News

US Combines

2019 US Production Forecast to Climb 2%

6800 Units

This information originally appeared in the July 2019 issue of PowerTALK.

By Carol Turner, Senior Analyst, Global Operations

This is the estimate by Power Systems Research of the number of Combines that will be produced in the United States during 2019. Estimated 2019 production will be up nearly 2% from 2018.

In 2018, production was 6846 units, down 485 units or 6.6% from 2017.

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How Student Teamwork Built a World Championship Car

Editor’s Note: Caroline Little teaches all levels of French and moderates an engineering co-curricular at St. Thomas Academy, an all-boys school in Mendota Heights, Minnesota. Here she provides a report on the program and the benefits it provides to participating students.

Power Systems Research has been a lead sponsor of the special Experimental Vehicle Team (EVT) at St. Thomas for many years. This year, the team won its class in the Shell Eco-Marathon international competition in London. This report from Ms. Little discusses the program and the benefits it provides for high school students interested in science, technology, engineering and match (STEM).

By Caroline Little

Every year for the past twenty the Saint Thomas Academy Experimental Vehicle Team (STA EVT) has built a new vehicle from the ground up to give our students the best engineering experience a high-schooler can get. The internationally recognized program started in 1997. My fellow moderator Mark Westlake and I believe in the importance of learning from mistakes. That the most important life lessons come from experience, that science is not always easy and that the answers are not always found in the back of the book.

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CONEXPO Publications Booming North American Rental Market Offers Opportunity

This article appeared in the June 2017 issue of Compoundings Magazine, published by ILMA (Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association)

If you didn’t hike through the nearly 3 million square feet of exhibit space at CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas in March, you missed an opportunity to explore several new markets for lubricants.

And even if you were in Las Vegas, you might have missed two of the most promising growth opportunities for lubricants. One is the booming North American commercial equipment rental market. The second involves the changing outlook for emissions regulations, which will affect the demands for engine lubricants on commercial vehicles and off-highway equipment.

CONEXPO-CON/AGG is a huge international event held every three years for the construction industries, with a focus on construction, aggregates and ready-mix concrete. This year, nearly 128,000 attendees to the five-day show visited more than 2,800 exhibits.

Publications Small Engines Placing Big Demands on Lubes

This article appeared in the April 2017 issue of Compoundings Magazine, published by ILMA (Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association)

Recently, off-road industrial and recreational vehicle engines have become increasingly larger and higher performing. The result is a demand for these once smaller engines in increasingly difficult situations, and performance demands placed upon engine lubricants used by off-road industrial and recreational vehicles are also increasing. Could this trend provide increased opportunities for specialized lubricants?

This article looks at important trends in North American small engine production and use since 2011 and considers how these trends might affect lubricant use.
We consider a small engine as one with a displacement