositions itself and grinds the second set of 24
blades. Then Denis Jenk returns the cutterbar to its
working position, switches off the blade sharpener
and carries on forage harvesting. The whole process
has taken just under 5 minutes.
“The alternative would have been to drive back to
the yard and replace the blades,” explains Dennis
Jenk, adding: “Provided everything went to plan
in the first place, that would have taken a good
hour, including driving there and back!” Time that
nobody can spare at silage time. “That’s why we
decided to invest in an automatic blade sharpening
system when we were looking to replace a forage
wagon a few years ago,” says contractor Harry
Wesch. They then purchased two more forage
wagons with blade grinders.
abrasive flap discs. These grinding discs with
individual, widely overlapping abrasive flaps
ensure excellent grinding performance and long
service life. Each flap disc is specially contoured
to maintain a consistent grinding angle until
the wear limit of the blade is reached, while the
springs between the grinding discs ensure uniform
contact pressure. A “cold” grind in several stages
prevents annealing of the blades, which increases
the service life of the grinding discs and prevents
the blade edges from overheating.
Since its introduction, the on-board grinding
system has become a frequently selected option,
says Krone Product Manager Benedikt Lambrecht-Speller,
who is also in charge of the Speed-
Sharp system. About one third of all forage wagons
leaving the assembly line have the SpeedSharp
blade grinder and this percentage rises to as much
as 50% on the high-capacity RX and ZX models.
“The system is particularly popular with customers
who operate on sandy or stony ground where
blades need sharpening more often,” he adds.
1 Sharp blades
within minutes: the
SpeedSharp grinding
system sharpens the
blades on the cutting
system within a matter
of minutes. There is no
need to remove them
from the machine.
2 All must play ball:
premium-quality
forage is the result
of meticulously
orchestrated processes
– including regular
blade sharpening.
Krone launched the SpeedSharp system in 2013.
At its core lies a shaft fitted with 24 spring-loaded
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XtraBlatt 1|2023
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