Deere + Company

Michael James Mellin

Michael Joseph Verhulst

Allan Wesley Rosenbalm

William P Wohlford

Craig Allen Richardson

Steven L Schmid

Frederick Carl Krambeck

John Gregory Petersen

Stephen Kenneth Parsens

Matthew Jay Mentzer

Gary Raymond Dustin

John Gregory Peterson

A boom spray assembly, such as for an agricultural sprayer, has a feed pipe and a spray pipe with a continuous tubular body. The tubular body has at least one facial feed opening therein between the ends opening along a second axis at an angle to a first axis of the tubular body. A saddle fitting is coupled to the spray pipe that defines a first passageway extending along the first axis to receive the tubular body and defines a second passageway extending along the second axis in registration with the at least one facial feed opening and receiving spray material from the at least one feed pipe. At least one spray nozzle is coupled to the tubular body of the at least one pipe in communication with the first and second passageways.

Spray assembly for boom sprayer

A mower conditioner includes upper and lower conditioner rolls with the upper roll extending between, and being rotatably mounted to, a pair of vertically swingable arms. A linkage arrangement is coupled between the frame supporting the arms and the arms, with one part of the linkage being associated with a stop for limiting the range of movement of the upper roll toward the lower roll, and with another part of the linkage being coupled to a spring arrangement for biasing the upper roll toward the lower roll. The stop is configured as a pair of wedge-shaped members having respective inclined surfaces engaged with each other and held in an adjusted position by a nut and bolt arrangement, the range of movement of the upper roll toward the lower roll changing in response to tightening or loosening the nut on the bolt.

Mower-conditioner

A rotary cutterbar includes a gear case containing a series-parallel set of gears including idler gears and pinion gears for driving the cutting discs of the cutter units. The gear case includes top and bottom walls and the idler gears are each received on a hub including an enlarged upper end located in a hole provided in the top wall and a threaded lower end screwed into a hole provided in the bottom wall. The hubs each have a plastic outer shell encasing a metal insert extending axially within the shell, with the shell forming the sole contact between each hub and the gear case whereby vibrations and shock loads respectively due to gear tooth contact and a cutter knife contacting an obstacle are absorbed by the shell to lessen the transmission of noise and the magnitude of the impact force. O-ring grooves are provided in the plastic shell and receive o-rings for preventing leakage from the gear case through the holes in the top and bottom walls. The top end of the metal insert is provided with an internal socket and an external hexagonal surface, with the socket being provided for receiving a complementary shaped wrench which is used for installing the hub by screwing it into the threaded hole and with the exterior surface providing a non-rotational surface to assist in maintaining good physical retention of the insert within the plastic shell.

Rotary blade cutterbar including plastic idler gear support hub with metal insert

A rotary cutter disc includes shields for the nuts of the knife mounting bolts. Each shield includes a U-shaped well in which a respective one of the nuts is located, the well being oriented so that its open side is directed away from the center of the disc, whereby centrifugal force ejects crop particles and other matter from the well. In one embodiment, the shield is provided with inclined wear surfaces which also serve as crop guide vanes. In a second embodiment, the shield is integral with a crop guide vane. In each embodiment, the underside of the shield is provided with a locating lug which is adjacent the knife mount bolt hole in the bottom wall of the shield. The disc is provided with an elongated knife mounting bolt hole and the shield locating lug is positioned to enter the elongated hole alongside the knife mounting bolt so as to properly orient the shield and keep the shield from rotating when the mounting bolt nut is being screwed on or off. In the case of the second embodiment, the crop guide vane is also provided with a locating lug that mates with hole provided in the disc.

Rotary mower cutter disc having self-cleaning knife mount shield

A harvester platform is suspended from the implement main frame by a linkage including a pair of lower transversely spaced links each having rear and front ends respectively pivotally attached to the main frame and the platform. Associated with each lower suspension link is a hydraulic float cylinder coupled between the main frame and the associated link so as to exert a lifting force on the link. The amount of lifting force exerted by each float cylinder may be varied by adjusting the location of the anchor pin connecting the cylinder to the main frame through means of an adjustable bracket that carries the anchor pin. Side-to-side float balance of the platform is achieved through properly adjusting the anchor pin locations so that the float cylinder at the heavier end of the platform exerts a greater lifting force than the float cylinder at the lighter end of the platform.

Windrower platform side-to-side float balance adjustment

A rotary cutterbar housing is constructed of a plurality of modules mounted in side-to-side relationship with the opposite sides of each module being planar and being secured in face-to-face engagement. A spur gear train is located within the housing and includes at least one gear in each module which is meshed with a spur gear of an adjacent module so that portions of the teeth of the spur gear associated with one of the modules extends a short distance into the other module, and vice-versa. The opposite sides of the modules are parallel to each other and are inclined relative to vertical such that a module between two other modules can be unbolted from them and removed without requiring the other modules to be moved in order to provide clearance for the protruding portions of the gear teeth.

Rotary cutterbar housing modules having angled sides

A mower-conditioner has a header equipped with a rotary cutterbar for severing crop and directing it to a crop conditioner spanning a crop discharge opening centered rearwardly of the cutterbar and having a width some-what less than the length of the cutterbar. The cutter discs at the extreme outer ends of the cutterbar are equipped with upright, crop converging drums. For shorter cutterbars, paddles are mounted only to the tops of the cutter discs at the extreme outer ends of the cutterbars for operating in conjunction with the converging drums to move cut crop inwardly and rearwardly to the crop conditioner. For cutterbars of an intermediate length, paddles are also provided on the pair of discs respectively adjacent the discs at the extreme outer ends of the cutterbar and for cutterbars having a longer length, short crop converging drums are mounted to these adjacent discs.

Growing community of inventors

Ottumwa, IA, United States of America

Michael James Mellin