Cnh Industrial America LLC

Cnh America LLC

Ford New Holland, Inc.

New Holland North America, Inc.

New Holland Inc.

Gary Lyman Bich

David M Dechristopher

Joel Timothy Cook

James F Rayfield

Ryan T Gahres

Ryan Marcus Figgins

Larry D Hall

Luke Andrew Schroeder

Karl W Klotzbach

Beau A Carlson

Dale M Hurlburt

John R McClure

Blaine Robert Noll

Brian Patrick Crow

Craig Donald Roberts

Anthony F Diederich, Jr

Derek Stanley Rude

Peter J Ungs

Imants Ekis

Leslie Gregory Hill

Andrew R Wilbert

Douglas Sorensen

Daniel J Klein

Robert Cropper

Louis R Thomas

Benjamin W Ditchcreek

Wilfried J Boucquez

Sunilkumar C Machhar

The pivoting action sickle drive has a low profile allowing incorporation in or below a floor of a header of a plant cutting machine to allow passage of cut plant material thereabout. The drive includes a substantially flat rotatable input element, and a drive arm connected eccentric thereto for eccentric rotation along an epicyclical path. The arm extends to a connection with a pivot arm of a pivot element that connects to a knife arm that drives a sickle knife assembly, such that the pivot element, knife arm and knife assembly will be reciprocatingly driven by the eccentric rotation of the drive arm. A second drive can oppositely drive a second sickle knife assembly, such that opposite forces generated by the drives will cancel. The drives can be packaged in a forwardly tapered or curved enclosure, and the pivot elements can be correspondingly shaped to streamline the drives.

Pivoting action low profile sickle drive

A sickle drive incorporated into a generally flat package or enclosure or floor. The drive includes an epicyclic mechanism, including a rotatable input element in an upper region of a cavity of the enclosure, and an eccentric element below the input element rotatable eccentrically thereby. A drive arm is connected to the eccentric element for rotation about, and eccentric rotation with, the eccentric element, and extends to a pivot element which can be the only component extending upwardly from the enclosure or floor, such that the shaft will be pivoted by the eccentric movement of the drive arm. A knife arm connects to the pivot element and a sickle knife assembly which will be reciprocated by the pivoting action. A second epicyclic arrangement can be employed such that opposite forces generated by operation of the drive will be largely canceled.

Low profile sickle drive

A harvesting reel of an agricultural harvester having a plurality of support members mounted to a frame and a plurality of tines press-fitted onto the support member is disclosed. The plurality of tines includes a cam for securely attaching the tine to the support member via a press-fit application to forego the need for any additional separate fasteners and tools necessary for production of the harvesting reel and maintenance upkeep of the plurality of tines on the harvesting reel.

Reel tine for a harvesting reel of a harvester and a method of assembling a tine to a harvesting reel

The drive has an input rotatable about an upstanding rotational axis and carries a cam followed by a pivot arm pivotable about an upstanding pivotal axis. A power source is connected in rotatably driving relation to the input. The pivot arm connects to a knife assembly of a sickle. The input, cam and pivot arm are generally flat, and the power source is vertically coextensive therewith for incorporation in or below the floor of a header of a plant cutting machine. Rotation of the input causes offset movement of the cam about the rotational axis, resulting in sideward pivoting of the pivot arm and sickle knife. A second cam drive can oppositely drive a second sickle knife, such that opposite forces generated by operation of the drives will be largely canceled.

Cam driven low profile sickle drive

A slot driven low profile sickle drive has an input rotatable about an upstanding rotational axis and carries an eccentric captured in a slot in one end of a pivot arm pivotable about an upstanding pivotal axis. A power source is connected in rotatably driving relation to the input. The opposite end of the pivot arm connects to a knife assembly of a sickle. The input, eccentric and pivot arm are generally flat, and the power source is vertically coextensive therewith for incorporation in or below the floor of a header of a plant cutting machine. Rotation of the input causes epicyclical orbiting of the eccentric, resulting in sideward pivoting of the opposite end of the pivot arm and sickle knife. A second drive can oppositely drive a second sickle knife, such that opposite forces generated by operation of the drives will be largely canceled.

Slot driven low profile sickle drive

The knife head mounts to the sickle to hold a plurality of knife sections thereon while allowing removal of the knife sections individually without major disassembly for ease of in field repair and replacement. A knife pin of the knife head connects to a knife arm driven by the sickle drive mechanism and is removable from above also without major disassembly. The knife pin connection provides a vertical self adjustment capability to accommodate sickle wear and vertical misalignment between the sickle and drive. And the knife arm is streamlined for cut plant material flow thereabout and is also adapted for ease of removal and field repair.

Easily serviceable and removable self-adjusting knife arm and head assembly for a sickle

A cutting assembly for a header of a plant-cutting machine includes a blade assembly fastened to a head assembly, which is configured to be drivingly connected to a motor. The cutting assembly is suitable for mounting proximate to the center of the header, in an end-to-end relation with another cutting assembly. Removal of the blade assembly from the head assembly can be efficiently effected by releasing or removing a small number of fasteners, thus allowing an operator to readily remove or replace the blade assembly as needed.

Blade assembly removal from a header of a plant cutting machine

A divider support apparatus with integral adjustable torsional preload mechanism for connecting a divider to a header frame. The mechanism includes a first element for carrying the divider and a second element configured for connection to the frame, and at least one resilient biasing element disposed between the first element and the second element and biasable by generation of a torsional loading condition between the first and second elements for applying a preload force therebetween. A preload adjusting mechanism in connection with at least one of the first element and the second element is operable for selectably adjusting the biasing of the at least one resilient biasing element in a manner for adjusting the preload force. The preload mechanism is also operable for damping vibrations emanating from the divider.

Divider support apparatus with integral adjustable torsional preload mechanism and vibration damper

A suspension system is provided for use with a crop harvesting header including a frame carrying a structure movable about an endless path to deliver a crop to the header. The frame has opposed ends and is pivotably connected to the header, each end of the frame being independently movable between a first angle between the frame and the header and a second angle between the frame and the header. A first suspension member and a second suspension member are each connected between the frame and the header to provide a substantially constant force to the frame between the first and second angles.

Suspension system for a crop harvesting header

The epicyclical drive incorporates a dual flywheel carrying a pinion in a balanced axially compact assembly. The assembly includes a counterweight for the pinion nested between the flywheels, which also connects the flywheels and transfers loading conditions therebetween, to reduce and distribute torsional and eccentric loading conditions and reduce vibrations. The use of a second flywheel also provides an improved rotary seal capability for keeping out dust, debris and moisture. The drive is adapted for incorporation into a floor of a header of an agricultural harvesting machine for reciprocatingly driving a sickle thereof, advantageously jointly with a mirror image companion drive in a side by side relationship and timed such that forces generated by the reciprocating actions are cancelled.

Dual flywheel axially compact epicyclical drive

A flexible cutterbar header for an agricultural plant cutting machine, includes a plurality of elongate, telescoping support arms pivotally connected to a floor of the header and supporting a flexible cutterbar for upward and downward, and fore and aft movements relative thereto, apparatus extending between at least some of the support arms configured and operable for controlling the telescoping thereof substantially uniformly, and a preload adjusting system configured and operable for applying a preload force against the cutterbar through the support arms in a manner to automatically increase as the support arms telescopically increase in length, and automatically decrease as the support arms telescopically decrease in length.

Agricultural plant cutting header with fore and aft adjustable flexible cutterbar having automatic preload adjustment

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New Holland, PA, United States of America

Gary Lyman Bich