Spelle, August 2012. Krone’s Big Pack High Speed baler has a much bigger appetite now, taking in and putting through more ma-terial than ever - courtesy of its new and optional 'Active Pick-up'. The new unit relies on the well-proven EasyFlow pick-up system (2.35m work width or 1.95m work width on Big Pack 890), which does without a cam track. The camless design offers the ad-vantage of using 58% fewer moving parts than a traditional pick-up, which means the unit is less subject to wear and revolves at a 30% higher speed.

A new feature on the Active Pick-up unit is the driven feed roller which is arranged above the pick-up itself. This feed roller is equipped with exchangeable paddles to enhance the material flow into the machine even further. Another modification affects the arms that link the roller crop guard to the machine. These link arms are now arranged above the feed roller, which leaves the pick-up open on both ends. In addition, the Active Pick-up is arranged closer to the packer and the rotor cutter to provide for a swifter crop transfer. The new design will lead to another enormous boost in throughputs, in particular in difficult conditions like extremely dry material or brittle and short straw.

Krone's new and innovative Active Pick-up is already a standard feature on the Big Pack HighSpeed 890 and 4x4 models, where it has already proven its worth by boosting throughputs. For exam-ple, baling straw in 2011, the 4x4 model achieved hourly through-puts of nearly 75 tonnes at an 11% moisture content and 180 kg/m3 bale densities. The 4ft x 4ft  (120cm x 130cm) baling cham-ber produces bales of 3.20m in length and 5m3 in volume  – the biggest square bales the world over. Massive bales like these do not only go to farms but are also of excellent use in industrial appli-cations. The Active Pick-up is available as optional specification on the Big Pack 1270 HighSpeed, Big Pack 1290 HighSpeed and Big Pack 1290 HDP HighSpeed models.