The Newton City Council in Kansas (US) has approved the construction of an assembly plant for Tribine Harvester to start making production versions of its novel combine. The 12,600ft (3,840sq.m.) facility on the 4.7 acre (1.9ha) site will house the engineering and administrative offices, as well as final assembly, testing, and shipping. The building work, which is expected to take around four months to complete, is due to start on August 1, and the first machines are planned for assembly in January 2016. It remains to be seen how the production machine will differ from the last prototype (pictured), which is powered by a 375-400hp engine and described as a Class 7 machine in terms of its threshing output. The company remains tight-lipped but Tribine engineers are currently re-designing the machine from the ground up, and we can confirm that the finished result will be engineered 100% in-house. Two things the design team are unlikely to change are the articulated configuration and 30t capacity tank.  Key benefits of these two features are, firstly, that the artic-/crab-steer set-up enables the machine to reduce compaction in the same way as a crab-steering sugar beet harvester, while the 30t grain tank allows the machine, in many circumstances, to operate without a tractor and chaser bin in the field.