Cummins and tractor supplier Buhler Industries have signed a letter of intent to integrate Cummins’ 15-litre hydrogen engines in the Versatile brand’s equipment to lead the decarbonisation of the agriculture market.
Ann Schmelzer, General Manager Cummins Global Agriculture Business, said both companies share a commitment to technology, quality and dependability. Since 1967, Versatile has used Cummins engines exclusively in all four-wheel drive tractors.
Adam Reid, Versatile’s Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, said, “While diesel engines continue to be the flexible power of choice for the foreseeable future in agriculture, such a collaboration enables both companies to develop low and zero carbon solutions that are ideally suited to farming.”
Schmelzer added, “Cummins has recently announced its plan to leverage existing platforms and expertise in spark ignited technology to build hydrogen engines. The high commonality among engine components between diesel and hydrogen leverages scale advantages for OEMs, while delivering the reliability that farmers need.”
Hydrogen combustion engines will provide a cost effective zero-carbon fuelled solution for high load factor and high utilisation applications. Key benefits of using this technology include enabling a more-timely solution to reduce carbon emissions without sacrificing productivity.
It minimises the impact on the machine design for manufacturers, allowing common parts and components across platforms to drive scale advantages, reducing costs. When integrated in farm equipment, farmers will have a solution that is dependable, as well as easy to service and maintain.
Cummins completed its acquisition of Meritor, a global supplier of drivetrain, mobility, braking, aftermarket and electric powertrain solutions for commercial vehicle and industrial markets, earlier this month.
The integration of Meritor’s people, products and capabilities in axle and brake technology will position Cummins as a leading provider of integrated powertrain solutions across internal combustion and electric power applications.
As demand for decarbonised solutions accelerates, ePowertrains will be a critical integration point within hybrid and electric drivetrains creating packaging and performance differentiation and the opportunity to provide advanced clean mobility products for customers.
Buhler’s second quarter net income fell to CD$1.1bn, compared with CD$3.8bn in the corresponding quarter in 2021, as it wrestled with supply chain issues.
Sales are expected to grow as issues are resolved and the backlog remains high. In the past year, the company restructured its manufacturing capacity and made changes to reduce the overall cost of operations.
Grant Adolph, P.Mgr., was appointed Chairman of the Board in March. He has been with the company since 1975, holding various roles in product development, engineering, production and management.
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