Hay & Forage Industries

Agco Corporation

Hesston Corporation

Acco Corporation

Michael L O'Halloran

Cecil L Case

Martin E Pruitt

Dwight E Nickel

Ronald K Guinn

Kurt Graber

David P Fritz

Raymond F Schmitt

James W Schroeder

Brent Coppock

As crop materials are severed from the field, they pass through two successive pairs of counter-rotating conditioning rolls before being returned to the ground. The front rolls are preferably ribbed, metal rolls wherein the ribs of one roll are intermeshed with those of the other roll so as to crimp the stems of the crop materials as they pass between the rolls. The hard metal ribs also aggressively feed the materials rearwardly into the second set of rolls, which are preferably compressive surface rolls made of rubber or the like and provided with wide, intermeshed bars about their periphery. The tension mechanism for the rolls includes single-acting hydraulic cylinders that squeeze the rolls together to the extent permitted by adjustable stop structure used to set gaps between the rolls. An accumulator is hydraulically connected to the hydraulic cylinders for cushioning the tension mechanism.

Crop-conditioning apparatus having hydraulic tension mechanism

As crop materials are severed from the field, they pass through two successive pairs of counter-rotating conditioning rolls before being returned to the ground. The front rolls are preferably ribbed, metal rolls wherein the ribs of one roll are intermeshed with those of the other roll so as to crimp the stems of the crop materials as they pass between the rolls. The hard metal ribs also aggressively feed the materials rearwardly into the second set of rolls, which are preferably compressive surface rolls made of rubber or the like and provided with wide, intermeshed bars about their periphery. The tension mechanism for the rolls includes single-acting hydraulic cylinders that squeeze the rolls together to the extent permitted by adjustable stop structure used to set gaps between the rolls. In typical operations, the gap between the rear rolls is set to be considerably smaller than the gap between the front rolls. Great flexibility in the degree of conditioning experienced by the crop materials is achieved by the nature of the rolls and the ease with which roll pressure and spacing can be adjusted.

Apparatus and method for conditioning crop materials

A crop harvester of the rotary cutter bed type has a series of rotary cutters extending across the path of travel of the machine and rotatable about individual upright axes. The cutter bed extends in opposite directions beyond the ends of a central discharge opening to the conditioner rolls. Cutters located outboard of the opening direct cut crop materials along the front of the cutter bed until the opposite extremities of the discharge openings are reached, whereupon pairs of cooperating, oppositely rotating cutters in front of the opening function to propel the crop material rearwardly with the main flow of cut materials. Alternative forms of conveying means are provided in association with the outboard cutters for moving the cut crop centrally without the use of augers or other additional gathering mechanism behind the row of cutters.

Rotary cutter bed harvester with non-auger conveying means for outboard cutters

A harvester which uses a rotary style cutter bed has a series of rotary cutters extending across the path of travel of the machine and rotatable about individual upright axes. Part of the cutter bed is a flat gear case containing a train of intermeshed spur gears that serve to distribute power between the cutters above the gear train. Each end of the gear case has a hollow, gearless extension welded thereto which supports at least one additional outboard cutter that receives its driving power exteriorally of the gear case. One embodiment uses a mechanical drive to bring power to the upright shaft of the cutter having the first spur gear so that the cutters with gears receive all their power from the driven cutter. The outboard cutters not having gears are driven by exterior, over-the-top drive mechanism coupled with the shafts of the first and last geared cutters, such drive mechanism alternatively taking the form of timing belts with timing sheaves, chains and sprockets, gear box and universal joint couplings or a spur gear train. As an alternative to a mechanical drive, the cutter bar may utilize a pair of hydraulic motors coupled with the shafts of the first and last cutters having gears. All of the gears in the gear case remain positively enmeshed with one another in the gear train, so that the two hydraulic motors share the total load of driving the cutter bed and such loading is balanced between the two hydraulic motors, prolonging the useful life of the gears and other drive components. The added on, outboard cutters are driven over the top using timing belts, timing sheaves, universal couplings or a spur gear train.

Wide cut harvester having rotary cutter bed

A mower conditioner includes a rotary style cutter bed and a pair of laterally extending crop conditioning rolls spaced rearwardly from the cutter bed. Crop flow is improved in the machine by a laterally extending conveying roller located between the cutter bed and the nip defined by the conditioning rolls. In particular, the conveying outer roller serves to lift cut crop up from the cutter bed and convey the crop rearwardly to the nip. This ensures that the cut crop moves in a steady stream from the cutter bed to the conditioning rolls, and thereby reduces the risk of cut crop being thrown forwardly by the cutters. A downwardly open area is preferably defined between the conveying roller and the cutter bed to provide a space through which dirt and debris can drop out of the machine. The conveying roller preferably has a rotational axis that is lower than the rotational axis of the lower conditioning roll and generally vertically aligned with the substantially planar cutting zone defined by the cutter bed.

Rotary mower conditioner having improved cut crop flow

Method and apparatus for conditioning crop materials

A mower conditioner includes a rotary style cutter bed and a pair of laterally extending crop conditioning rolls spaced rearwardly from the cutter bed. Crop flow is improved in the machine by a laterally extending conveying roller located between the cutter bed and the nip defined by the conditioning rolls. In particular, the conveying roller serves to lift cut crop up from the cutter bed and convey the crop rearwardly to the nip. This ensures that the cut crop moves in a steady stream from the cutter bed to the conditioning rolls, and thereby reduces the risk of cut crop being thrown forwardly by the cutters. A downwardly open area is preferably defined between the conveying roller and the cutter bed to provide a space through which dirt and debris can drop out of the machine. The conveying roller preferably has a rotational axis that is lower than the rotational axis of the lower conditioning roll and generally vertically aligned with the substantially planar cutting zone defined by the cutter bed.

A crop harvesting header includes a wide cutter for severing crop across a relatively large cutting width, and framework defining a discharge opening spaced rearwardly from the cutter. The discharge opening has a width that is less than the cutting width such that crop severed laterally outboard of the discharge opening by the cutter must be conveyed inwardly before passing through the opening. At least one laterally extending, rotatable auger is located between the cutter and discharge opening for converging severed crop centrally from the areas located laterally outboard of the discharge opening and to project the crop through the opening when rotated. The header includes an auger support for rotatably supporting the auger between its opposite ends on the header framework so that the auger is capable of spanning the long distance corresponding to the large cutting width defined by the sickle bar.

Long span auger support apparatus for harvesting header

A self-propelled farm machine includes a rotatable air inlet screen assembly having a rotatable member and a surrounding contact surface with a positive seal therebetween. The preferred seal is composed of flexible, resilient material and includes a body portion circumscribing the rotatable member and in sealing engagement therewith, a disk-shaped skirt circumscribing the body portion and flexed into wiping engagement with the contact surface, and a transition section therebetween.

Rotating radiator screen for crop harvester

The windrower or other harvester has a hydraulic lift circuit for its header that includes a pair of double-acting cylinders which operate in concert to raise the header and provide a solid, lower limit for downward swinging of the header. The two cylinders are connected to one another in a master-slave relationship, and the slave cylinder has its return line normally blocked by a one-way check valve so that a body of fluid is trapped against the piston of the slave cylinder during field operations. This stabilizes the two cylinders to reduce header bounce.

Slave cylinder stabilizer for harvester header

Rotary cutter bed harvester with non-auger conveying means for outboard

A crop harvester is provided with a rotary type cutter bed in which a series of rotary cutters extend across the path of travel of the machine for rotation about individual upright axes. A hydraulic drive for the cutter bed includes a variable volume pump driven by the output shaft of an engine associated with the harvester. The operating circuit of the hydraulic drive pumps oil through the circuit at a certain rate of flow, depending upon the engine speed and the position of a swash plate within the pump. A control circuit communicating with the operating circuit is capable of sensing load in the operating circuit tending to lug down and reduce the speed of the engine, which would normally reduce the flow rate and hence the cutter speed. However, in response to detecting such increased load, the control circuit compensates by adjusting the position of the swash plate so as to correspondingly pump more oil at the lower engine speed, thus maintaining the cutter speed essentially constant.

Harvester with hydraulically driven, flow-compensated rotary cutter bed

The bearing assembly includes a synthetic resinous collar which circumscribes the tube and oscillates therewith against the inside of a metal bushing wedged within a metal housing that is bolted to the adjacent tine tube carrier arm of the reel. The bushing is constructed from a pair of generally semicircular half-sections that are abutted together to make a complete annulus when held within the housing, thereby permitting removal of the bushing from the tube by simply separating the two half-sections from one another after the housing has been slipped axially off the end of the bushing. A slit in one side of the collar permits opposed wall portions thereof to be spread apart so that the collar may likewise be removed from the tube in a transverse direction rather than requiring axial movement along the tube which would be obstructed by crop-engaging tines of the reel.

Tine tube bearing assembly for a harvesting reel

In a crop conditioner having a frame and first and second rolls each rotatable about an axis of rotation, a mounting assembly for the first roll includes a sub-assembly at each end of the first roll which permit the first roll to be pivoted relative to the second roll. Each sub-assembly has a mounting plate rotatably supporting one end of the first roll and supported on the frame for pivotal movement about a pivot axis which is generally parallel to and displaced from the axis of rotation of the first roll such that the axis of rotation of the first roll is movable relative to the axis of rotation of the second roll between a first position, a second position and a third position. The second and third positions of the first roll are progressively farther away from the axis of rotation of the second roll than the first position. A biasing force is exerted on the mounting plate and the first roll which acts in a direction generally toward the second roll, the biasing force has a magnitude which is less when the first roll is located between the second and third positions than when the first roll is located between the first and second positions.

Growing community of inventors

Hesston, KS, United States of America

Michael L O'Halloran