World Ploughing Competition: Sixth Place with the Fronius TransSteel

When you ask Bernhard Esterbauer about plowing with a tractor his face lights up. What is the World Ploughing Competition about? It’s quite simple: it’s about who plows the best looking plot of land on the day of the competition.

As the reigning Austrian plowing champion, Esterbauer qualified for the World Ploughing Competition, held on August 30–September 1, and demonstrated his skill in Minnesota. In order to plow the best furrows, the plow blade needs to be perfectly prepared and adapted for the respective soil. This means that each competitor needs to optimize their blade’s shape and cutting action themselves, not least to protect the heavy equipment from wear.

To do this, the trained mechatronics specialist uses the Fronius TransSteel 3500. The plow blade is overlay welded using the MIG/MAG power source and the DUR 600 wire and then ground into shape. High-quality and uniform welding results are extremely important here. Esterbauer is also impressed with how easy the system is to handle. “Everything works as soon as you switch the TransSteel on. It’s also easy to switch back and forth between the saved programs, which makes lots of things much easier. You can achieve excellent results with this device.”

We would like to congratulate Bernhard Esterbauer on his excellent achievement at the World Ploughing Competition 2019!