Combine harvester CLAAS MDB

The CLAAS company began work on development of harvest combines in 1930. And already in 1936, it was successfully introduced to the market the first operational combine harvester with the mower-thresher-binder function (MDB) specifically designed and built for European harvesting conditions.

Thus it was laid the first stone in the further development of the combine company «Claas». The machine number 1 was delivered in the farming village Zhernits near Halle (Saale) for the harvesting in 1936. 

The cross-flow combine harvester MDB was a combination of a self-binder and a threshing mechanism, with the threshing mechanism housed between the cutterbar and the binder. After chopping, the grain was delivered to the threshing drum via a feed belt, at which point the straw was re-routed by a chain conveyor and fed to the straw walker. The crop then passed through two cleaning phases before the grain was filled into sacks and the straw tied into bunches. In case of good conditions farmer with this combine could harvest up to 30 tons of wheat per day.

The MDB entered series production in 1937. It was made 1450 these machines during next seven years.