Four years ago, Richard Arnold was harvesting his crop at his farm near Hamiota, Man., when, as it had many times before, his combine plugged. He went to unplug it and pinched a nerve in his neck. For years he had been thinking there had to be an easier way to unplug it.
Arnold enlisted the help of his son Douglas, an engineer, to help. Together they came up with and designed the hydraulic ratcheting cylinder deslug wrench for New Holland CX series combines.
A combine can become plugged when weeds or crops get past the cylinder and plugs the beater in the combine. It can take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes or more to unplug it manually. Combines do come with a factory wrench to be used to unplug them.
Arnold’s device, however, mounts permanently onto the the combine and uses the machines hydraulic system. It attaches to the cylinder drive pulley where the factory wrench normally fits. It can be locked so the cylinder can be rotated backwards or forwards on the spot to break up the clog.
“It basically is like a big ratchet, with a hydraulic cylinder mounted to it,” Arnold said.
To use it, you turn on the supply valve on the combine which then gives pressure to another valve. The valve can either be locked or put into a reverse position. When it is in a reverse position, it gets rid of the plugged cylinder.
The device can unplug a combine in five to 10 minutes.
Arnold and his son spent three years developing the product, then spent all of last year’s harvest testing it out on their own equipment. They debuted it at Ag Days in Brandon in January under the name Arnold Innovations. Response was great with them selling several devices.
Arnold is at Canada’s Farm Progress Show this week with it.
When farmers see the device they are normally impressed — as long as they have a New Holland CX series combine Arnold said. Currently it is only available on that model because that is the combine that Arnold uses himself.
“We are going to develop one for CAT combines this coming summer and fall. And hopefully we’re going to have it on the market for Ag Days in January 2017,” Arnold said.
Source : Leaderpost