Ken Reese Opening the Gathering of the Green March 2, 2000

Mark Johnson Cutting the Ribbon

The ATIS Group at the Gathering of the Green

Back: Ken Reese, Hank Wessel, Phil Kelley, Terry Welshans,
Dean van Peursum, Dick Carlson.
Front: Charlie Cook and Frank Gremaux
Not shown: J.R. Hobbs, Gordon Hart, Duane Larson, Greg Stephen,
Donnie and Melanie Sharp, Edward Allandar, Ed Miller, and Paul Ostrander

While at the Gathering of the Green,
We toured the John Deere Harvester Works

Paint shop cleaning and rinse tanks.
Parts move from tank to tank by computer controlled overhead cranes.

The first coat of paint is applied electrostatically with 400 volts of electrical power

The paint job looks very bad at this point.
It gets two more dips to remove excess paint and smooth it out.

Robots painting a grain bin

Moving into the touchup room

Touchup painters look like they work on the moon!

Finished parts moving on the overhead conveyer system

New engines ready to install

Welding in the sub assembly area

Parts waiting for assembly

Main frame coming together

Rear axle bolts to the main frame

Followed by the grain bin

Final Assembly

All done!  Drive it to the detail shop next

New wheels and tires, decals, then out the door!

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