Innovations for wear parts
Hundreds of hours of development time for a wear part? Yes, it is worth the effort!
HORSCH sets the same high standards for the original spare and wear parts as for the machines. Thus, every customer benefits from utmost quality and new innovations. Even for the already existing technology.
According to the definition of HORSCH the difference between a spare and a wear is very simple: wear parts wear off when the machine is used in a normal way for example for tillage with a rotary harrow or a cultivator. Spare parts do not. In the service sector, too, they often play a major role. If a farmer for example damages the ladder of a hopper when manoeuvring a seed drill, it is a typical spare part.
Compared to the tillage tools and the seed drills it is a little bit different for the HORSCH Leeb sprayers. For these machines spare parts prevail as wear actually only happens in the area of the nozzles and pumps. The diaphragm of the piston diaphragm pump for example is a typical wear part.
This is the reason why there are so-called Field Support Kits for all sprayers. They are an always available first-aid kit to go. The customer, thus, always has a set of parts at his disposal to make his sprayer ready for operation again – help for self-help.
For every customer the longest possible availability of parts over many years is also essential. In this respect HORSCH stands for extremely long periods. Even for the old self-propelled Terra-Tracs there still are spare parts available.
In addition to the basic long-term availability of parts the delivery delays are very important for HORSCH. Behind this reliability hides a highly efficient logistic system.
The starting point of the worldwide spare part supply is the state-of-the-art logistic centre at the company headquarters in Schwandorf. Its core is the 17-meter-high automatic high rack storage system. Before the parts are put into stock, they undergo a quality check. There is a hall with an area of 2,200 m² and eleven workplaces for the whole outgoing goods process.
The high rack storage consists of a two-lane automatic pallet storage with 5,000 pallet storage lots and a two-lane automatic container storage with 24,000 boxes each of which can be subdivided into eight compartments. The robots can transport 250 boxes per hour to the 32 employees (in two shifts) of the HORSCH logistic department. Approximately 30,000 different articles are permanently available at HORSCH.
The knowledge about the parts requirement of the individual regions is integrated in the warehouses of the HORSCH subsidiaries. They, too, dispose of large storage capacities. Beside Germany there are HORSCH sites with distribution centres in the following countries: France, Great Britain, Ukraine, Russia, USA, Canada, Brazil and China.
All over the world there are another 800 dealer sites to supply all customers with parts in a very short time in an optimum way. They receive the orders and forward them directly to HORSCH.
By the way, this year, the order volume will score a new record. Until the middle of November about 49,000 orders have already been handled. It, thus, should be easy to break the record of 50,000. Five years ago, this figure amounted to approximately 30,000.
Among the top 3 wear parts are the MulchMix points which the dealers usually order in a set of 100, followed by the coulter discs for compact disc harrows and the LD+ points.
The requirements on the wear parts is extremely high. This is why HORSCH does not simply buy them but develops them together with the suppliers. The quality criteria are extreme. The crucial characteristics for the success and the durability of tools often are the metal and the metal alloys.
Thus, the optical appearance may not differ from another wear part that might also fit, but if you look at the details the differences are enormous.
One example is the disc of the compact disc harrow Joker. It looks like many other discs but what makes it outstanding are its special characteristics, for example the long service life. And this is due to the metal alloy. This quality is what motivates HORSCH.
The requirements on the spare parts are the same as on the machines. There are again and again innovations that provide a quality boost. The developments with regard to the points are an excellent example – more specifically the carbide point HM+ for all cultivators. There is a lot of technology inside. For when the engineers wondered what makes a wear part a perfect one the answer was: the best possible work result. This is achieved with a long service life while the shape is kept up and the tractive power is optimised at the same time. The HM+ point has again and again been optimised. Due to the practical experiences and even higher quality material it was improved step by step in the course of the years.
This is why there is no alternative to HORSCH wear parts. For the optimisation inputs always come directly from the practical experiences in the field – from the direct exchange with the customers. The video of the Cruiser XL that is equipped with carbide points is a good example. It gives some insights into their special characteristics.
An important point with regard to HORSCH parts is the topic of backward compatibility. Thus, also those customers can benefit who bought their machine some years ago and still want to keep it up to date with the latest wear parts, e.g. due to innovations in the point sector. It guarantees that in the tillage sector you always achieve the best work result with the HM+ point or the new TerraCut point. Read more about the TerraCut point in the article about the Hoe and Harrow Days.
In total, HORSCH can provide about 500 wear parts for all kinds of machines and to all of them applies the standard of constant improvement.
Among other, a strong focus currently is on the new products of the hybrid farming sector like the hoes and the harrows. A lot of new versions and wear parts are added and are constantly developed further. Especially for the hoes the experiences that result from the practical use in the field show the demand to extend the range of use.
Get directly to the Cruiser XL Video.
Take a look at the HORSCH Wear Part Catalogue.