Driving impression: Case IH Axial-Flow AFX8010 combine harvester Going with the Flow Case IH has struggled to maintain its high-output Axial-Flow image in recent years largely due to competition from other rotary monsters: The 2300s simply haven’t been able to keep up. But that’s all about to change says Case IH with the launch of a new Axial-Flow flagship the AFX8010 harvester
Common platform – a phrase that has become inextricably linked with CNH, the design rock on which the Italian-owned machinery giant’s development process is based. It is, to be blunt, CNH’s raison d’être.
First it was tractors. Think back over recent profi issues. In the past few months alone, we have tested the New Holland TG 285, New Holland TS-A, Case IH MXU and Case IH JXU – all tractor models, big and small, that have come as a result of the CNH platform philosophy. And now it’s the combines’ turn. Here we have the new Case Axial-Flow flag, the AFX8010, which is built alongside its NH sibling, the CR980, at Grand Island, Nebraska. The yellow CR put in its first full season last year, while the red AFX will be available in limited numbers for 2004 before going on full sale to farmer customers for 2005.
Adhering to basic CNH principles, the two machines may share many of the same components but they are also quite different. Clearly, the most glaring distinguishing feature is that the red AFX is a single-rotor machine, while the yellow CR opts to go down the dual-rotor route. To start with, though, an overview of the combine design.
On the AFX/CR ‘incommon’ list, for example, are headers, chassis, axles, transmissions and grain unloading systems, including the discharge augers. They also both source their horse power from the same Iveco Cursor 10 engine, though Case has adapted its power characteristics to supply an ISO-rated output of 295kW/400hp on the AFX.
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