Deere & Company

Donald Lee Goodrich

James Thomas Noonan

Jerry Bob Hall

Frederick William Nelson

Mark Alan Cracraft

Jesse D Haecker

Earl Franklin Canfield

Timothy Arthur Deutsch

James Joseph Phelan

Mark Lindsay Rentz

Abhijeet Hingne

A vehicle canopy comprises a stationary support bar that has substantially vertical base sections, tilted vertical sections tilted at an angle with respect to the respective base sections. A horizontal section extends between the tilted vertical sections. The horizontal section or the stationary support bar has a first peak height. A set of subsidiary stationary support bars is connected to the vertical base sections of the stationary support bar. The subsidiary stationary support bar has a second peak height less than the first peak height. A first support member has a set of mounting plates mounted above corresponding vertical base sections of the stationary support bar for supporting the first support member. A set of mounting flanges is on the subsidiary stationary supports. A second support member is supported by the mounting flanges.

Vehicle canopy

RFID tags pre-installed on bale wrap segments provide location information for a specific area of the bale wrap. RFID tag readers located on the cotton harvester provide signals for use by the module wrapping apparatus for initiating a cutting or separating operation, once a module has been wrapped, and for warning an operator of a situation where the wrapping function has not proceeded in an orderly fashion after a signal for starting the wrapping function has been received. A wrapped module carries the pre-installed RFID tags which are readable by RFID readers carried by module handlers in the field and/or at the gin input which identify the modules and establish a position to which the module may be automatically oriented so that an ideal module wrap cutting location is easily calculated. The RFID tag reading taken in the field or at the gin thus senses the number on the tag as well as the location of the tag, and the module identification is input to an electronic database.

Cotton harvester for producing modules which can be automatically identified and oriented

A grapple device is provided for handling cylindrical cotton modules each having its circumference wrapped with a length of plastic sheet wrapping material. The grapple is equipped with a RFID reader for determining the location of a loose inner tail section of the wrapping material to which is attached an RFID tag assembly. The grapple device is also equipped with powered rollers which can be driven so as to cause the cotton module to be rotated about its axis so as to position the loose tail section of the wrapping material at an upper location of the module so as to permit a bottom surface location of the module to be slit by operation of a cutting device so as to release the cotton from the wrapper when the cotton module is positioned over a conveyor floor of a cotton gin. The powered rollers are then driven to aid in the removal and collection of the of the wrapping material from the module. In one embodiment, a separate set of powered rollers are provided for removing the wrapping material.

Handling and orienting cotton modules wrapped with material including RFID tag

A flow sensor for use in a harvester is disclosed. The flow sensor has a microwave transceiver for transmitting a microwave signal and receiving a reflected microwave signal, an in-phase mixer electrically connected to the microwave transceiver for combining the transmitted microwave signal and the reflected microwave signal and outputting an in-phase Doppler signal, a quadrature mixer electrically connected to the microwave transceiver for combining the transmitted microwave signal and a delayed reflected microwave signal and outputting the quadrature Doppler signal, and an electronic circuit electrically connected to the in-phase mixer and the quadrature mixer and having a flow rate output.

Microwave flow sensor for a harvester

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Waterloo, IA, United States of America

Donald Lee Goodrich