FARGO, North Dakota. John Deere’s heart may be in the cornfields, but its brain (or most of it) is further north in Fargo.
High above the traditional Corn Belt, John Deere scientists and engineers in Fargo are at the forefront of the company’s ambitious “electrification” strategy. About 700 employees work in four buildings located within a few blocks of each other. It’s called the Smart Solutions Group.
The company owns the Electric Power Systems (PES) building, a “main plant” a few blocks away, a “logistics” building, and a “product introduction” building (accessible from the Fargodome in North Dakota. The building is clearly visible) in the state. University Science Park).
In the 1990s, John Deere was a client of the former Phoenix International Corporation. Phoenix was founded in 1987 by former employees of Fargo-based Steiger Tractor Company. Steiger filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1986. Steiger was acquired by Tenneco/Case-IH (now CNH Industrial) later that year.
Led by visionaries such as Barry Batcheller, Phoenix manufactured electronics such as farm tractor hitch controls and instrument panel electronics. John Deere acquired Phoenix outright in 1999, but continued to use the Phoenix name until approximately 2014.
Fargo employees specialize in electronics-related products, especially “electrification” products.
This “electrification” is part of John Deere’s ambitious “leapfrog ambitions” announced in early 2022.
Among its goals: By 2030, they want to help their farmer clients do a number of things – improve nitrogen use efficiency by 20%, improve crop protection efficiency by 20% and reduce clients’ carbon emissions by 15%.
Kent Wanner, senior electrification systems design engineer and the last of five recipients of the prestigious Fellow Award, recently gave Agvik a tour of the John Deere PES building.
It serves as the “design center” for all John Deere electrified products across the country (and the world). He is one of the elite “Fellows” and received this title in 2022.
The PES building was built in 2012 for $22 million and includes 90,000 square feet of work space.
Wanner explained that engineers of all types work here: software, hardware, mechanical and process engineers. These are people working on solutions for devices that can (and will) be commercialized. But we can’t talk about them yet.
Ideas for inventions come from all sides – both from customers and dealers. Engineers are turning them into engine controllers, transmission controllers, displays, GPS receivers, sensors, wireless communications devices, telematics devices and much more. They can often reuse components and ideas from previous components and applications. All of these products and technologies are considered part of the John Deere “technology stack” and can be used on one or more machines.
Engineers and technicians virtually test new ideas before bringing them to life. Long Wu, who has a PhD in electrical and power electronics engineering, leads a team that tests designs before they become physical prototypes. Some products begin by examining Deere hardware, firmware, communications, data platforms and applications from previous products.
After passing virtual testing, the component is assembled using a mobile “tester,” a large black metal cabinet that is moved around the building where the product undergoes rigorous testing.
The staff then subjected them to various injuries. They were mounted on large vibrating tables, simulating the effect of running on rails or wheels.
They may expose them to short circuits, improper jump starting, and incorrect polarity. They simulate the effects of driving under high-voltage power lines.
They looked at how the components behaved at extreme temperatures (from minus 40 to plus 185 degrees Fahrenheit).
The lab is equipped with two “anechoic” (anechoic) chambers—large metal chambers within the larger lab that have a special metallic appearance and are welded to ensure that electromagnetic waves do not penetrate or disappear. They affect the product with electromagnetic waves of different frequencies.
“We don’t want to emit so much energy that it disrupts wireless communications or becomes susceptible to external electromagnetic energy,” Werner said.
Once products are approved, they are manufactured a few blocks away in the “main plant.” Some are included in assembly kits and shipped to other locations.
Once a product has been tested, a “product tester” (cabinet) is retained as long as the product is in use, in case it needs to be “re-certified” or if design changes need to be made during its life cycle.
The assembled parts can go to the “logistics building”, where other employees put them into “assembly kits”.
In addition to using electronics in its products, Deere also sells them to non-competitive, non-agricultural companies using “electrification” (i.e. hybrid or battery-electric trucks, buses). Some companies will test their own vehicle controllers in the Fargo lab.
Deere’s inventions in Fargo look futuristic, but some of them are already on sale. “It’s true,” Werner said.
One notable example is a pair of “hybrid” four-wheel drive construction forklifts released in 2013 and 2015. Hybrid means they use two energy sources – diesel fuel and “kinetic” energy, which is the energy produced when the car is moving. vehicle, back to useful work. They do this by connecting electric motors and generators to the transmission.
“Imagine you have an electric motor driving a transmission,” Werner said. “When we want to slow down, pick up a full bucket and load it into a crusher or truck, the reduction in speed usually burns up as heat in the brakes. With this electrified powertrain, we can use electric motors to reduce speed. Large manual transmissions have been shown to reduce fuel economy by 25% or more.”
Fargo engineers were instrumental in creating the ExactEmerge seeding system, one of the company’s most successful models. ExactEmerge, released in 2014, uses “electrification” to drive high-speed cultivation. This allows each row of the planter to have two motors and controls.
“One of them measures the number of seeds per second you want to put in a row,” Werner said. “The other corresponds to the speed at which the row moves across the field. Thanks to electrification, we now have a second motor that matches ground speed and actually accelerates the seed in the opposite direction to which the planter is moving. If you move at 5 miles per hour and accelerate the seed at minus 5 miles per hour… the seed will fall and not roll.”
As a result, farmers can accurately plant seeds at 10 mph instead of 5 mph. This doubled the area under cultivation. This concept has particular advantages when turning 48-row wide planters: the outer rows work faster than the inner ones.
“Now the electronics can have different rows to match the speed while maintaining a very good distance,” Werner said.
Oh yeah, their scientists are developing machines that can study and interpret the “fluorescence” emitted by growing plants that are genetically engineered to emit data about crop stress. This fluorescence is invisible to the naked eye, but visible from high altitudes and from space.
Wanner said electrification won’t eliminate diesel anytime soon, but it often allows cars to use much smaller diesel engines than would otherwise be necessary, saving fuel and money.
Wanner said ultimately the cost of electrification should come down, creating new value and providing more applications for farmers.
Post time: May-10-2024