Innovation

Kinze and Raven Partner on Next Generation Planter Solutions

Standalone monitor in development for Kinze 4900 series planter

Williamsburg, Iowa (July 23, 2014) – Kinze® Manufacturing, Inc. announces a partnership with Raven Industries to develop a standalone monitor solution for the Kinze 4900 series planter. With this new monitor, Kinze and Raven have partnered to develop the software and its integration with the planter, with the goal of eliminating reliance on ISOBUS and other manufacturers’ software.

“Offering our own monitor will make for a more simplified planter set up and provide increased monitor reliability,” says Susanne Veatch, Kinze vice president and chief marketing officer.

“We’re extremely excited to partner with a company as innovative as Kinze. The two companies share a vision in providing solutions to help growers meet the challenge of feeding a growing global population, all while making them more efficient across their entire operation. For Raven, this also fits our commitment of bringing more innovative solutions to customers in our grower markets,” says Matt Burkhart, vice president and general manager for Raven’s Applied Technology Division.

In addition to the standalone monitor solution, Kinze’s plan is to have the 4900 planter also support ISOBUS virtual terminals that meet Kinze’s requirements and pass Kinze’s qualification tests.

While features of the monitor are currently in development, the current plan is to include:

  • A large, color, touchscreen monitor for all planter functions,
  • A customizable screen layout to show only the information the farmer wants to see,
  • A “screen within a screen” feature giving the ability to monitor mapping and field coverage area as well as planter functions at the same time,
  • and a dedicated CANbus line to eliminate issues from overloading the CANbus with too many components.

Kinze and Raven are actively engaged in the project; however, timing for the release of the new monitor is yet to be determined and is always subject to meeting Kinze’s standards and requirements. Kinze expects it could be ready as soon as next spring.

Known for providing a comprehensive suite of precision ag solutions to global markets, Raven Industries is also providing the electronics for Kinze’s new electric multi-hybrid planter that is in limited production for the spring 2015 planting season. This will be the industry’s first commercially available multi-hybrid planter system.

For more information visit Kinze.com.

About Kinze Manufacturing: Founded more than 49 years ago on the premise of innovation, Kinze Manufacturing, Inc., markets its planters and grain carts globally and is known for a number of industry “firsts.” Kinze operates with core values of integrity, customer focus, excellence, innovation and mutual respect. Kinze Manufacturing is the recognized technology leader and innovator of planters for row-crop production and grain auger carts. Kinze employees spend their nights and weekends farming, putting them in a unique position to be both manufacturers and customers of the planters and grain carts they build. For more information, visit the Kinze Manufacturing website at www.kinze.com.

About Raven Industries, Inc: Since 1956, Raven Industries has designed and manufactured high quality, high-value technical products. Raven is publicly traded on NASDAQ (RAVN) and has earned an international reputation for innovation, product quality, high performance, and unmatched service. Raven’s purpose is to solve great challenges in areas of safety, feeding the world, energy independence, and resource preservation. To realize this purpose, we utilize our strengths in engineering, manufacturing, and technological innovation to serve the precision agriculture, high performance specialty films, aerospace, and electronic manufacturing services markets. Visit www.RavenInd.com for more information.

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements regarding the expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. Without limiting the foregoing, the words “anticipates,” “believes,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The company intends that all forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there is no assurance these assumptions are correct or that these expectations will be achieved. Assumptions involve important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect results in the future. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those relating to weather conditions and commodity prices, which could affect sales and profitability in some of the company’s primary markets, such as agriculture, construction and oil and gas drilling; or changes in competition, raw material availability, technology or relationships with the company’s largest customers, risks and uncertainties relating to development of new technologies to satisfy customer requirements, possible development of competitive technologies, ability to scale production of new products without negatively impacting quality and cost, and ability to finance investment and working capital needs for new development projects, as well as other risks described in the company’s 10-K under Item 1A. This list is not exhaustive, and the company does not have an obligation to revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date these statements are made.

Contact Information:

Ryan Molitor
Marketing Manager
Raven Industries
Applied Technology Division
605.335.017

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