Deere & Company

Virgil Dean Haverdink

Timothy Arthur Deutsch

Michael Lee Pearson

Kevin Jacob Goering

Jesse D Haecker

Steve A Junge

Jason Daniel Wattonville

Harold R Lindstrom

Fred C Livesay, Jr

John E Maust, Jr

Henry J Landry, Jr

Maurice Vincent Salz

Wrapped cotton bales transported from a cotton harvest area to a receiver at the gin are moved intact to a position generally above a receiver upstream of the ginning equipment. As the bales are supported and conveyed, knife or similar cutting structure severs a portion of the wrap allowing egress of the cotton from the wrap into the receiver. Wrap removal structure prevents the wrap from entering the ginning equipment. In one embodiment of the invention, the wrap is conveyed to a wrap processor after the cotton falls into the receiver. The bale handler can include transversely adjustable cantilever supports to tension wrap for efficient cutting.

Seed cotton handling system

A cotton harvester row unit having discharge door structure includes first and second high pressure air outlets offset in the fore-and-aft direction from each other. A first vertical tube is connected to an upper air supply conduit and extends downwardly and opens rearwardly near the front of the unit to direct air towards the door structure outlet. A second vertical tube which extends downwardly near the rear of the unit and opens towards the outlet is connected to the air supply conduit to direct a sweeping blast of air towards the outlet near the floor of the door structure where plugging is a problem.

Cotton harvester row unit air sweep

Cotton receiving structure includes a receptacle supported on a wheeled frame and a floor conveyor moving cotton towards an upright set of fingered rotors which feed the cotton into an upright hopper. The fed cotton is directed into a baler mounted on the frame for forming and wrapping. The compact wrapped bale is discharged from the baler and loaded onto a transport device using conventional bale handling equipment such as a tractor-mounted loader. The baler can be mounted directly on the frame with the receptacle and the hopper for movement as a unit to the desired field location for receiving cotton from the harvester basket. In an alternate embodiment, the baler can be a separate unit towed behind or towed independently of the frame and the receiver and hopper.

Cotton processing system and method of operation

An on-board cotton harvester baling system includes first and second balers mounted side-by-side on the frame of a cotton harvester adjacent a single accumulator that extends generally the width of the balers. One of two sets of metering rollers located at the bottom of the accumulator is selectively activated to feed cotton to the first baler. A reversible auger extending the width of the accumulator moves cotton withing the accumulator towards the activated set of metering rolls to assure a continued supply of material for the operating baler. When the first bale is fully formed, the opposite set of metering rolls and the second baler are activated, and the auger is reversed. The completed bale can be easily unloaded while the second baler operates so that cotton harvester operation.

Cotton harvester with two bale chambers

A harvester includes an integral two-section baling device with the section movement designed to provide both a bale discharge function and a transport height reduction function. In one embodiment, one section of the device includes rollers which follow a downwardly sloped ramp as the sections are opened relative to each other. The sloped ramped additionally serves as a portion of a finished bale handler and bale support. In a second embodiment, an additional hydraulic cylinder system controls the downward movement of the opened sections towards the transport position. Existing baler functions are advantageously utilized to provide transport height reduction with a minimal amount of additional hardware, and the operator can switch between transport and operational modes quickly and easily.

Harvester with bale forming chamber having a transport mode

Cotton accumulator structure includes an upright storage area supported behind the cab of a cotton harvester. A screened upper cover area is supported above the storage area by hydraulic cylinders which move the cover between a raised harvest position and a lowered storage position for reduced transport height. As harvested material is directed through ducts towards the storage area, debris can exit through the screened cover. The lower end of the storage area includes an opening for egress of the cotton. Several shafts having timed projections are journalled for rotation adjacent the opening about parallel axes. The shafts, when not rotating, generally close the lower end and prevent cotton from falling through the opening. To meter the cotton from the storage area to an operating on-board processor, a drive is activated to rotate the shafts. Preferably, the shafts are driven in counter-rotating fashion so that a given shaft rotates in the opposite direction from the next adjacent shaft, and projections on the shaft pull cotton from the storage area. Cotton is uniformly distributed from the storage area onto a belt extending from the processor which preferably is part of a compacting system on a baler or module builder located downstream of the storage area opening. The storage area facilitates continued harvesting during processor unloading and allows the processor to run only as needed to periodically unload the storage area.

Cotton harvester with accumulator

Locking structure for a harvester basket having an upper basket portion telescopingly received within a lower basket portion. Channel lock-ups are located at three of the four corners of the basket. Each lock-up includes two channels, one channel having a length equal to the extension length of the upper basket portion and the other half that length. The two channels are connected together by a pivot pin in the middle of the long channel. One end of the long channel is connected by a pivot pin to the basket and one end of the short channel is connected by a pivot pin to the top of the upper basket portion. As the upper basket portion is raised or lowered, the channels pivot about the middle of the long channel. Approaching the raised position, the upper portion of the long channel may be used as a lever to urge the upper basket to the final extended position. The upper channel portion is received against the upper portion of the short channel, and a quick-lock pin is inserted through the upper ends of the channels adjacent the upper edge of the basket to secure the basket in the telescoped position.

Cotton basket extension latch

Cotton suction doors for a cotton picker are rotationally molded from cross-linked polyethylene. Support and guide structure automatically direct the door structure to the operating position alongside the discharge openings in the row unit. The door structure includes two individual compartment structures which are movable in sequence and interlock with each other and with nozzle structure and duct structure to provide a compact and lightweight arrangement which is easy to attach to and remove from the row unit.

Molded cotton door and mounting structure therefor

In a seeding implement, an opener assembly including a compact, arc-shaped opener with a point supported below the surface of the ground during the field-working operation to prevent hairpinning of trash and allow high-speed seeding. The compact configuration reduces variations in seed placement and minimizes side bend forces. The nose configuration of the opener limits the amount of soil that is lifted and thrown to accommodate narrow row spacings. A notched structure is removably mounted on the boot standard of the assembly and the opener is attached to the structure with a single pin. The support structure bears substantially all the loading on the opener during operation and provides convenient mounting and removal of the opener.

Opener assembly including a compact, arc-shaped opener

An improved root crop harvester having a narrow and compact processing chassis adapted to simply and easily receive header assemblies of differing capacities. The header assemblies include a transverse roll conveyor for gathering roots received from the digger wheels into a stream for discharge through a central opening in the transverse conveyor to a fore-and-aft extending roll conveyor carried by the processing chassis. The fore-and-aft roll conveyor is inclined upwardly from front to rear to increase the scrubbing and tumbling action and is also provided with a reversing roll section at its rearward end to discharge the roots to the side. The fore-and-aft conveyor is also sloped across its width at its rearward end to aid in discharging roots transversely to the roll conveyor length. The conveyors on the processing chassis are carried between the support wheels to reduce side drafts, minimize wheel slippage in wet field conditions and improve transport maneuverability.

Root crop harvester

A roll conveyor having paired counter-rotating grab rolls includes a reversing roll section on one grab roll for discharging material conveyed along it perpendicularly to the axes of rotation of the paired rolls. One roll of each pair is composed of separate conveying and discharge or reversing sections that are rotatable about a common axes and in opposing directions. The reversing section is provided at one end of the roll conveyor and cooperates with the other rolls at that end to tumble material transversely from the conveyor. The non-reversing rolls adjacent the reversing section are further provided with helical flightings of opposite hand that meet midway along the reversing section to gather material for sideways discharge.

Material conveyor

A conveyor cleaning mechanism is provided for a root crop harvester utilizing an annular root elevating conveyor. Rotatable stripper wheels project between circular rib members which comprise the root elevating conveyor and eject roots, rocks, mud and foreign materials wedged therebetween.

Cleaner for root crop harvester conveyor

A root crop harvester having an annular root elevating conveyor supported for rotation about a horizontal axis and for elevating mud laden roots, a retaining mechanism to contain roots being elevated in the conveyor and a cleaning mechanism for removing mud and foreign materials from the elevating conveyor.

A foldable multiple sectioned farm implement having a center section, side sections that fold inwardly and upwardly so that the center of gravity of the folded sections is inboard of the respective folding pivotal axis, and biasing structure which acts to unfold the side sections by forcing the respective center of gravity of each folded section outwardly of its respective pivotal axis. The biasing structure is mounted on a brace member secured to the center section to engage the side sections when folded inwardly and upwardly. Included with the biasing structure are support mounts positioned on each end of the brace member, each of which slidably supports a spring biased rod. Each rod contacts a side section to bias it outwardly by the spring bias acting thereon.

Growing community of inventors

Ankeny, IA, United States of America

Virgil Dean Haverdink