Amazonen-Werke has invested about 2 million Euros in buildings and equipment within their new test centre at the Hasbergen-Gaste factory. At the official opening of the new building on 9th December, 2016, Dr. Rainer Resch, who, as a member of the general management at Amazone, is responsible for research and development, emphasised that this test and research facility will be a decisive factor in helping the further advancement of technical competence across all the Amazone sectors. In total, expenditure for research and development at Amazonen-Werke amounts annually to 5 % of the turnover volume.
With this new building, which includes a 2,400 m² hall for prototype construction and testing facilities plus a 600 m² office section with electronic laboratories and social rooms, the capacity for research and development at the Hasbergen-Gaste site has been significantly expanded. The new test centre sits a few metres away from the technology centre where the development engineers are located and which opened in 2014 and so, overall, represents an efficient unit. “This provides us with totally new possibilities to make our research and development still more effective and intensive”, Dr. Rainer Resch said. Just in this sector, Amazone has recruited 18 new engineers during the last years.
The employees in the test centre look after the assembly, commissioning and testing of functional models and prototypes within the areas of competency that the Gaste factory specialises in, namely fertilising technology, crop protection, DMC seed drills, ploughs and electronics. In addition to its own offices, electronic development has various laboratories, a measuring technology workshop and a secured test room for electronic components. Above all, those in the sector of software development, modern agriculture 4.0, which is characterised by increasing digitalisation and demands on documentation, plays an increasingly important role.
“The technical equipment within features state of the art standards and is designed for the versatile demands of the Amazone experimental establishment”, Volker Ehlen, Amazone’s head of design in Hasbergen-Gaste, commented. The peculiarities include a boom test bench for working widths of up to 60 m and an isolation unit with a 60 t base plate for endurance tests with very large agricultural machinery. The integrated water management system serves the testing of crop protection sprayers, and contains a 16,000 l storage tank, fill lines that are routed under floor with discharge ports and drainage channels and a suction pipe for vacuum tests. The modern LED lighting with light control ensures high energy efficiency.
“The test centre shows that at the Hasbergen-Gaste site we are still looking to invest“, explained the Amazone directors Christian Dreyer and Dr. Justus Dreyer during the course of the opening of the youngest building within the Amazone Group. In parallel also all the other sites are being further developed and expanded.
