PÖTTINGER Impress 155 V Pro: Review

Austrian Precision, Paddock Proven: Road Testing the PÖTTINGER Impress 155 V Pro

From the high-tech factories of Austria to the lush green rolling hills of northeast Tasmania, the PÖTTINGER Impress 155 V Pro was engineered for one mission – to redefine what a modern round baler can do in the toughest, most demanding conditions. But clever design and bold claims only go so far.

The golden light of a late spring afternoon slanted low across the paddocks of northeast Tasmania, casting long shadows from windrows of freshly cut grass that lay like corduroy across the undulating ground. A gentle breeze whispered through the treetops, and with it drifted the unmistakable, sweet aroma of freshly mown pasture – rich, earthy, and tinged with the promise of a bumper season ahead.

In the distance, the rhythmic hum of a baler broke the stillness – not intrusive, but steady and sure, like a craftsman at work. The Austrian designed and built PÖTTINGER Impress 155 V Pro, comes with a raft of innovative features for a straightforward operation, reliable product intake and increased productivity.

PÖTTINGER’s Impress 155 V PRO round baler sits smack in the middle of its Pro Series range, capable of producing bales with a maximum diameter of 155cm. It is joined by the Impress 125 F Pro and Impress 185 V Pro in the range, featuring maximum bale diameters of 125cm and 185cm, respectively.

Full of features

The Pro Series is a low-maintenance, high productivity baler well suited for contractors and intensive farming operations. It boasts a 1000rpm PTO drive speed, load-sensing hydraulics with a 2.3m pick-up, patented 32-knife spiral drum and ISOBUS compatibility.

PÖTTINGER does have a lower specced version of its Pro series machines -the Master range -which includes much of the features and technology of the Pro series but with narrower pick-up intake and less throughput per hectare that is ideal for smaller farming operations.

But what differentiates PÖTTINGER balers from others on the market is the innovative LIFTUP technology, which enables a natural flow of product into the bale chamber by feeding forage over the rotor to deliver a tangential crop flow in the knives.

Pick up

PÖTTINGER drew on proven design features on their forage wagons in developing the Impress’ pick-up system. The Impress 155V Pro boasts a 2.3m wide pick-up controlled from both ends by steel cam tracks.

Thanks to the unique centre-mounted suspension point with twin jointed support arms, which allows 120mm vertical movement at either end, the pick-up can also pivot left to right. This feature enables the pick-up to follow contours in the field seamlessly.

Accurate pick-up working height is easily achieved by adjusting the 16 x 6.5-8 jockey wheels to the desired distance. The wheels aid with ground tracking and cornering as they sit in line with the tines.

In addition, there are eight floating position settings when working in straw to prevent the pick-up from dropping down any ruts. Because the jockey wheels are located within the overall transport width of the machine, there is no need to remove them when transporting the baler.

A combination of a roller and the thickest crop press tine you have ever seen help to keep forage pressed on to the pick-up. That, combined with the work of two pairs of contra-rotating augers ensure the crop is actively fed to the feed rotor.

Unlike conventional balers, PÖTTINGER’s 155 V Pro has its bank of 32 knives that offers a chop length of 36mm placed above the feed rotor. The brand claims this unique design solves the problem of crop material disintegration due to a higher number of knives. The result is high baling performance with low losses. Furthermore, any material that does fall through during this step is fed back into the product flow by the cleaning rotor.

Ease of use and maintenance

It is apparent that PÖTTINGER has given ease of maintenance plenty of consideration when designing the Impress Series balers. One innovation that impressed me was the twin-blade reversible knives, which prolongs service life. This system eliminates the need to sharpen knives every so often.

The process of changing the knives is also well thought out. The knife bank slides out on the right-hand side at waist height to provide an uncluttered working space that ticks OH&S boxes. Furthermore, the system allows the operator to configure the knife bank pretty much how they like it.

For instance, you can select four, eight, or no knives, and the whole knife bank can be engaged and disengaged from the cab. Alternatively, with half the knives manually selected via one shaft and half via another, you can quickly switch between two lots of 16. As mentioned earlier, the knives are double-sided, effectively giving you the use of four lots of 16 knives before they require sharpening.

Each knife is spring-loaded for protection against damage from foreign objects. If a blockage occurs, the knife bank and roof of the feeder housing will rise, similar to how a drop floor would work in a conventional round baler, to allow for clearing of the obstacle.

When baling straw, for instance, the location of the knife bank means no blanking plates are required as the forage falls away from the knives.

The feed rotor on the Impress 155 V Pro rotates backwards, directing material up and over it through the knife bank and into the baling chamber.

Looking at this unique layout from inside the chamber, you can see an almost uninterrupted path for the crop to flow, which helps to improve material flow in trickier conditions.

The Impress 155 V Pro’s ability to pick up cut crop easily and its increased ground speed, compared to the baler it replaced, certainly proved PÖTTINGER is on the right track.

The machine coped really well during our test drive, successfully baling various crops from short sticky silage to large thick rows of grass hay.

Controls

Two control options are available for the Impress 155 V Pro, including PÖTTINGER’s Power Control unit and the universal CCI-100 terminal.

As the baler is ISOBUS compatible, you can also use it with your tractor’s terminal. This allows you to assign some of the baler’s functions to the tractor’s buttons or joystick. Alternatively, you can use the baler’s controller for everything, but it is not quite as convenient.

During the test, we used the supplied CCI-100 terminal which is easy to navigate and clearly shows bale status, wrapping status and number of bales produced.

You can adjust bale size and density in three zones – the bale core, middle zone, and outer zone – via the terminal. You can also save six baler settings for different crops.

When it comes to the wrapping process, the Impress 155 V Pro has three modes – manual, customised or fully automatic. In the last mode, wrapping start/stop and tailgate open/close control is fully automated.

At the start of the process, the baler automatically raises the pick-up and lowers it down once the bale is wrapped. Indeed, it is a handy feature if you reverse the machine to drop the bale.

Another intelligent feature is the tailgate, which starts closing immediately after the bale has left the ramp, hence saving the operator time.

In addition, there is a manual mode that operators can select to have full control over the process, as well as a custom mode that lets users automate some aspects while still having manual control over others. For the most part, fully automatic is the mode we used.

Overall thoughts

I was somewhat sceptical when I first heard about PÖTTINGER’s avant-garde pick-up design and whether it would feed efficiently. However, as I discovered for myself, the Impress 155 V Pro had that fully under control and more, and the natural crop flow indeed produced shapely bales quickly.

It’s a great baling machine with a lot going for it, especially with easy knife access, pivoting pick-up, and intelligent automation.

If you’ll pardon the pun … I was Impressed!

PÖTTINGER Impress 155V Pro Round Baler Specifications

Make:                                                PÖTTINGER

Model:                                               Impress 155V Pro

Bale Diameter:                                0.80 to 1.55 meters

Bale Width:                                      1.20 meters

Minimum Power Requirement:      74kW (100 HP)

Standard Control System:           Power Control

Tractor PTO Speed:                      1000RPM

Pick-up Width:                                2.3 meters

Maximum No of Knives:               32

Knife Spacing:                                36 mm

Length:                                              4897 mm

Outside Width:                                2830 mm

Height:                                              2825 mm

Standard Tyres:                              500/50-17

Standard Weight:                           4850kg