Roll opener for a mower conditioner

Abstract

Roll opening apparatus for separating the crop conditioning rolls of a mower conditioner is presented. The mower conditioner is of the type wherein a wheel supported main frame has mounted thereto by pivotal linkage a transversely disposed header having a sickle spanning its forward edge, a rotary reel for rearwardly sweeping the crop cuttings across a platform, and an auger at the rear of the platform for delivering the crop cuttings to the nip of a pair of laterally extending upper and lower crop conditioning rolls. The lower conditioning roll is rotatably mounted to the header on a fixed axis. The upper conditioning roll is mounted on lever arms pivoted to the header and biased by tension springs to an operating position adjacent the lower roll. Each lever arm is fitted with a hydraulic cylinder mounted so that extension of its piston causes the upper conditioning roll to open against the force of the tension springs. The two roll lift cylinders are plumbed in parallel with a pair of hydraulic cylinders which raise the header to its transport position. All four hydraulic cylinders work from the same source of pressurized fluid. The component parameters are chosen such that on application of gradually increasing fluid pressure, the header will be fully raised to its transport position before roll separation commences.