John Deere’s model new 500R sprayer will likely be unveiled for the primary time at Agritechnica. A whole redesign positions the cab proper on the entrance, does away with CANbus in favour of ethernet, and creates a platform with a number of automated and precision farming options that are prepared to make use of now and will likely be constructed upon sooner or later. iVT finds out concerning the considering behind the brand new design and the challenges that needed to be overcome to ship this future-ready machine
When John Deere’s engineering group analysed their European sprayer lineup in 2019, they confronted a crucial determination: improve their current platform or begin afresh. The reply got here down to at least one basic issue – the place of the cab restricted its most dimension… and so started the method of designing a very new car.
“Prospects had been telling us they needed a much bigger cab. The market, particularly in UK and Germany, actually demanded that,” says Mark James, John Deere’s sprayer specialist for Northern England, Scotland, and Eire, who was a part of the unique five-person group that developed the specification for what would turn into the 500R.
The brand new car debuts at Agritechnica this November: a very reimagined selfpropelled sprayer to exchange the earlier R41 vary, that shifts the cab from mid-chassis to the entrance, creating a brand new expertise for the operator when it comes to cab entry, visibility and house.
Assembled within the firm’s Horst manufacturing unit within the Netherlands, there are two fashions within the line up – a 550R and the 540R – with tank capacities of 5,000 litres or 4,000 litres respectively. Each have the choice of a 30m or 36m metal increase. The primary 500Rs are anticipated to succeed in prospects om Europe from summer season 2026, with the principle markets being the UK, Eire, Germany and France.
The design challenges
The engineering problem of shifting the cab ahead went past merely figuring out tips on how to bolt it to the entrance of the chassis. One of many crucial issues with designing a sprayer is available in perfecting weight distribution.
“Weight distribution of our predecessor machine was, within the worst state of affairs – increase out, tank full – about 60/40, with 60% on the rear finish,” says James. “From a sprayer perspective, you need to get to round a 50/50 weight cut up.”
This stability is crucial for soil safety and hill-climbing functionality. When a rear-heavy machine operates on slopes, it loses traction on the entrance wheels as weight shifts backward. The 500R’s resolution locations the engine on the rear of the machine – although nonetheless throughout the wheelbase – whereas positioning the tank effectively ahead within the chassis.
“The burden of the tank actually counterbalances the increase once you’re in operation,” says James. “In its worst-case situation (full tank with increase prolonged), the 500R achieves a 48/52 front-to-rear weight distribution, changing into barely noseheavy when empty and on the highway.”
This configuration additionally delivers a further profit: distinctive cab quietness. “You’ve acquired an entire tank stuffed with liquid between the engine and the operator station,” says James. “The noisiest factor within the cab might be the cooling fan, in the event you flip it up.”
Apparently, the design group did contemplate different configurations, together with putting the engine beneath the cab or underneath the entrance of the tank. “With all of these conditions, there have been compromises when it comes to weight distribution, but additionally a compromise round service entry,” says James. The chosen rear-engine structure, whereas unconventional, gives optimum serviceability – essential given the potential affect of service necessities throughout crucial spraying home windows.
Previously sprayer cabs have at all times been positioned centrally throughout the wheelbase of spraying automobiles to be able to guarantee essentially the most snug trip. Placing the cab on the entrance of the 500R created an extra problem for engineers in matching the sleek trip of the predecessor R41 vary, however this has been achieved in practically all use instances because of the superior air suspension system.
The suspension system, sourced from John Deere’s bigger US-built sprayers produced at Des Moines (the place the corporate builds roughly 7,000 machines yearly), options air springs positioned throughout the wheel envelope.
James says the one case the place the R41 would possibly nonetheless have the sting can be operating quick on a highway and going over a velocity bump. “It’s the compromise that it’s important to make,” he says. “However the finish result’s you get a much bigger cab with room to stretch your legs, and also you get a fridge in it, and also you get extra space for storing and an opulent seat.” Up sides that very a lot meet the market calls for on this sector.
Within the strategy of engaged on bettering the trip, designers tried an actively managed seat within the cab, however counterintuitively this was not a hit. “After we examined that, the lively seat made the trip worse, it didn’t make it higher,” says James.
Regardless of the radically totally different look, the 500R does protect profitable parts from its predecessor. The twin-beam, torsion-rigid chassis design stays essentially related, although prolonged with the entrance platform. “Should you strip all of it again to its chassis, the chassis appears to be like very related,” says James, representing this car vary as an evolution of confirmed engineering moderately than change for its personal sake.
Different applied sciences have been strategically included from throughout the John Deere product line, that means that elements with confirmed reliability over tens of millions of hours of service can be utilized, even if the sprayer market is low quantity. For instance, the 6.8-litre dual-turbo engine, rated at 300 horsepower with clever energy administration enhance, comes from the corporate’s bestselling 6R tractor. “We all know it’s very dependable, and we all know it performs very effectively,” says James.
John Deere partnered with key part suppliers together with Sauer- Danfoss for hydrostatic drive motors, pumps, and steering valves; Bonfiglioli for last drives; Hypro for the spraying pump with ForceField seal know-how for run-dry safety; and Banjo for filling pumps and digital valves.
CANbus to Ethernet
Whereas modern place of the cab is eye-catching, throughout the car’s digital comms structure there may be one other distinction which, although invisible to the informal exterior observer, isn’t any much less important. “This isn’t a CANbus machine any longer,” says James. “The communication between the person controllers on the machine is by Ethernet.”
This shift is pushed by the necessity for quicker information transmission and bigger information volumes, significantly for applied sciences like John Deere’s See & Spray precision utility, which is more likely to be built-in into the 500R vary sooner or later. “You couldn’t simply take that from the US machines and put it onto our previous European machine as a result of it’s distinctive,” says James. Moderately than upgrading previous digital structure, the information calls for of the system impressed the entire redesign. The brand new system runs the identical software program as American sprayers, that includes an appbased interface on the G5Plus in-cab display, moderately than mounted run pages. “You’re not scrolling via numerous menus, the to search out the data that you really want. It’s simply there in entrance of you,” says James.
To help precision agriculture, the 500R comes with an built-in StarFire 7500 receiver constructed into the cab roof as normal, offering ±10cm positioning accuracy. That is linked to the John Deere Operations Centre, enabling farmers and contractors to plan functions upfront and ship the required info to the sprayer.
This may embrace area steerage traces and limits, or the identify of the product and quantity to be utilized, with real-time progress and a document of all functions saved robotically.
Spray what you need
The PowerSpray resolution system, a European-developed know-how now being rolled globally, eliminates stress regulators totally. As a substitute, it controls spray pump velocity straight, reacting “4 to 5 occasions quicker than a machine with a stress regulator,” in accordance with James.
The system consists of absolutely automated rinsing with three modes, automated agitation that adjusts to tank ranges, and the AirRinse system that makes use of compressed air to evacuate residual chemical from numerous circuits because the tank empties.
With a 95% take charge, the ExactApply nozzle physique system gives particular person nozzle switching at 50cm spacing, computerized or handbook switching between two nozzle sorts, and pulse width modulation (PWM) for circulate charge management with out stress adjustments.
“PWM offers us the flexibility to set the stress and droplet dimension,” says James. Decrease stress creates bigger droplets for drift discount, whereas larger stress produces finer droplets for higher protection. The system additionally gives flip compensation, adjusting circulate charges throughout the increase width throughout turns.
“This new [electronics] structure will likely be a worldwide normal”
A latest breakthrough permits totally different utility charges throughout the increase width. “Beforehand, we needed to apply one charge throughout the entire 36 metres. Now we now have the flexibility to separate that into 11 totally different sections,” says James, “which is sort of an enormous deal for precision agriculture.”
Future-Prepared Platform
See & Spray integration is “in all probability about two years away” pending area testing, however the 500R is prepared for rising automation. Flip automation through GPS triggering is coming quickly as a part of the autumn software program replace. “At that time, the operator is simply minding the flip. They’re not truly doing something,” says James.
Different key automated features of the 500R embrace increase lifting. “That is pulling the increase suggestions up so that they don’t hit the bottom as you flip,” says James. “And this now incorporates the ahead velocity of the car, so the car slows down robotically. While you come out of the flip, it’ll put all this stuff again once more and robotically have interaction the AutoTrac to steer the machine down the sphere.”
With so many automated features, is a future the place the operator is eliminated utterly now close by? James says that no official timeline exists for absolutely autonomous operation, however acknowledges the 500R gives a succesful platform. “The bit that we would want so as to add can be the security and safety programs. For instance recognizing an individual within the area that is perhaps close to or obstructing the trail of the machine,” he says.
These security programs symbolize the first technical hurdle moderately than the automation know-how itself, with Ethernet structure guaranteeing the 500R can quickly undertake rising, data-heavy applied sciences. “This new structure will likely be a worldwide normal,” predicts James.
As John Deere prepares for the 500R’s public debut at Agritechnica, the machine stands as each a response to instant market calls for and a platform for future innovation. The mixture of confirmed elements, revolutionary communication structure, and considerate design selections positions it to serve European farmers effectively into an more and more automated and precisionfocused future.
This text first appeared within the October subject of iVT
