Feeding arrangement for an axial flow rotary separator

Abstract

In a combine harvester having a twin rotor axial flow rotary separator with side-by-side separator portions downstream of a conventional threshing cylinder and concave, crop material is guided by an overhead beater and guide plate into the overhead triangular receiving zone of a casing infeed portion disposed between the separator casings and the threshing cylinder. The triangular opening has, as its base, the transverse beater and for its isosceles sides, converging diagonal or helical edges of the upper semi-cylindrical truncated portion of an infeed casing. The rotors are contra-rotating in a direction such that incoming material is carried downwards into a bite between the rotors and then propelled around a semi-cylindrical lower half of the infeed casing to the outer walls of the casing where continued upward and inward motion is controlled by generally helical guide surfaces so that the material continues in a spiral path downstream within the infeed casing and then into the separator casing proper. Upstream increased diameter paddle-like portions of the respective side-by side rotors reach towards the upstream edge of a center divider wall of the infeed casing and cooperate with that edge and each other to divide incoming material evenly into the respective rotor casings.