Hesston Corporation

Other

John Dale Anderson

Bruce Leo Lutz

Richard James Buller

Martin E Pruitt

Harold Keith Garrison

David P Fritz

Adin F Holdeman

Dwight C Moddelmog

Allen Thomas Trego

Deroy Ernest Mahagan

The pickup assembly has an upright loading duct with a primary conveying impeller located between the upper outlet and the lower inlet of the duct. A secondary crop pickup impeller adjacent the inlet combs through crop stubble as the machine advances and lifts severed crop materials up to the primary impeller where the latter propels the materials upwardly through the duct and out the outlet. Flexible rubber fingers on the secondary impeller are generally T-shaped, having heads that are releasably clamped against the hub of the impeller by an inverted channel which is capable of retaining a series of the fingers at the same time. The secondary impeller floats independently of the duct and has one or more gauge wheels associated therewith to keep the fingers of the impeller from digging into the ground during rotation.

Crop pickup assembly

A rotor for crop handling machines has a plurality of double-pivoted, radially-extending arms and structure on the segments of each arm to position the segments such that any radially inwardly directed impact force, such as from stones and other obstructions, causes immediate buckling of the arm about its pivot points instead of fracturing the segments or bending their mounting pins. In one embodiment, each arm is provided with a positive stop between the segments that holds them in a pre-buckled condition such that the tip of the outer segment, with respect to the direction of rotation of the rotor, trails the common plane containing the pivotal axes of the double-pivoted arm. In a second embodiment the individual segments are constructed such that their centers of gravity are laterally offset, with respect to one another, causing the desired trailing relationship of the tip of the outer segment.

Crop harvesting rotor

In the interval between successive press cycles, crop material is picked up from the field and loaded into the stack-forming body of the machine. However, upon initiation of a press cycle, crop material, which continues to be picked up as the machine is advanced, is diverted into an accumulating chamber and collected within the latter until termination of the press cycle. Thereupon, the accumulation is discharged for recycling through the pickup and loading mechanism to be delivered into the forming body along with previously uncycled material. Alternative embodiments involve discharging the accumulation onto the ground ahead of the loader for pickup by the latter a second time, and discharging the accumulation either directly into the front or rear of the loader at a point above the ground.

Continuous load stack-forming method and machine

A stack-forming machine is provided with press reciprocating mechanism which tilts said press during reciprocation of the latter from a substantially horizontal position at or near the lower limit of press travel to a canted position at the upper limit of press travel wherein the front of the press adjacent the crop loader is above the rear of the press. A first embodiment of the invention utilizes interconnected two-bar linkages, one of which has a lost motion connection between its links; a second embodiment utilizes interconnected parallel and skewed four-bar linkages to tilt the press; while yet a third embodiment utilizes two-bar linkages of unequal length to accomplish press tilting.

Stack-forming machine having tilting press

The discharge spout of the pickup in a stack-forming machine is provided with baffle structure inside the spout and adjacent the discharge opening that oscillates horizontally and continuously through a stream of crops being projected into the forming body of the machine in order to break up wads and clumps of matter in the stream and to evenly distribute the stream from side-to-side within the body. One embodiment utilizes a single, centrally disposed fin as the baffle structure, while another employs a pair of such fins angled acutely with respect to one another, centered in the spout and controlled to preclude swinging of each fin inwardly beyond a position parallel to the direction of crop flow.

Growing community of inventors

Canton, KS, United States of America

John Dale Anderson