Deere + Company

Bobbie Dean Whicker

Merlyn D Bass

William Clair Davis

Wesley Paul Raisbeck

Raymond Harry Fairbank

A forage harvester has a cylinder type cutterhead that includes a hollow cylindrical drum having a solid cylindrical peripheral wall and a pair of radial end plates to which a pair of axial, stub shafts are attached. Welded to the outside of the drum are a relatively large number of knife support members that are formed of relatively short sections of angle iron and extend parallel to the cutterhead axis. The support members are arranged in circumferential rows and are disposed at equal angular intervals, the support members in one row being angularly offset and relatively closely spaced from the support members in the adjacent row. Both edges of the support members are welded to the drum, so that the leading side of the support member is inclinded outwardly and rearwardly relative to the direction of rotation and functions as a deflector for crop material. The other exterior surface of each support member is flat, and a flat, relatively short knife is mounted on the flat surface of each support member, so that the knives are also disposed in circumferential rows. Each knife is bolted on to the support member and has a cutting edge along its leading edge at the cutterhead periphery, the ends of the knives in one row slightly overlapping the ends of the knives in the adjacent row, so that the knife cutting edges conjunctively generate a cylinder as the cutterhead rotates.

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Ottumwa, IA, United States of America

Bobbie Dean Whicker