Deere + Company

Container Corporation of America

Manville Corporation

David L Wolf

Merlyn D Bass

D Michael Lewis

Marlyn Lee Jerke

Peter M Conforto

Peter C Olsen, Jr

Ronald N Grimstad

Jerry L Krafka

Harold E deBuhr

Donald R Hudson

John M Flenniken

Jimmy R Craighead

Glenn L Myers

Kenneth R Christopher

William E Stokes

Ray L Russell

A machine for feeding a collapsed beverage can carrier sleeve to a flight bar conveyor and introducing the sleeve in fully open condition to the pocket of the conveyor. After leaving the feed rolls the collapsed carrier sleeve is moved through a fixed guide by lugs on a movable chain. The end flaps on the upwardly facing side panel are held in place on the guide while the end flaps on the downwardly facing side panel are moved downwardly by a fixed cam surface. The substantially opened sleeve is then either given a final kick by rotating arms or is propelled by the feed lugs to accelerate it into the pocket while at the same time fully straightening and opening the sleeve. The carton dimension corresponding to the length of the pocket is the same as the length of the pocket, resulting in more pockets per conveyor length and permitting operation at slower conveyor speeds.

Apparatus for feeding and opening a beverage carrier

A machine for feeding beverage cans to open-ended carrier sleeves of varying capacities. When loading relatively small carrier sleeves, inboard conveyors and associated metering screws feed groups of cans to a flight bar conveyor which moves the groups through the open ends of the carrier sleeves. When loading relatively large carrier sleeves, outboard conveyors and associated metering screws are also operated after first replacing the inboard screws with screws able to separate cans into larger groups, the same size as those formed by the outboard screws. This arrangement feeds larger groups of cans which are then fed to the larger carrier sleeves. In one embodiment each conveyor comprises a longer upstream conveyor and a shorter downstream conveyor spaced a short distance therefrom to allow the flight bars to travel through the space between the conveyors when moving from the end of their upward run to the beginning of their horizontal downstream run. In another embodiment only the longer upstream conveyor is provided and a support plate is used instead of the downstream conveyor. In this embodiment the gap between the conveyor and the plate is automatically closed by a shuttle mechanism to provide a continuous support surface for the cans as they are pushed toward the carrier sleeves. The cans are able to slide on the surface of the conveyors, enabling the conveyors to be operated at a slightly greater speed than the screws are capable of moving the cans, which results in the cans being positively fed by the conveyors.

Method and apparatus for feeding containers to a carrier sleeve

An apparatus and method for squaring up the sides of a bulk shipping container and for forming a paperboard cover over and securing it to the upper end of the container.

Container cover forming apparatus and method

A device for automatically feeding, one at a time, relatively thin, flat articles, such as paperboard sheets or knocked down boxes, from the top of the stack of articles positioned on an elevating mechanism.

Destacking device

A multirow harvester header comprising a plurality of pairs of crop conveyors. Each conveyor pair corresponds to a single row of crop and is used to converge and convey a single row from a standing position in the field into the crop receiving throat of the harvester attached to the rear of the header. A first and second pair of the conveyors is inclined transversely and downwardly in a direction toward a third and fourth pair of the conveyors. The third and fourth pair of conveyors are inclined transversely and downwardly in the direction of the first and second pair of conveyors. The second and third pair of conveyors are vertically spaced above and in overlapping relationship respectively with the first and fourth pair of conveyors. The transverse inclination and overlapping relationship of the conveyors enables the rear drive shafts of each pair of conveyors to be closely spaced together in front of the crop receiving throat of the harvester. The transverse inclination also enables the forward ends of the conveyors and associated crop cutters to be positioned at an equal distance above the ground and in a transverse vertical plane at the forward end of the header. Additional space adjacent the harvester throat is saved by driving two of the conveyors of the first and second pair of conveyors from a common rear drive shaft and by driving two of the conveyors of the third and fourth pair of conveyors from a common drive shaft. Sealed gear cases are provided for the conveyor drive means.

Harvester header with transversely inclined, overlapping conveyors

An agricultural tractor includes a rearwardly extending drawbar connected to a hitch member on the tongue of a trailing implement through a hitch adapter that includes a housing mounted on the rearward end of the drawbar and connected thereto by a vertical pin extending through a vertical bore in the housing and the drawbar, the rearward end of the adapter being pivotally connected to the implement tongue by a vertical pin, the axis of which is equidistant from the front and rear universal joints of a PTO hook-up assembly that connects the tractor power take-off to the implement driveshaft. The housing has a cavity with a larger cross section than the cross section of the drawbar and a plate-like clamping element is mounted in the housing cavity and includes upwardly and outwardly diverging inclined surfaces that are engageable with the lower lateral corner edges of the drawbar, the clamp member being vertically adjustable so that when the inclined surfaces engage the edges of the drawbar they clamp the drawbar against the top of the housing while resisting lateral shifting of the drawbar in the cavity, thereby providing a simple adjustment to accommodate the hitch adapter to various size drawbars.

Hitch adapter

A forage harvester has a rotary cylinder type cutterhead mounted in a housing with opposite side walls, crop material being fed into the cutterhead in a generally radial direction over a shear bar adjacent the cutterhead periphery. The shear bar is mounted for fore and aft adjustment toward and away from the cutterhead periphery to maintain the optimum clearance between the cutterhead and the shear bar by means of a mechanism that includes a pair of bell cranks respectively pivotally mounted to support members on the opposite walls, with one end of each bell crank being connected to the shear bar through a fore and aft link while the other end of the bell crank threadably receives the threaded portions of a vertically elongated rod that is rotatably supported adjacent the housing side wall and has an easily accessible head adjacent the top of the housing, whereby rotation of the rod causes the bell crank to rock on its pivot to cause linear fore and aft adjustment of the shear bar. The force exerted through the adjusting mechanism is sufficient to overcome a clamping force exerted by a bolt and nut that clamps the shear bar to the supporting structure at opposite ends of the shear bar without loosening the clamping bolt.

Adjustable shear bar for a harvester cutterhead

A hitch adapter connects a tractor drawbar to an implement hitch pin and includes a cast housing having top and bottom walls and a forwardly open chamber that receives the rearward end of the tractor drawbar. The housing has a pair of vertical openings elongated in a transverse direction and receiving vertical bolts having nuts at their lower ends which are tightenable to clamp the housing between the head of the bolt and the nut. The shanks of the bolts are disposed on opposite ends of the drawbar and are shiftable laterally in the openings to engage the opposite side of the drawbar to limit lateral movement of the housing relative to the drawbar, the nuts being tightened to clamp the bolts in the selected position. Serrated surfaces are provided on both the top and bottom of the housing around the openings, and each bolt is provided with a pair of washers having serrated surfaces that respectively engage the serrated surfaces on the top and bottom of the housing. The serrations on said surfaces run in a fore and aft direction, and when the nuts are tightened on the bolts to clamp the serrations on the washers onto the serrations on the housing, lateral slippage of the bolts along the slot-like openings in the housing is eliminated.

Growing community of inventors

Cedar Falls, IA, United States of America

David L Wolf