Final Tier 4 Engine Emission Technology
As many of you know, over the past 20 years, off-road equipment manufacturers have been undertaking the challenge of meeting strict EPA regulations on diesel engine exhaust through a multi-stage process. We are now approaching the final stage, at least within the current guidelines, of this process.
Many manufacturers have chosen to calibrate their engines to one extreme or the other, either internally eliminating particulate matter or nitrogen oxides, and then correct what remains with an "add-on" technology. For example, some manufacturers are calibrating their engines to burn hotter inside the combustion chamber to internally eliminate the particulate matter but are then forced to add a SCR (selective catalytic reduction, otherwise known as diesel exhaust fluid) system to treat the excessive levels of nitrogen oxides that are generated from hotter burning engines. Other manufacturers are cooling their combustion temperatures to eliminate nitrogen oxide formation but are forced to deal with high levels of particulate matter by incorporating an exhaust filter with a regeneration process to burn the soot within the filter as a means of keeping it clean.
John Deere's approach will use a combination of both technologies. Deere already began using the exhaust filter technology with their interim tier 4 engines and will continue to do so for final tier 4. However, they will also be reducing the amount of soot that filter will be capturing, and likewise reducing the frequency of regens, by burning their engines a little hotter. They will be able to do this primarily through the addition of an SCR system to treat the nitrogen oxides. However, it is anticipated that the amount of diesel exhaust fluid used in their SCR system will be less than other engines that rely solely on SCR without an exhaust filter. this is primarily due to the ability of running slightly lower combustion temperatures, which produce more particulate matter, but having an exhaust filter to capture it.
So what did we do in the class? Well, since the exhaust filter technology was already established a couple years ago, we focused mainly on the SCR system. We went through extensive details on how the diesel exhaust fluid dosing system worked, investigated related technology used to offset some undesirable characteristics with DEF including freezing, and experimented with new troubleshooting tools built into the Service Advisor diagnostic software.
Direct Drive Transmissions
John Deere has developed a new transmission for their 6R series tractors with a lot of user benefits. As the Power Trains instructor for the college program, I am really excited about this transmission. Its capabilities are incredible. To the operator, it is very similar to an IVT with the ability to basically set your sped and have the transmission automatically adjust its input/output ratios to achieve the desired aped while maximizing fuel economy. However, unlike the IVT, this transmission still uses fixed gear ratios, most of which are achieved through shifting mechanisms similar to what we would describe as "manual shift", like synchronizers, except they are shifted electrically. Manual shift transmissions (sliding gear, collar shift, synchros, etc) have always been known to be more power efficient than hydraulic shift transmissions. This new transmission does have some hydraulic clutches involved, but not many. There are a total of four clutches for the whole transmission, yet it can achieve 24 different speeds. Compare this to the 8R series powershift with only 16 speeds and 9 hydraulic clutches.
What I really like about this transmission is that it incorporates some pretty simple and fundamental power train concepts. I can actually use this transmission as an example for my introductory power train units in the beginning of the semester. It's amazing that it took Deere this long to come up with such a simple yet efficient transmission design. I suspect the computer technology required to manage the transmission shifting and operations is what was causing the hold up. The mechanical design is simple, but the shift logic to make it all happen is pretty complicated. This will be a good topic in my advanced 300 level electro-hydraulics course as well.
The other thing that is exciting about this transmission is that it is not a throwaway transmission like the 6R IVT. You can actually service this transmission, tear it all down, order parts, and rebuild it. Furthermore, the process for doing so is not all that complicated either. This will make a great lab activity if I can ever get my hands on one of these.
MY14 S Series Combines
We were exposed to a number of updates coming out in the 2014 S series combines. I will not go into all of them here, but one that stuck out to me was a new automated system for making combine adjustments on the go. The goal of this new technology is to provide assistance to novice combine operators without the experience needed to know what the right adjustments are for certain performance flaws. For example, if the combine was losing too much grain out the back but the grain that was reaching the grain tank was relatively clean, what would you adjust? If you are an experienced combine operator you might know what to do, but if you are not you might have to stop the combine and read the owners manual to get some suggestions. This new system can be activated by the operator while still combining by a press of a button on the display. The display will ask the operator a couple questions where the operator will simply select what type of problem they have and what their observations are, and the system will automatically make a small incremental change to one of the areas on the combine, and then probe the operator again to determine whether the change helped or not and if more changes are required.
Myself, I do not operate combines much (at all really), but as an educator looking for ways to be creative in teaching content to students, this would be a great way for students to learn about combine systems and the importance of various adjustments on the machine.
AMS Updates
GPS technology and its applications in agricultural equipment have been around for quite a while now. Despite the fact that Deere has been on top of this technology and created a number of different products that utilize it, they are not resting yet. this year we were exposed to a new Greenstar Display that is more user friendly with advanced capabilities. In addition, with the mobile connectivity of the tractors to cellular networks through tools such as JD Link, we now have the ability to do wireless data transfers of prescriptions (seeding / spraying / tillage) straight to the tractor that could be miles away and likewise we can do WDT of documentation information from the machines back to your PC, tablet, or smartphone. If you have not seen the John Deere Farm Forward video, it is worth a few minutes. Click here to view it. While the technology is still not there yet to make everything in the video happen now, Deere just took a major leap towards getting there with these new technologies being rolled out in 2014.
Conclusion
All in all it was a great week. I enjoyed sharing experiences and learning from the other JD Tech instructors there and came away feeling a lot smarter than when I got there. I even passed the test at the end! The only bad thing that happened was on Tuesday night I was supposed to join a live session in the Second Life virtual world for my Learning with Emerging Technologies class I am taking towards my Masters degree through Empire State College. Unfortunately the hotel had a firewall block on high bandwidth robbing games like Second Life so I could not connect, and therefore missed the class. I here excuses from my students all the time on why they missed class, now the tables were turned. I appreciate my professor's understanding. Although, for all my students that might be reading this, she gave me a make-up assignment. That's right, there are no freebies in education! LOL!
