Wednesday, December 31, 1997

New Holland makes machinery landmark in 1997

By J.T. SMITH / Farm Editor

Randy Vinson, president of Abilene Ag New Holland Inc., notes that 1997 will go down as a good year in much of the farm machinery business.

Agricultural and construction equipment giant New Holland reached a company landmark on Nov. 21 when the 100,000th skid-steer loader came off the assembly line at the company's plant in Belleville, Pa.

The 100,000th unit was a Super Boom Model Lx565. It was immediately inpsected by company officials, plant employees and others before being turned over to its new owner, a general contractor in Charlotte, N.C. <B>1997 also was anniversary year<B>

But this year was more than just selling that 100,000th unit.

The year also marked the 25th anniversary of the New Holland skid-steer loader production.

But actually, the story goes back even further, Vinson noted.

Work on the innovative loader really began in 1960 when Larry Halls, an award-winning New Holland engineeer, was working on a line of hay equipment products. He was assigned the "challenge" of designing a mower linkage that would operate in a linear fashion - and as simply and reliably as possible.

Halls devised a four-bar linkage which was patented and is still being used on New Holland mowers to this day. <B>He didn't have the aid of computers<B>

"When I came up with a linkage for straight line motion, we didn't have computers," Halls recalled in a company news release. "It was a lot of work drawing the motion on paper, so I worked with cardboard cutouts, using strips for linkages, thumb tacks for pivot points - and erasers to hold them together."

But Halls looked for another use for his invention. He noticed that when he put his "cardboard model" on its side and ran it through its whole range of motion that the linkage came up and forward.

The concept of the Super Boom lift linkage had been born.

Super Boom lift linkage is unique because it allows the bucket to be raised "up and out" in nearly a straight-line motion instead of arcing back like other loaders.

Halls also designed the loader with other distinctive features as well, like a longer wheel base for added stability and an integral cab structure for operator safety.

When the loader eventually was introduced to the marketplace in 1972, it was an immediate success - with awards too numerous to mention.

Today, some 25 years and 100,000 units later, the skid-steer loaders from the Pennsylvania plant are sold in more than 100 countries around the globe.

In fact, the Belleville plant got a $20-million expansion two years ago in order to keep up with demand.

Vinson said that New Holland now employs 19,000 people worldwide at 6,000 dealerships.