Nov. 29, 2012
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HANOVER, N.H.--Researchers with John Deere recently visited ERDC Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) to take advantage of the facility’s wide ranging availability of cold for new product testing.
Andrea Schluter, Matt Powell and Rod Fritz, with Deere’s Wisconsin office, evaluated their new tractor cab design and performance in varying temperatures, including at minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit, 10 degrees, and 30 degrees.
The Deere X-7 Series Tractor Research Team was composed of two design engineers and a performance reliability engineer evaluating the snow blower, cab, and tractor design.
“We do field testing on a new product, but usually in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where we have a winter test site,” said Fritz. “This time we did not have the cold and snow that we needed at that site earlier this year and with production around the corner, we decided to come to CRREL.”
The Ice Engineering Facility’s research area was set up with two lanes, created with man-made snow measuring approximately 125 feet long each and a snow island in between at a height of 18 inches. Two tractors with snow blower attachments navigated the parallel lanes, with one tractor blowing snow at the other enclosed operator cabin. After maneuvering the lanes, the researchers evaluated the tractor, cab and snow blowers and took photographs to visually document snow collection.
“This is the first time we have seen the latest cab styling. It fit, functioned and performed well,” said Schluter, Deere performance reliability engineer.
“This facility has been outstanding. Our expectations with what we could do here have been spot on,” said Powell. “It has been a unique experience testing here.”