As a farmer, Richard Arnold, who describes himself as heading research and development and Arnold Innovations, turned his own observations about the difficulty of clearing plugged combine cylinders into a small business. Arnold Innovations now produces two hydraulically assisted cylinder-reversing wrenches to make that job easier.
Richard and his son were promoting their products at Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon in January.
“I actually farm as well,” he explained. “The inspiration came from my experience running CX combines.”
“The first product we built was the AI 100 CX reverser, which is for New Holland CX Series combines. It’s a hydraulically driven ratcheting de-slug wrench for the main cylinder. So if you plug your main cylinder instead of using a factory wrench and using manpower, you’re using hydraulics.”
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The wrench system mounts near the combine cylinder hub. Whenever the operator plugs the cylinder, it’s just a matter of lifting the wrench into place on the hub and activating a hydraulic spool valve to turn the cylinder back to clear the slug.
“It’s permanently mounted on the side of the combine where you need to use it,” he said. “Then it’s just a case of lifting it up and attaching it. You turn on the hydraulic supply valve and then we have a spool valve mounted under the steps to actually run the hydraulics. We’re only using the stand-by pressure on the combine, which is about 450 p.s.i. So it’s very safe to the combine components. “
With the success of the first model designed for CX combines, the Arnolds have now developed a second wrench designed specifically for Claas Lexion combines.
“The CX version runs at $3,500, regular price,” he said. “And the Lexion one is $4,000 for a high pressure kit. There are two kits for the Lexion, a high and a low pressure. The low pressure is $3,600.”
“We direct retail, and we have dealers as well. We’ve sold 55 of these in the past year and we’ve had some very good feedback.”
For more information visit www.arnoldinnovations.ca.
