T he 80th anniversary was marked by two events in Brittany, France. During the day SULKY’ s 250 employees convened at the company’ s La Ferme de l’ Epine( Epine Farm) site, which normally serves as its training centre. In the evening SULKY’ s Chateaubourg factory underwent a one-off makeover and the Burel family was joined by employees and their partners, plus retired staff at for a special party. Julien Burel, Chairman of SULKY, thanked his teams with the following words:“ It truly warms my heart to be present at this occasion. This evening makes me think back to my grandparents Fabien and Albertine Burel – the founders of our company who made it all possible.
“ While 1936 is a long time ago, it feels like yesterday when you think that our company values have not changed at all: straightforwardness, the ability to
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listen, commitment, trust, and quality. These values have been the very DNA of SULKY for 80 years. They laid the foundations for our brand and reflect our identity. Because we feel so confident, we are busy investing in the future – in terms of innovation and the jobs of tomorrow – so we can continue to develop.” |
SULKY moved to a new 20,000m ² factory in July 2011 and the French family business continues to invest in industrial plant. Over the past year SULKY has invested more than 700,000 Euros in a new multi-user welding robot and a new press brake for bending and forming sheet metal up to 4m long. |
The investments in plant equipment are already paying dividends. SULKY BUREL continues to grow and recently achieved sales in excess of 44 million euros, an increase of 3 % over the last business year, despite tough trading conditions in the agricultural sector. |
D uring its 21-year success story, the high capacity LEXION combine harvester has become the flagship of international agricultural technology. More than 50,000 parts, 4,000 m of electrical cable and 215 m of hydraulic lines are installed inside each LEXION. The 50,000th LEXION with its jubilee design can be seen at many fairs and exhibitions across Europe during the coming months. |
After almost one decade of development, CLAAS introduced the first LEXION combine harvester in 1995. The 400 series offered farmers new high levels of performance. The APS threshing system, with its threshing drum which was expanded to 600 mm, was for the first time combined with the ROTO PLUS residual grain separation system. This combination resulted in the proven APS HYBRID system. Drivers could now work in a comfortable cab, equipped with the integrated |
on-board CEBIS computer. In addition, the GPS PILOT and LASER PILOT steering systems made steering the combine easier.
With the LEXION, CLAAS established a new premium segment for agriculture. Six years after its introduction to the market, the 10,000th large combine harvester – a 415 h. p. LEXION 480 with rubber tracks and a potential harvesting capacity of 40 t of grain per hour – rolled off the assembly line. Proof of the great success of the high capacity LEXION on all fields across the world.
In 2003 the LEXION 500 series represented the successful further development of the top-class combine harvester. Larger harvesting capacities and refined technical systems, such as adjustable rotor flaps for adapting the separation area and a quick stop for front-mounted attachments, made the operator’ s work far easier. Only two years later CLAAS launched the 600 series which, with a harvesting capacity of up to 70 t of grain per hour, provided farmers with a further increase in efficiency.
In 2010 production of the largest LEXION 700 combine harvesters commenced. These
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can travel at a maximum speed of 40 km / h on the road, work with cutterbars up to 12.30 m wide in a soil- and resource-friendly manner, and have high-performance software, which meticulously documents the harvesting process and provides accurate information to the driver.
With the LEXION 780, CLAAS set a new milestone in the history of combine harvesters in 2013. Besides a grain tank with a capacity of 13,500 litres, it is equipped with the integrated CEMOS AUTOMATIC driver assistance system. The software controls specific default values set by the farmer, and after a short period of time it finds the optimum settings for the threshing systems. By taking into consideration the changing harvesting conditions during the course of a day, these optimum settings are checked on a per-second basis and adapted continuously. The LEXION 700, which now features a 4D cleaning system and an automatic crop flow control system, received the ' Machine of the Year 2016 ' award at the world’ s largest agricultural technology fair Agritechnica.
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