KUBOTA TECHNICAL REPORT No.56 JANUARY 2024

In response to growing environmental concerns and the pursuit of carbon neutrality, European regulatory bodies are tightening restrictions on internal combustion engine emissions, which necessitates the development of compliant products that adhere to these regulations. In line with the European market's commitment to carbon neutrality, Kubota has developed the Compact Electric Tractor "LXe-261" as its first electric tractor. This paper focuses on the engineering challenges encountered during the development of this groundbreaking electric tractor, including issues related to ensuring framestrength and handling high-voltage harnesses.

• Electric Tractor
• Electrified Devices
• Strength Analysis

In 2024, Kubota will introduce the electric Zero Turn Mower Ze series (Ze-481/Ze-421) for the European market. The Ze series is Kubota's first lithium-ion battery-powered riding lawn mower developed for professional markets such as municipalities and contractors operating within the Europe. It features a replaceable battery pack mechanism, multiple motors, and inverters for driving and mowing to enable the oneday work required by professionals. We will introduce novel developed mechanical structures and vehicle control technology, battery packs, and an electrification system development technology that contribute to the conservation of the global environment and achieve these goals.

• Electrification
• Lithium-Ion Batteries
• Motors/Inverters
• Coordinated Control

Kubota introduced a rice transplanter with a straight-line motion function (hereinafter called “Go Straight (GS)” function). However, it is difficult for unskilled workers to achieve rice planting on entire rice fields via the GS function alone. Therefore, to realize the objective behind this development concept, which was to enable even unskilled/inexperienced rice-farm workers to easily and stress-freely plant entire rice fields, we developed a rice transplanter with an automated driving function. In this paper, we described the working route for automated driving, trace running control at the outer areas of rice fields, and characteristic technologies unique to autonomous driving.

• Rice Tansplanter
• Autonomous Driving
• Working Route
• Trace Running

The 3–3.5-ton class mini excavators are crucial conventional products shipped worldwide. The mini excavator U-30/35 series, is a main model, especially for Japanese market; however, there has been growing discontent at its work capacity due to its decreasing engine output with emission regulations. Recently, excavators are required to comply with energy-saving regulations to ptotect the environment. In addition, excavators are required to improve operability due to the increasing number of poor operators. To address these problems, we have developed a novel hydraulic system for the mini excavator U-30/35-6a series. We have achieved energy conservation, including improved work capacity and operability, by adopting a 1-pump load sensing (1pLS) system with a swivel priority circuit.

• Mini Excavator
• Load Sensing
• Swivel Priority Circuit

Agricultural spraying drones have become an important aspect of agricultural industry in recent years. However, these drones are characterized by their technological complexity and sophistication, posing challenges for their effective utilization. Recognizing the inherent IoT nature of drones, KRDA has developed K-iDrone, a cloud-based IoT platform designed to empower users to enhance their work efficiency and refine drone operations by leveraging the power of advanced algorithms and analytical modules to extract actionable insights from data acquired from the drones. Owing to the rapid increase in spraying drones, KRDA has introduced the K-iDrone with the dual objectives of enabling users to harness the full potential of these drones and positioning KUBOTA as a key differentiator in driving the growth potential of spraying drones across Thailand and the ASEAN region.

• Agricultural Spraying Drones
• IoT Platform
• Cloud-Based
• Analytics
• Efficiency Improvement

From the view point of sustainability, in many countries there is a necessity laws that restrict the usage offertilizers in crop production, which may result in loweryields, less food and less income of farmers. To overcome this challenging situation, farmers require high-efficient machinery to guaranty high yields and sufficient income. Pudama is a newly-developed spot fertilizing system for maize seeding, which replaces a conventional continuous fertilizer placement. Pudama creates a fertilizer depot, which is precisely aligned to the single maize seed. As a result, the fertilizer is more easily accessible for maize roots in a higher concentration. This allows reducing fertilizer application rate by 25 % without any decrease of yield. This result was proven in field test in several locations over 3 years. The additional cost of Pudama techniques pays off after 2 years and saves on top 40,000€ for the farmer related to the fiscal lifetime of the machine under European conditions. Furthermore, this significant fertilizer reduction helps mitigate climate damage by brown energy input and reducing the risk of fertilizer trickling off into groundwater. Pudama is a unique and sustainable solution on the market; it is compatible with several Optima precision seeders that Soest is producing. This is an important step forward to increase market share and turnover for Kverneland Soest.

• High Speed Planter
• Spot-Fertilizing
• Pressure System
• Fertilizer Savings

Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR) produce high-quality effluent while requiring a relatively small footprint. However, stable operation of MBR depends on effective pretreatment. Although 1-mm spacing bar screens have been widely employed as MBR pretreatment in Japan, their limited debris removal capability can lead to the accumulation of debris on the membrane, compromising its performance. To address this challenge, Kubota has developed a novel screening system for MBR that offers superior debris removal, space efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. This innovative system utilizes mesh material as a screening element, achieving both high removal efficiency and high throughput. The combined structure of the mesh and support frame ensures extended screen life, while the integrated high-pressure cleaning system maintains filtration sustainability. By employing this advanced screening system, MBR operations can be stabilized even for sewage treatment plants faced with high debris concentrations in their influent.

• Membrane Bio-Reactor
• MBR
• Sewage Treatment
• Micro Screen
• Rotating Panel Filter

Steel pipes, commonly employed as piping materials in various industrial settings, are susceptible to corrosion over time. To address this issue, Kubota Chemix (KC) has embarked on an initiative to expand its market presence by proposing plastic pipes as an alternative solution. However, even with plastic piping, the flanges used to connect valves and other components are typically made of metal, posing challenges in terms of corrosion resistance and processing. In the 2020 technical report, we presented an analysis of the shape of resin flanges. This report focused on the development of a resin flange that exhibits enhanced strength and workability via improvements in product design and mold optimization.

• Pressured Pipeline
• Flange
• Fiber-Reinforced Resin
• Corrosion