Promens moulds body panels for impressive harvester

25.02.2008

Rostselmash, the best known manufacturer of agricultural machinery in the post-Soviet regions, has selected Promens Zlin (Czech Republic) for the moulding of body panels for its flagship, the Giant Acros harvester.

Key benefits
The Giant Acros is a large machine, 11m x 9,5m x 4m and the body panels are 26m2.
Traditionally Rostselmash has used glass reinforced plastics (GRP) or steel for the body parts, but for the Giant Acros Rostselmash was looking for a body panel technology that would contribute to a lower ground pressure. “By using Telene®, highly engineered thermo set resins, we reduced the body panel weight by approximately 40% compared to Hand-Lay-up or Spray-up GRP” said Jaromir Vaja, Sales and Marketing Director of Promens Zlin.

In less than 6 months after the contract signature, Promens made it happen, including designing and manufacturing the set of 11 moulds! “To satisfy the needs of our customer, we quickly set-up a new production organization and adapted our supply chain. We started a new production line, adapted our product flow and created 60 jobs” said Jaroslav Boruta, Promens’ head of Technology and Production

A more environmentally friendly product
Among the specific advantages that convinced Rostselmash is the fact that the materials and closed mould process used by Promens considerably reduces emissions, traditionally associated with GRP Hand-Lay-up or Spray-up processes. Furthermore, energy consumed by the process is four times less than needed when using Polypropylene and ten times lower than for Polycarbonate.

To read more about Rostselmash and the Giant Acros visit the website of Rostselmash at http://www.rostselmash.com/eng/.