Increasing performance and reducing the operator's workload: AUTO CONTOUR and AUTO PILOT

AUTO CONTOUR precisely and automatically adjusts the transverse and longitudinal movement of the front attachment to the ground contours detected by a sensing bracket – now mounted one row further in, enabling it to work reliably even at the crop margins. Hydraulic rams on the feeder housing continuous adjust lateral levelling and cutting height on the basis of the information from the sensors. The required cutting height can be easily set in CEBIS.

Automatic steering is provided by the integrated AUTO PILOT system, which scans two rows of plants simultaneously with its central sensors and translates this input into corresponding steering movements. The electromagnetic system identifies and compensates for gaps in the crops and operates with row widths of up to 80 cm.

All ROVIO 4 maize pickers are equipped with multi-couplers and automatic attachment recognition, including maintenance counter and saved cutterbar data such as end stops, AUTO CONTOUR target values and much more. This reduces the time required for attachment and setting up before use to a minimum – ensuring lightening-fast operational readiness.

Key new features at a glance:

Three new ROVIO 4 maize pickers with 6, 8 and 12 rows (6- and 8-row: 70, 75 and 80 cm row spacing; 12-row: 70 and 75 cm row spacing).
Up to 30 per cent higher throughput than previous generation.
Strengthened drive with higher overload protection for picker gearbox and intake roller.
Separate drives for left and right picker gearbox for uniform loading.
Linear picking roller for constant throughput speed and reliable picking under all conditions.
Reduce speed by 20 per cent simply by changing gear (main gearbox) and sprocket (intake roller).
Redesigned picker hood tips with flat operating angle (17°) for optimised crop handling and better harvesting of lodged maize.
Optimised coordination of feeder chain, picking roller and horizontal chopper speed.
Spacing between picking plates can be hydraulically adjusted from the operator's seat.
Repositioned horizontal chopper with coated knives sharpened on three sides.
Easy replacement of wear parts and only one central oil chamber for optimised maintenance.
FC models feature 33 percent faster folding; no manual folding of tips required for road transport.
Rapid conversion from grain maize to sunflowers and back.
AUTO CONTOUR and AUTO PILOT for clean ground-contour following and automatic steering – even in patchy crops.
Multi-coupler and automatic attachment recognition as standard.
Numerous options such as raised side panels, rubber cob retainer with quick-release fastener for the hoods (standard for the tips) or additional shear bars for the horizontal choppers and stubble cracker for the tracks.
New adapter for mounting on the JAGUAR for harvesting whole-crop maize silage.

CLAAS ROVIO 4: latest generation maize pickers with significantly higher performance