CNH Tractor Attachment
Chris Beadle, Chris Hewitt, Doug Stewart, Jamieson Weiss
Overview
Concept Generation
Final Design
Background Information
Design Process
Solid Model
CNH (Case New Holland) is one of the largest global industrial
and tractor companies. They are looking for a better way to
move certain pieces of equipment around their facility,
including on both their shop and farm. The key idea of this
project is to be able to have multiple attachments on the tractor
and not to have to leave them out on the farm when not in use.
1st Generation
Rejected due to
machinability,
strength concerns.
2nd Generation
Rejected due to long
operation time.
3rd Generation
Rejected due to
machining costs.
The Product
The design should pick up hay with bale spears as well as shop
equipment with pallet forks, should tow attachments such as a
baler using a draw bar, and should attach smaller devices which
use the same two-point hitch system that our device would
connect to. Our solution seeks to combine spears, forks, a draw
bar, and a two-point hitch into a single, all-encompassing device
able to perform a variety of tasks.
Project Scope
Design and build a device to store and
utilize bail spears and forks, enable usage of
a two-point hitch, and allow access to a
drawbar for use on category two tractors
with three-point link hitch systems in-house
at CNH. It should be operable by a single
user, comply with existing requirements,
and not impede normal usage of the
machine.
Half-Circle Base
Square Base
Shroud Mechanism
Manufacturing
Throughout the design process, the concept was built with manufacturing in mind.
Mild steel was used as the primary material, and at CNH’s request many of the
components were designed to be quickly and inexpensively cut on CNH’s laser
cutter and welded in their machine shop.
Front
Testing Plan
Thanks to CNH, we were able to use a New Holland tractor to test
our concept. Some metrics required only static measurements, for
instance lateral adjustability and the distance from the spears to the
ground. Others, like installation time and operation time, required
simulating normal and abnormal usage conditions.
Metrics
Metrics
Lift Capacity
Installation Time
Lateral Spear Adjust
Lateral Fork Adjust
No. of Bale Spears
Weight
Cost
Operation Time
Loose Parts
Constraints
5,000 lbs
2 min
3 in
7-36 in
3
500 lbs
$3,000
2 min
0
Right
Validation
Our primary method of validation prior to prototyping was fullassembly FEA analysis. We validated our concept by testing the
model in a multitude of worst-case scenarios. Other metrics were
tested as described above and meet acceptable target values.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our sponsors at CNH, Doug Fitzkee, Kevin Smith, and Chris
Foster, our advisor Dr. Glancey, and the rest of the Senior Design Staff.