The patented APS HYBRID SYSTEM, a combination of the APS threshing unit and the ROTO PLUS residual grain separation system, was a world first at the 1995 Agritechnica show and has been the global benchmark for throughput and grain quality as well as multicrop capability in the high-performance combine harvester segment ever since. Compared with the APS threshing unit of the MEGA straw-walker machines, the threshing drum diameter had been increased from 450 mm to 600 mm, and the feeder housing width from 1580 mm to 1700 mm. Two smooth-running axial rotors were used for protective residual grain separation. During grain threshing with the first LEXION 480 series, this technology enabled grain throughput rates of more than 35 t/h, a figure which rose to more than 40 t/h with the longer rotors which were fitted from 1996. Other trend-setting features were the active swivel-action spreaders, which were able to spread the straw across the entire cutting width of the front attachment, and the advanced VISTA CAB with a CEBIS screen.
In 1998, the LEXION 480 once again pioneered new technology when it became the first large combine harvester to be equipped with front-axle rubber crawler tracks suitable for high-volume production – the TERRA TRAC system. These tracks responded to the need to protect the soil as front attachments were becoming ever wider and heavier – and they did so while keeping the transport width within 3.5 m. Another breakthrough came in 2011, when road travel on crawler tracks at speeds of up to 40 km/h became possible – a record at the time!
As early as 2002, CLAAS was able to celebrate the production of the 10,000th LEXION – a 480 TERRA TRAC. Just 3 years later, the LEXION 500 series broke the "sound barrier" of 60 t/h grain throughput in wheat. This new dimension of performance was reinforced by an official Guinness World Record in 2008: never before had anyone managed to harvest 532 t of wheat within 8 hours with a single combine harvester. And in 2011, it was a LEXION 770 TERRA TRAC that broke this record by threshing an incredible 675 t of wheat within 8 hours in the UK.