Farmers Union Carriers, 504 Chapman Rd, Scobey, MT 59263, US

Air Design incorporated in the state of Montana in 1986. The original product manufactured and marketed by Air Design is a fan speed adjustment attachment for John Deere' combines to adjust the air on the separation shoe during harvesting operations. In 1987 Air Design started to develop a tungsten carbide disk drill scraper and produced 500 proto-types for field testing that year. With some modifications the scraper product was introduced in the Fall of 1987. The scraper is still being produced, however small design changes and new scraper applications have been developed. In the early 1990s Air Design manufactured scrapers through an agreement with Great Plains Manufacturing Co'. A Manufacturing and Marketing agreement was also negotiated with John Deere Company and was adopted in the Winter of 1997. This agreement has expanded to include new scraper designs and another wear resistant product. The tungsten carbide used by Air Design in the manufacturing of scrapers is a high quality unground carbide called Wearcarb' with Rockwell hardness of RA92, manufactured by a major United States carbide manufacturer. This source has been used almost since the inception of the scraper in 1987. "Wearcarb' consists of parts made of solid cemented carbides that have great resistance to abrasive wear. This is the type of wear that occurs when two parts rub together. In some wear applications tungsten carbide outlasts wear resistant steel alloys by a factor of 100 to 1." 1