Following a successful market launch in North America and Australia, CLAAS is now making the new CONVIO FLEX 1530 available to European LEXION customers. The flexible draper cutterbar has an effective working width of 15.30 metres and is equipped with a flexible knife bar as well as all the features and automatic functions familiar from the CONVIO FLEX series.
CLAAS CONVIO and CONVIO FLEX draper cutterbars have proven themselves in numerous conditions of use and threshing crops worldwide since their launch in the 2020 season. In addition to their outstanding performance, the cutterbars impress with their ease of operation. For the European sales region, the product range is now being extended upwards with the CONVIO FLEX 1530 for LEXION high-performance combine harvesters.
While the CONVIO with a fixed knife bar is primarily used for conventional crops of cereals and rapeseed, the CONVIO FLEX with its flexible knife bar and ACTIVE FLOAT contact pressure, which can be infinitely adjusted at the touch of a button during operation, also achieves maximum performance when harvesting threshing crops close to the ground such as soya, peas and grass. When operated in FLEX mode, the cutterbar knife bar automatically adapts to ground contours by up to 90 mm upwards and up to 135 mm downwards in order to always achieve a uniform cutting pattern with minimised header losses. The hydropneumatically suspended stabiliser wheels fitted as standard keep the cutterbar stable and ensure improved ground contour following with a more even cutting height across the full working width. This ensures smooth cutterbar guidance at all times, even at high driving speeds or on uneven ground.
The CONVIO FLEX 1530 works with a split, triple-suspended reel spider and a two-part knife bar. The two cutter bars are each driven by a powerful planetary gear and move synchronously in opposite directions for optimum smooth running.
The power train of the CONVIO FLEX 1530 is divided into two areas. The mechanical section with gearboxes and PTO drive shafts drives the intake auger and knife bar, while the hydraulic section drives the side belts, centre belt, reel and rapeseed knives. Overload protection reliably protects the entire power train from damage. Like the smaller working widths, the CONVIO FLEX 1530 is fully suitable for rapeseed harvesting. The optional rapeseed equipment includes conveyor augers on the right and left with a diameter of 425 mm in the upper area of the cutterbar rear wall and rapeseed knives that can be attached and removed without tools. In order to keep header losses to an absolute minimum, especially in rapeseed and similar types of crop, specially developed rubber lips on the CONVIO and CONVIO FLEX completely seal the side belts to the front knife bar and the rear cutterbar rear wall as well as to the centre belt. Raising the rear wall of the cutterbar also reliably prevents grain spray losses.
