Deere & Co.’s Worldwide Construction & Forestry division this week announced a strategic alliance with Topcon Positioning Systems, a manufacturer of positioning products and solutions for the global surveying, construction, civil engineering and mobile control markets. The alliance allows John Deere to sell, support, and factory-install Topcon’s 3D-MC2 grade-control solutions on John Deere dozers and motor graders.
“The alliance with Topcon will allow our equipment owners to utilize a factory-installed grade-control system that maximizes productivity, uptime and lowers daily operating costs on the worksite,” said Domenic Ruccolo, senior vice president of sales and marketing, John Deere Construction & Forestry.
John Deere still maintains its open architecture approach, giving customers a choice. In addition to Topcon, machines will continue to work with any brand of grade control, including Trimble and Leica.
“We are very pleased with this agreement, which brings our leading grade-control technology to John Deere Construction equipment on a broader scale,” said Jamie Williamson, senior vice president and general manager of Topcon’s Construction Business Unit. “We believe this alliance will provide John Deere and Topcon customers the utmost quality in grade control technology and productivity on the job. John Deere and Topcon will work together to add value to integrated grade control systems through advanced, highly-integrated features in the future.”
Factory-installed options available for the Topcon system will include single- or twin-antenna versions, and six receiver options including multi-constellation GNSS support and communications protocols.
The alliance will first lead to the installation and distribution of Topcon components in John Deere products for the United States and Canada beginning this fall. Efforts will then shift around the world in key markets such as Latin America, Russia, China and Southeast Asia.
Deere & Co. is headquartered in Moline, Ill.
