Hesston Corporation

Harold William Voth

Allen A White

Amos G Hill

Ronald K Guinn

Bruce Lynn White

Bruce Leo Lutz

Merle Keith Burkhart

La Vern Goossen

John T King

Lowell J Goering

The cylinder supports a series of knives at its outer periphery which extend generally parallel to the axis of rotation of the cylinder, spanning a plurality of supporting bulkheads that are provided with special mounting assemblies which adjustably attach the knives thereto. The knives are positioned in such a way that in order to adjust the radial position of a cutting edge, the knives are adjustably shifted either inwardly or outwardly in a direction that is normal to the plane of the knives being adjusted. As a result of a degree of inherent flexibility of the knives, certain of the attaching points may be adjustably positioned more inwardly or outwardly than others by causing the knives to flex appropriately at the needed locations. Each attaching or mounting assembly includes a pair of threadably interengaged components, one of which shifts inwardly and outwardly upon rotation of the other so as to correspondingly position the proximal knife portion after a clamping bolt has been sufficiently released.

Cutting cylinder having knife position adjustment

The chopping cylinder has knives that extend longitudinally of the axis of rotation of the cylinder and which are twisted in such a way that their longitudinal cutting edges wind generally helically around the periphery of the cylinder so that a scissor-like shearing cut is obtained as the knives move past a cooperating shearbar. Special crop flow directors are bolted to the inner faces of the knives between supporting spiders for the knives so as to intercept the crop flow headed toward the interior of the cylinder following severance and to maintain the same adjacent the outer periphery of the cylinder during the movement of the crop material around and with the cylinder to a point of discharge. Special mounting hardware permits the individual directors to be attached directly to the knives in a manner to increase the efficiency and performance of the cylinder.

Forage chopping cylinder

A machine for handling large crop masses and the like is presented which permits completely automatic processing of these masses and requires only a single operator to effectively manipulate the machine to perform this function. A tiltable bed having a fore-and-aft conveyor is arranged behind a bank of shredding rolls for engaging ground-supported crop masses, loading the latter to a horizontally support position and then feeding the same horizontally into the rolls. Swingable structure is provided between the rolls and the bed for positive feeding of remnant portions of the masses presented at the end of the feeding cycle. The bed and the processor are releasably connected such that they effectively cooperate as a single machine, yet at the same time may be used individually to perform other unrelated farm tasks.

Combination stack mover and processor

If the next charge to be stuffed into the baling chamber has not yet reached the desired size and density by the time the stuffing fork and compacting plunger are ready to begin their next operating cycles, the plunger and the fork are temporarily deactivated until the charge reaches full size and density. Thereupon, the fork stuffs the entire charge into the baling chamber in a single cycle of operation for compaction by the plunger. The baler is loaded from the bottom of the baling chamber through an upwardly curved duct that serves both as an accumulating chamber and as a pre-compression area into which the charge is progressively packed by a rotating, retractable finger drum at the lower end of the duct. Actuation of the plunger and stuffing fork occurs automatically in response to obtaining the predetermined density of the accumulated charge as sensed by a pressure-sensitive device located at the lower end of the loading duct slightly downstream from the packing drum.

Crop density sensing mechanism for baler loading apparatus

The cutting cylinder of a forage harvester has helically oriented knives which may be sharpened by shifting a spinning grinding stone back and forth across the housing for the cylinder in parallel relationship with the axis of rotation of the cylinder. Opposed sets of roller guides which move with the stone in its straight line reciprocation trap the blade being sharpened and force the cylinder to rotate to such an extent and in such a direction as to continuously maintain the bevel on the knife engaged with the stone, thereby compensating for the helical orientation of the knife. One set of roller guides rides along the normally leading edge of the knife being sharpened, while the other set of opposed roller guides rides along the outer surface of the knife being sharpened.

Growing community of inventors

Newton, KS, United States of America

Harold William Voth