CLAAS ROVIO 4: latest generation maize pickers with significantly higher performance

CLAAS is putting its latest generation maize pickers in the ROVIO 4 series to work in the 2024 maize harvest. Featuring a new hood design with strengthened drive and further technical improvements, they now bring even greater productivity, lower losses and enhanced chopping quality to the maize harvest.

Completely revised – for trouble-free high-performance harvesting
With the ROVIO 4 series CLAAS has added a next-generation maize picker with 6, 8 and 12 rows to its range of front attachments for EVION, TRION and LEXION which replaces the previous CORIO maize pickers. It has been completely re-engineered to achieve up to 30 per cent higher throughput than its predecessor.

The linear picking rollers featuring higher rotational speed and constant throughput speed ensure that cobs are cleanly picked without loss under all harvesting conditions. With only negligible amounts of residual crop entering the combine harvester, separation and cleaning is reduced to a minimum. The four bolt-on knives per picking roller have a wear-resistant tungsten carbide coating. Increased overload protection for the picking gearbox and intake roller enables higher crop volumes to be processed. The redesigned hood tips with a flat operating angle of 17 degrees ensure gentle crop handling even under difficult conditions or when cornering, and allow higher ground speeds. Furthermore, the innovative hood design is suitable for harvesting lodged maize. Lodged maize side augers are optionally available. The spacing between the picking plates can be hydraulically adjusted from the operator's seat to suit the harvesting conditions.

The wear parts fitted in the hoods can be replaced easily if necessary and the height of the tips can be adjusted quickly without tools by means of a simple screw mechanism. The hoods can also be folded without tools. Having just one central oil chamber greatly simplifies maintenance operations.

The repositioned, integrated horizontal choppers guarantee precise, even chopping even at high ground speeds. Tungsten carbide-coated knives sharpened on three sides achieve precise, effective chopping with a low power requirement – supported by optimally coordinated feeder chain, picking roller and chopper speeds.

In the FC models, the folding times have been reduced by 33 per cent. Furthermore, the reduced overall length of the hood tips in the FC models has eliminated the need for folding – significantly reducing setting up and transfer times.

Switching to sunflower harvesting is also quick and straightforward. All you have to do is turn the feeder chain round and then fit rigid knives to the picking plates along with side hood extensions and a raised rear wall panel. A new adapter also enables it to be mounted to the JAGUAR forage harvester for harvesting whole-crop maize silage.

Increasing performance and reducing the operator's workload: AUTO CONTOUR and AUTO PILOT
AUTO CONTOUR precisely and automatically adjusts the transverse and longitudinal movement of the front attachment to the ground contours detected by a sensing bracket – now mounted one row further in, enabling it to work reliably even at the crop margins. Hydraulic rams on the feeder housing continuous adjust lateral levelling and cutting height on the basis of the information from the sensors. The required cutting height can be easily set in CEBIS.

Automatic steering is provided by the integrated AUTO PILOT system, which scans two rows of plants simultaneously with its central sensors and translates this input into corresponding steering movements. The electromagnetic system identifies and compensates for gaps in the crops and operates with row widths of up to 80 cm.

All ROVIO 4 maize pickers are equipped with multi-couplers and automatic attachment recognition, including maintenance counter and saved cutterbar data such as end stops, AUTO CONTOUR target values and much more. This reduces the time required for attachment and setting up before use to a minimum – ensuring lightening-fast operational readiness.

Key new features at a glance:

• Three new ROVIO 4 maize pickers with 6, 8 and 12 rows (6- and 8-row: 70, 75 and 80 cm row spacing; 12-row: 70 and 75 cm row spacing).
• Up to 30 per cent higher throughput than previous generation.
• Strengthened drive with higher overload protection for picker gearbox and intake roller.
• Separate drives for left and right picker gearbox for uniform loading.
• Linear picking roller for constant throughput speed and reliable picking under all conditions.
• Reduce speed by 20 per cent simply by changing gear (main gearbox) and sprocket (intake roller).
• Redesigned picker hood tips with flat operating angle (17°) for optimised crop handling and better harvesting of lodged maize.
• Optimised coordination of feeder chain, picking roller and horizontal chopper speed.
• Spacing between picking plates can be hydraulically adjusted from the operator's seat.
• Repositioned horizontal chopper with coated knives sharpened on three sides.
• Easy replacement of wear parts and only one central oil chamber for optimised maintenance.
• FC models feature 33 percent faster folding; no manual folding of tips required for road transport.
• Rapid conversion from grain maize to sunflowers and back.
• AUTO CONTOUR and AUTO PILOT for clean ground-contour following and automatic steering – even in patchy crops.
• Multi-coupler and automatic attachment recognition as standard.
• Numerous options such as raised side panels, rubber cob retainer with quick-release fastener for the hoods (standard for the tips) or additional shear bars for the horizontal choppers and stubble cracker for the tracks.
• New adapter for mounting on the JAGUAR for harvesting whole-crop maize silage.