John Deere Products Earn AE50 Awards

Two products from the John Deere Worldwide Commercial and Consumer Equipment Division recently earned the prestigious AE50 Award, presented each year by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). The AE50 Award program recognizes companies for introducing new technologies, or advancing existing technologies that can have a broad impact on areas or industries served by agricultural, food and biological systems engineering.

John Deere ComfortGard cab recognized for engineering excellence

The ComfortGard cab – available on the John Deere 3000 TWENTY and 4000 TWENTY Series Compact Utility Tractors – has earned the E50 Award. The cab features an intuitive automotive-like interior and has been designed to maximize operator comfort. An unobstructed foot deck allows for comfortable entry, exit, and operation. Cabs are sealed and pressurized to maintain a comfortable dust-free operator environment. The unique offset cab mounting system provides noise levels as low as 78-80 decibels (measured at the ear), resulting in an ultra quiet ride. A best-in-class high performance climate-control system keeps operators comfortable, no matter how intense the outside elements may be.
 
Key in the development of the ComfortGard Cab was the state-of-the-art virtual reality technology employed by John Deere engineers. Virtual reality allowed design engineers to fully immerse themselves in a 3-D computer-generated world to explore a variety of options to address issues such as loader visibility, rear implement visibility, placement of controls, headroom, and entry and egress. John Deere engineers used VR to evaluate 11 different design alternatives while examining operators whose size ranged from the 5th to the 95th percentile.

“From 360-degree visibility to optimized ergonomics and climate control, the ComfortGard cab has been designed to provide industry-leading advantages in comfort, convenience and performance. And the use of virtual reality systems played a huge role in delivering these attributes and this cab to our customers in a greatly reduced time frame,” says E.J. Smith, project manager, John Deere Commercial and Consumer Equipment Division.

The new ComfortGard cab is available on hydrostatic models of the 3000 TWENTY and 4000 TWENTY Series Tractors, including the 3320, 3520, 3720, 4320, 4520 and 4720 models.

John Deere compact utility tractors also earn engineering kudos

John Deere's 3000 TWENTY Series Compact Utility Tractors were also given the AE50 award.

“We designed and engineered our 3000 TWENTY Series Tractors to deliver a range of capabilities and level of performance usually associated with much larger tractors,” says Scott Burleson, product manager for John Deere Compact Utility Tractors. “We believe the AE50 award is a recognition of the value these tractors deliver to our customers . . . from the rural homeowner using a 3000 TWENTY to maintain her property to the landscaper who depends on it for his livelihood.”
 
Some of the key design elements and engineering processes that helped earn the AE50 award include:

• Horsepower – from 29.5 to 44 engine horsepower in the four models that comprise the 3000 TWENTY Series
• An electronically controlled hydrostatic transmission (eHydro) with cruise control that can maintain constant ground speeds as low as 0.1 mph. This transmission also delivers a top speed of 19 mph for faster movement from one job to the next.
• An anti-stall function – LoadMatch – that controls ground speed to keep the engine operating at peak horsepower as the load varies.
• A feature called MotionMatch that provides nine levels of transmission aggressiveness so operators can match the motion (acceleration/deceleration) to the task and their personal level of comfort. This feature allows for quick direction changes during tasks such as front-loader work and less aggressive changes for turf work where wheel slip is not desirable.
• Enhancements in manufacturability that resulted in a 16 percent decrease in parts and components compared to previous models.
  
  For more information on the John Deere 3000 TWENTY Series and the complete offering of John Deere compact utility tractors visit your local John Deere dealer or log onto www.JohnDeere.com.