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REGINA — The suspended cutterbar system on Honey Bee’s Airflex NXT headers use skid shoes adjustable from the cab.

Honey Bee Manufacturing’s Air Flex lineup uses gauge wheels on each side of the feeder house that hold most of the header’s weight in flex mode, and all of its weight in rigid mode.

“We have our airbag gauge wheel that increases the side-to-side stability of the product that will give it a smoother cut going across the field in rigid mode. We’ve got the built-in air tank and air compressor for supplying the air to the systems that need it,” said Perry Gryde, North American sales manager for Honey Bee.

The struts underneath the header connect to the cutterbar with pivot points and an air bag system that determines how close the cutterbar runs to the ground.

This independently suspended cutterbar uses the skid shoes when in flex mode to control cutting height.

“It’s a consistent down pressure across the whole bar, whether it is going up or down. So, this has increased our field performance and allows us to cut in even more extreme conditions than we could previously,” Gryde said.

“The cutterbar itself floats independently from the header. So, the more air that’s in there, the lighter this cutterbar will run on the ground. There is next to nil down pressure on that cutterbar, which is the reason we’re able to cut over standing water or standing mud,” Gryde said.

He said a gauge on the header is tied in the hydraulically adjustable skid shoes, so operators can easily see the cutting height.

The skid shoes can completely retract under the header, and when they are fully extended, they enable a cutting height of eight inches even while in flex mode.

Operators can switch between flex and rigid mode with the push of a button within the cab.

In flex mode, the Airflex NXT has nine inches of flex across the width of the cutterbar.

The header’s low profile cutting system helps the system operate tight to the ground when needed.

“The bottom of the guard is the first thing that will come into contact with the ground, and if you notice, it has a boat-hull design to it. And so what this enables us is to run in the ground flat without having to tilt forward and because of that boat-hull design, we’re able to better float over debris that’s in the field and greatly reduce stone picking or pushing of mud with the crop,” Gryde said.

Honey Bee launched the new AirFlex NXT at Canada’s Farm Show in Regina June 20, including a new 60-foot offering to the AirFlex lineup.

“We’ve had 25-foot, 30-foot, 36-foot, 40-foot, 45-foot and 50-foot, and this year we’re excited to add the 60-foot option to our flex table family.

“This will be the largest flex table on the market today. It’s not for everybody, that’s for sure, but if you’re somebody that’s doing control traffic farming over very large fields, we would encourage you to have a discussion with us.

“That will match up pretty much any combine on the marketplace. So whether it’s the John Deere X9, the Claas 8900 or the 10.9 New Holland. We have no preference over the model and we will match up to it,” Gryde said.

Headers with the knife drive mechanisms on the side of the table need to have relatively thick crop dividers to house the knife drive.

Gryde said most headers use a hydraulic drive for the knives, which are prone to surging.

The AirFlex NXT uses a reversible, mechanical knife drive at the centre of the header that allows for a slender crop divider end shields and less vibration compared to headers with mechanical drives at the side, Gryde said.

“The only hydraulic driven aspect on this table is the reel. The mechanical aspect allows us to have better cutting power with the table, and therefore increasing our ground speed by about another mile and a half per hour,” he said.

“With the addition of the vertical shears on the product, we’ve developed an even better unit for cutting peas, mustard, canola, the bushy, tough-to-handle crops.”

The centre opening has been increased to 80 inches to help get bushy crops into the feeder house.

“On our cross auger we’ve increased the flighting from 10 inches to 12 inches. What this has enabled us to do is get better feeding with bushy crops like mustard and canola and reduce the need to do adjustments on the cross auger,” Gryde said.

He said a new reel drive enables operators to switch from standard to high torque with half the speed and double the torque, and the fingers are built right into the batt and are easy to remove with a quarter twist of the finger.