More Functions, Less Weight: Fried develops a New Cabin Roof for CLAAS

07.02.2022

With harvesters and tractors, CLAAS is one of the world’s leading agricultural technology companies. In cooperation with Fried, a new cabin roof will be used in the field at the beginning of 2022. Fried reveals the secret of success: The functions have been expanded, cost-saving potentials implemented and weight optimisation has been carried out in the new generation of roof modules.

Long-term Partnership

From work lights and GPS sensors to air conditioning systems, a variety of electrical components are integrated into the CLAAS roof. Manufacturing a product of this size and complexity is precision work. This requires a lot of expert knowledge as well as equivalent production facilities, which should be suitable for the production of 4 m² plastic parts. CLAAS found a specialist for cabin roof production in the company Fried Kunststofftechnik. With an injection mould weighing over 50 tons, the module has been in production on the two largest injection moulding machines at Fried’s Urbach factory for over 14 years. Fried was able to convince with years of on time delivery and is now receiving the follow-up order from CLAAS.

The New Roof is all about Perfection in Detail

“For the new development we were able to draw on the valuable experience gained from the old project, analyze and deepen it”, explains Marko Travner, the responsible project manager and moulding tool specialist at Fried.

The module has been adapted and modernized in terms of design. Significant optimisations have been also made to the existing components. With the same acoustic and mechanical performance, the new roof is now thinner, lighter and more cost-effective in production. The air conditioning system is no longer installed directly in the roof as before. This is now included in a separate module, which will be produced at Fried as well.

Smart Control for Variant Management

Looking at all products from the smallest to the largest agricultural machine, there are many thousands of pieces per year, which will be produced. The new roof is used for the medium and large combine harvesters LEXION and TUCANO, JAGUAR harvesters and large XERION tractors. A good variant management in the manufacturing of the components is therefore a must. In order to be able to cover the product variety with maximum flexibility, the orders at Fried are daily updated via EDI.

Fried develops a Special Compound Material

A special material has been developed for the new cabin roof, which has a significantly better flowability and UV resistance than standard granulates. This allowed the thin wall thicknesses and thus the weight savings to be realized.

More aspects such as robustness, colour and shape stability of the components are also of a great importance for the customer. The newly developed plastic material was able to pass all tests successfully. “The raw material made a particularly positive impression in terms of colour and colour stability”, explains Markus Deppe, project designing engineer at CLAAS. “Even without being painted, this roof meets the highest visual standards. At the same time, the finished parts can be painted without any problems if CLAAS needs to use special colors for its end customers.”

Project Management from Consulting to the Series Production

Thorough timing and project management is required to ensure consistent quality for future series production. Fried kept an eye on all project phases right from the start: material development, fillability and plastic-compatible construction of the components, development and production of the injection moulds, design and manufacture of the prototypes. Among other things, the last point was a special challenge for the Fried specialists. The two meter long prototypes could be produced with close-to-series material and went into field tests as functional models.

Complex Logistical Processes are automated

The roof assembly consists of 15 injection moulded parts of various sizes and wall thicknesses as well as various add-on parts. The outer roof component is manufactured using the injection compression moulding. As a result, the surfaces do not require any post-production treatment. The interior part is manufactured using structural foam injection moulding and has a noise-absorbing effect.

The large components are glued together airtight and watertight, screwed together and the corresponding covers and seals are installed. The last step is automated storage in special load carriers.

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