Quest for perfection

The tractor driven rotary hoe was an integral part of cultivation practices throughout the world all through the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s and it was often cited that it was perfect, unable to be improved.
Nobody could foresee the rapid increase in tractor horsepower coupled with the need for farmers to improve their efficiencies.
In the 1970s Antonio Valentini established his company in Padova, Northern Italy, after spending many years in design and manufacture with leading agricultural machinery companies in Italy’s north.
Antonio had a thirst for quality in design and longevity in performance – this thirst has never abated.
As tractor horsepowers grew he produced a facility where most of the leading European manufacturers of power driven cultivation gear brought to him two hoes, harrows, mulchers, etc and he joined them into a folding frame configuration.
Eventually these manufacturers began to make their own frames (cheaper) and Valentini began to manufacture his own hoes, harrows and mulchers, but unlike the others his driving force was for strength and reliability – the divide in quality that existed then still exists today.
However, the road Antonio took has been full of challenges – the main being the explosion of tractor power – in two decades an 120hp that was considered “large” was pushed aside by 150-180-250-300+ horsepower units.
During this time Valentini began to make stone crushers – brutes of machines which were built to withstand tortuous conditions (high power, shock, heat, etc) – for years he appeared to be always 30 hp behind as tractor powers climbed, then he made a discovery that was to be the hallmark of his career and that would catapult his products and his personal industry reputation to the highest levels-where they remain today.
Chain drive transmissions had proven inadequate in high horsepower applications and were replaced with a three gear system – as tractors horsepower rose to 180+ the three gear system was found to have limitations, mainly because of the friction derived heat-thicker gears, more oil, oil coolers, etc were all tried, but Valentini realized that it was a design problem – the small top drive gear simply was not able to handle, with any type of acceptable longevity, the double problem of both transmitting the enormous power from the tractor and withstanding the backlash and shock from the collision impact and inconsistent power requirements of the rotor blades.
In the first real advancement in power driven cultivation machinery in 50 years Valentini developed a four gear sysyem, where the centre gear becomes a cluster with an intermediate gear fitting into it by way of a splined hub-the top gear meshes with the normal middle gear which drives the intermediate gear, which in turn meshes with the rotor drive gear.
The result is remarkable – not only is the machine easier to drive but the lack of heat due to friction is hard to believe – even with Valentini’s 7.7m hoe in the hotter parts of Australia, there is no need for high maintenance oil coolers.
In solving his stone crusher drive problems and then using the same drive on his rotary hoes, he now produces an almost ‘unbreakable’ rotary hoe, even quoting a minimum of 20,000 trouble free hours on his 400 hp Ercules side transmission.
The other main challenge was frame strength-in the 1980s a 5.2m folding machine was 2100kg – today it is 3800kg – as tractor horsepowers increased, so did their ground speeds and larger operators have multiple farms so road travel is common.
Valentini saw the frame problems of lighter machines and realized that these problems were, in fact, caused in the transport mode, not in the working mode and similar to his side drive transmissions, developed an “unbreakable” hitch and frame combination, with the frames being extended out to within 50cm of the width of the machine.
All Valentini folding machines fold into well below three metre width and are offered with an extensive range of rollers, rotors, wheels etc.
Standard common features include, cam clutches on the lateral drives, side filling discs on the hoes, BYPY gearboxes and pto shafts, four rams for lifting and transport rigidity, four rams for roller depth control and all covered by a two year warranty.
Antonio Valentini products are distributed in Australia by Warragul based Vin Rowe Farm Machinery.
For more information contact Vin Rowe Farm Machinery on 5623 1362.