Deere + Company

Merlyn D Bass

Jerry L Krafka

David L Wolf

Robert D Black

Ronald N Grimstad

Henry Dennis Anstey

William A Ardueser

Harold E deBuhr

Donald W Demorest

John M Flenniken

Allan K Lawrence

Joseph John Shindelar

Henry William Suechting, Jr

Raymond Harry Fairbank

Theodore Marion Barnes

Kenneth R Christopher

Shawn Wayne Poggemiller

Wesley Paul Raisbeck

Harold E De Buhr

Bobbie Dean Whicker

William Clair Davis

Each end of a roller is defined by a stub shaft that is non-circular in cross section and supported from a side wall for rotation by a ball bearing having an inner race containing a mounting hole that is shaped complementary to, and located on, the stub shaft. The inner race is clamped from moving axially or radially relative to the shaft, thereby preventing the bearing from knocking against the stub shaft during operation. According to one embodiment of the invention, the outer race of the bearing is mounted within a complementary shaped bore of a sleeve that has a cylindrical exterior surface and is, in turn, mounted for axial movement in a cylindrical bore of a bearing housing that is mounted to the side wall by the agency of a bearing support. According to a second embodiment of the invention, the outer race of the bearing in mounted within a complementary shaped bore of a bearing housing which is, in turn, mounted to the side wall by the agency of a bearing support that is designed to flex axially while maintaining radial strength. Both embodiments thus limit the axial load which is transmitted between the shaft and the side wall by means of the bearing.

Arrangement for clamping inner bearing race to non-circular section shaft and for preventing axial load in the bearing, axial creep and rotational knock

A main frame carries a movable part for raising and lowering by means of a hydraulic cylinder, and a blocking member is selectively movable into a position between the piston rod end of the cylinder and a stop on the movable part for preventing accidental descent of the movable part.

Safety lock for raising and lowering mechanism

In a forage harvester, a pan-like shield wraps the underside of the lower forward feed roll of a feed roll assembly having opposed upper and lower pairs of feed rolls. The pan is disposed so that particles of material, such as corn or sorghum kernels, which may become separated from a mat of material being fed through the rolls and pass downwards in front of the forward lower feed roll or between the front and rear lower rolls are intercepted by the pan and recirculated by the forward roll between the roll and the pan and re-presented to the inlet side of the feed roll assembly so that those particles have another opportunity to be fed through with the mat of crop material to the cutterhead.

Crop material saver for a forage harvester feed roll assembly

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

Harvested crop material is fed to the cylindrical cutter-head of a forage harvester by a feeding assembly consisting of opposed pairs of upper and lower feed rolls. The articulated upper roll assembly floats to accommodate variations in the flow of crop material. The downstream upper feed roll is carried on a pair of opposite radius arms which are rigidly coupled by a transverse leveler shaft, providing a stable frame and minimizing cocking or twisting of the roll. A second pair of feed roll arms is pivotally connected to the radius arms and extends forward to support the upstream feed roll which is journaled on a shaft rigidly connected between the feed roll arms. A stop and biasing arrangement provides that each upper roll may float independently, the articulation of the feed roll assembly being such that upward movement of either roll or the rolls together is subject to the restoring force of a tension spring. However, upward movement of the upstream roll in relation to the downstream roll is restricted by a stop which limits rotational movement between the feed roll arms and the radius arms supporting the rolls.

Feed roll assembly for a forage harvester

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

An agricultural implement has a forwardly extending tongue connectible to the drawbar of a towing tractor and includes a fore and aft drive shaft that is disposed above the tongue and adapted to be connected to the PTO output shaft of the tractor by a PTO hookup assembly that includes front and rear universal joints respectively connectible to the implement drive shaft. When the hookup assembly is not connected to the tractor, the front end of the assembly is supported on the implement by a support that includes a support member swingably mounted on the implement tongue for shifting between a folded storage position and an upright operative position. A hook-like retainer member is mounted on the upper end of the support member and is shiftable between a generally upright position, wherein it is capable of receiving the central body portion of the hookup assembly, and a canted position wherein the hookup assembly cannot be withdrawn from the retainer member so that the hookup assembly is locked to the support.

Support for a PTO hookup assembly

A self-propelled forage harvester has a forward transversely elongated header that includes a plurality of row units mounted on the header frame for removing crop material from a plurality of rows as the machine advances and delivering it rearwardly to a transverse auger on the header, which converges the crop and delivers it rearwardly to the forage harvester through a central crop transfer opening in the header. Each row unit includes a supporting structure extending forwardly in cantilever fashion from the header frame and a pair of belt type gathering elements having opposite rearwardly moving inner runs with intermeshing projections that clamp the stalks of row planted crops to move the stalk rearwardly. A reciprocating cutter is mounted on the supporting structure below the forward intake ends of each pair of gathering elements and the rearward discharge end of each pair gathering elements is disposed directly under the auger to positively feed the butt of the severed stalk under the auger. The row units are laterally shiftable to accommodate different row spacings, and crop dividers are mounted on the row units and extend between adjacent row units, outer dividers being provided at the opposite sides of the header. A pair of upright, driven rollers are mounted at the rearward ends of the outer two dividers in front of the sides of the header frame to facilitate feeding of the crop past the front edges of the header sides, and an upper stalk control structure is mounted on the frame and includes a transverse member forwardly and above the auger for engaging the upper portion of upright stalks so that the stalks are fed under the auger.

Row-crop harvesting header

A forage harvester has a cylinder type cutterhead that includes a hollow cylindrical drum having a solid cylindrical peripheral wall and a pair of radial end plates to which a pair of axial, stub shafts are attached. Welded to the outside of the drum are a relatively large number of knife support members that are formed of relatively short sections of angle iron and extend parallel to the cutterhead axis. The support members are arranged in circumferential rows and are disposed at equal angular intervals, the support members in one row being angularly offset and relatively closely spaced from the support members in the adjacent row. Both edges of the support members are welded to the drum, so that the leading side of the support member is inclinded outwardly and rearwardly relative to the direction of rotation and functions as a deflector for crop material. The other exterior surface of each support member is flat, and a flat, relatively short knife is mounted on the flat surface of each support member, so that the knives are also disposed in circumferential rows. Each knife is bolted on to the support member and has a cutting edge along its leading edge at the cutterhead periphery, the ends of the knives in one row slightly overlapping the ends of the knives in the adjacent row, so that the knife cutting edges conjunctively generate a cylinder as the cutterhead rotates.

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Ottumwa, IA, United States of America

Merlyn D Bass