Patent Application
20240389508
The disclosure generally relates to a harvesting machine having a cutter for cutting crop material, and an impeller style crop conditioning system.
It has been proposed numerous times in the past to operate the cutting unit of a combine harvester, when harvesting relatively long-stalked grains, in a so-called high-cutting mode in which the cutter bar of the cutting unit is guided at a relatively great height above the ground at a short distance below the ears, or to cut the ears from the stalks using a so-called stripper. This avoids the need to process straw through the combine harvester, which consumes a relatively great amount of energy. Those stalks which are not cut off by the cutter bars or which remain standing on the field after the stripping operation are cut off and/or comminuted means of suitable devices, so-called secondary or additional cutting units, and deposited on the field in a windrow (DD 117 584 A, DD 243 201 A, FR 2 794 608 A, DE 10 2005 025 319 A1, DE 10 2014 014 871 B3, U.S. Pat. No. 9,788,486 B2) or so as to be distributed across the entire cutting width of the combine harvester (DD 117 584 A, DD 10 896 A, DD 135 029 A, DD 243 201 A, DE 24 18 995 A1, DE 43 24 812 A, DE 43 24 813 C, DE 85 24 124 U, EP 1 378 159 A, EP 1 483 953 A, FR 1 371 068 A, DE 10 2005 025 319 A1, DE 10 2013 107 148 A1, DE 10 2014 014 871 B3, U.S. Pat. No. 9,788,486 B2).
In the references, the additional cutting units extend over the entire width of the harvesting header, that is to say also under the center of the harvesting header, to the rear side of which the feeder house is coupled. This has the disadvantage that the additional cutting unit must be dimensioned to have a height small enough that it can be located underneath the feeder house. Furthermore, in the case of lodged cereal crops, the harvesting header cannot be lowered further than is allowed by the additional cutting unit, and ultimately only very little non-grain material (in particular straw) passes through the combine harvester. This non-grain material DEE05-41117 however has the effect of lowering the aggressiveness of the threshing and separating devices and thus reducing damage to the grain during the threshing and separating operations.
Harvesting machines that may be coupled to an agricultural machine, and which are used to cut and condition crop material, such as but not limited to hay and forage, are also known. The harvesting machine may be attached to a forward end of the agricultural machine, such as a windrower, which pushes the harvesting machine. In other embodiments, the harvesting machine may be attached to a rearward end of the agricultural machine, such as a tractor, which pulls the harvesting machine. Such harvesting machines may be referred to as a mower conditioner.
The mower conditioner includes the cutter and a crop conditioning system that conditions the cut crop material. As used herein, “crop conditioning” or “conditioned crop material” includes processing the cut crop material to bend, crimp, and/or crack open stem and stalk portions of the cut crop material, and at least partially remove a wax material from the cut crop material, for the purpose of releasing moisture from the cut crop material and reducing dry-down time of the crop material. Once the crop conditioning system has conditioned the cut crop material, a swathboard or discharge hood may at least partially form the crop material into a swath having a desired width and/or depth. The crop conditioning system may include, for example, an impeller style conditioning system including a conveyor rotor having a plurality of tines or drivers pivotably coupled to an exterior surface of the conveyor rotor. The cut crop material passes between a discharge hood and the conveyor rotor, with the drivers abrading the crop material against the discharge hood to crimp and scrape the crop material to condition the crop material and reduce dry-down time.
A harvesting machine is provided. The harvesting machine includes a frame structure. A cutter is coupled to the frame structure. The cutter is operable to cut standing crop material. A conveyor rotor is rotatably mounted to the frame structure for rotation about a rotor axis. The conveyor includes a plurality of drivers mounted to an exterior surface of the conveyor rotor. A discharge hood is mounted to the frame structure above the conveyor rotor. The conveyor rotor is configured for rotation about the rotor axis in a first rotational direction for moving crop material over the conveyor rotor, between the discharge hood and the conveyor rotor, for conditioning the crop material. The conveyor rotor is configured for rotation about the rotor axis in a second rotational direction, opposite the first rotational direction, for moving the crop material under the conveyor rotor for cutting the crop material.
In one aspect of the disclosure, each of the plurality of drivers includes a first edge that presents a first leading edge when the conveyor rotor rotates about the rotor axis in the first rotational direction, and may further include a second edge that presents a second leading edge when the conveyor rotor rotates about the rotor axis in the second rotational direction. The first edge of each of the plurality of drivers may be formed to define a non-cutting edge, i.e., a dull edge, for conditioning the crop material. The second edge of each of the plurality of drivers may be formed to define a cutting edge, i.e., a knife edge, for cutting the crop material.
In one aspect of the disclosure, each of the plurality of drivers may include a generally planar or straight configuration. However, in other implementations, each of the plurality of drivers may include a “Y” shaped configuration having a base portion mounted to the conveyor rotor, a first branch portion and a second branch portion each extending outward from the base portion to respective distal ends.
In one aspect of the disclosure, the harvesting machine may include a plurality of counterpart blades. Each of the plurality of counterpart blades may be mounted to the frame structure and positioned to cooperate with a respective one of the plurality of drivers for cutting the crop material.
In one implementation, each of the plurality of counterpart blades is mounted proximate a lower half of the conveyor rotor for cooperating with the respective second edge of the respective plurality of drivers when the drivers are rotating in the second rotational direction.
In another implementation, each of the plurality of counterpart blades may be mounted proximate an upper half of the conveyor rotor for cooperating with the respective first edge of the respective plurality of drivers when the drivers are rotating in the first rotational direction. When the plurality of counterpart blades are mounted proximate the upper half of the conveyor rotor, each of the plurality of counterpart blades may moveable relative to the frame structure between a retracted position and a deployed position. When the plurality of counterpart blades are disposed in the retracted position, the plurality of counterpart blades are moved out of the flow of the crop material and disengaged from the plurality of drivers, whereby the plurality of drivers and the discharge hood may cooperate to condition the crop material. When the plurality of counterpart blades are disposed in the deployed position, the plurality of counterpart blades positioned within the flow of the crop material and are engaged with the plurality of drivers for cutting the crop material.
Accordingly, the harvesting machine described herein may be implemented as a mower conditioner implement that is configurable to selectively condition cut crop material, or chop the crop material into smaller pieces for distribution across a wide area.
The above features and advantages and other features and advantages of the present teachings are readily apparent from the following detailed description of the best modes for carrying out the teachings when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Those having ordinary skill in the art will recognize that terms such as “above,” “below,” “upward,” “downward,” “top,” “bottom,” etc., are used descriptively for the figures, and do not represent limitations on the scope of the disclosure, as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, the teachings may be described herein in terms of functional and/or logical block components and/or various processing steps. It should be realized that such block components may be comprised of any number of hardware, software, and/or firmware components configured to perform the specified functions.
The terms “forward”, “rearward”, “left”, and “right”, when used in connection with a moveable implement and/or components thereof are usually determined with reference to the direction of travel during operation, but should not be construed as limiting. The terms “longitudinal” and “transverse” are usually determined with reference to the fore-and-aft direction of the implement relative to the direction of travel during operation, and should also not be construed as limiting.
Terms of degree, such as “generally”, “substantially” or “approximately” are understood by those of ordinary skill to refer to reasonable ranges outside of a given value or orientation, for example, general tolerances or positional relationships associated with manufacturing, assembly, and use of the described embodiments.
As used herein, “e.g.” is utilized to non-exhaustively list examples, and carries the same meaning as alternative illustrative phrases such as “including,” “including, but not limited to,” and “including without limitation.” As used herein, unless otherwise limited or modified, lists with elements that are separated by conjunctive terms (e.g., “and”) and that are also preceded by the phrase “one or more of,” “at least one of,” “at least,” or a like phrase, indicate configurations or arrangements that potentially include individual elements of the list, or any combination thereof. For example, “at least one of A, B, and C” and “one or more of A, B, and C” each indicate the possibility of only A, only B, only C, or any combination of two or more of A, B, and C (A and B; A and C; B and C; or A, B, and C). As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Further, “comprises,” “includes,” and like phrases are intended to specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the novel disclosure, reference will now be made to the implementations described herein and illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the novel disclosure is thereby intended, such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated devices and methods, and such further applications of the principles of the novel disclosure as illustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the novel disclosure relates.
At the front end region of the combine harvester 10, a harvesting header 18 is removably attached to a feeder house 20 in order, during harvesting operation, to harvest the ears or grains of crops 76 in the form of cereals or other threshable straw crops from the field and feed these upward and rearward through the feeder house 20 (which is pivotable about the axis of rotation of an upper diverting roller 71 of the feeder house 20, and thus height-adjustable, by means of a cylinder 69) to an axial threshing unit 22. The mixture passing through threshing concaves and gratings in the axial threshing unit 22 and containing grains and contaminants passes into a cleaning device 26. Cereal cleaned by the cleaning device 26 is fed by means of a grain screw 28 to a grain elevator 30, which conveys said cereal into a grain tank 32. The cleaned cereal from the grain tank 32 can be discharged through a discharge system having a transverse screw 34 and having a discharge conveyor designed as a screw conveyor assembly 36. The crop residues output by the axial threshing unit 22 are fed by means of a conveyor drum 40 to a straw chopper 42, which comminutes said crop residues and spreads them over the field over the width of the cutting unit 18. The abovementioned systems are driven by means of a combustion engine and are monitored and controlled by an operator from a driver's cab 38. The illustrated axial threshing unit 22 having one or more axial threshing and separating rotors is just one exemplary implementation, and could be substituted for example by a tangential threshing unit of one or more threshing drums and downstream straw walkers or separating rotor(s).
The harvesting header 18 is shown in
The harvesting device 46 of the harvesting header 18 comprises a so-called stripper 56 which, in the implementation illustrated in
The base 70 may be fastened passively, that is to say rigidly and immovably, to the frame structure 44, as shown in the figures, or may be designed as a driven conveyor belt or any other type of conveyor that conveys the crop rearward in an overshot movement to the rear dispensing opening 84.
As shown in
The conveyor rotors 74, chopping rotors 64 and discharge hoods 66 are arranged only in the left-hand and right-hand portions 52, 54 of the harvesting header 18, not in the central portion 50. The stalks of the crop that stand in the central portion 50 are thus cut off by the central region of the cutter 62 (which is functionally part of the harvesting device 46) that is arranged there, and said stalks pass directly onto the base 70, onto which the ears of the crop 76 that enter over the entire width of the harvesting header 18 are also transferred. The stalks that enter in the central portion 50 thus pass through the feeder house 20 and the combine harvester 10, and at the rear end thereof, in a windrowing mode, are led past the straw chopper 42 and are deposited as a windrow on the field, or in a chopping mode, are led through the straw chopper 42 and are spread in the form of chopped material (preferably only) over the width of the central portion 50 of the harvesting header 18 by means of spreading devices (not shown in
In a further implementation that is not shown, the discharge hoods 66 may be replaced by transverse conveyor belts which convey the stalks in a transverse direction and deposit them at one of the locations mentioned in the previous paragraph.
As shown in
In the implementation in
Since crops 76 entering the central portion 50 are cut off by that part of the cutter 62 which is arranged there, it is in principle not necessary for a stripper 56 to be provided in the central portion 50 of the harvesting header 18. In the implementation of
It is also to be noted that the drive of the stripper 56, of the transverse conveyor devices 68, of the cutter 62 and of the conveyor rotors 74 and chopping rotors 64 may be derived from the feeder house 20 via mechanical drivetrains, in a manner known per se. When, for example, the chopping rotors 64 are not in use in the windrowing mode of
Furthermore, the strippers 56 could be substituted by conventional cutter bars, operating in a high-cutting mode, and reels (see for example DE 10 2005 025 319 A1). Analogously to
The fact that the stalks of the crop 76 entering the central portion 50 are also taken into the feeder house 20 and thus into the combine harvester 10 consequently clearly has numerous advantages. This prevents the threshing and separating devices of the axial threshing unit 22 (or of a tangential threshing unit with downstream separating rotors or straw walkers) from exerting too aggressive an action on the grains of the crop, because it is ensured that a certain proportion of stalks (straw) is conveyed with said grains, which can make the action of the threshing and separating device less aggressive to a certain extent. The need to provide the additional cutting unit 48 underneath the feeder house 20 is also eliminated, which improves the design possibilities for the additional cutting unit 48, and the feeder house 20 can also be lowered to a relatively great extent, thus allowing a stripper 56 to be used to pick up even lodged cereal crops.
As noted above, the harvesting machine may be configured differently than the example implementation of the combine harvester 10 described above. For example, referring to
As described above with reference to the combine harvester 10, the mower conditioner 110 includes a frame structure 44 configured to support the various components of the mower conditioner 110. The mower conditioner 110 includes the cutter 62 coupled to the frame structure 44 and operable to cut standing crop material. The conveyor rotor 74 is rotatable about a rotor axis 112. The plurality of drivers 82 are mounted to an exterior surface 114 of the conveyor rotor 74. The drivers 82 may be pivotably mounted to the conveyor rotor 74 so as to extend radially outward due to centrifugal forces during rotation, yet be able to pivot relative to the conveyor rotor 74 in response to contacting an object. The discharge hood 66 is mounted to the frame structure 44 above the conveyor rotor 74.
Referring to
It should be appreciated and understood by those skilled in the art that conditioning crop material does not include chopping or cutting the crop material into smaller pieces. Rather, conditioning the crop material generally includes crimping and/or cracking open stem and stalk portions of the cut crop material, and at least partially removing an exterior wax material from the cut stems and stalks of the crop material, for the purpose of releasing moisture from the cut crop material and reducing dry-down time of the crop material. As such, it should be appreciated that conditioning the crop material is a different process then cutting or chopping the crop material, which is performed to cut the stems and stalk portions of the crop material into smaller pieces, i.e., reduce the length of the stems and stalks of the crop material.
In one aspect of the disclosure, referring to
Referring to
Referring to
When the drivers 82 are implemented and configured to include a straight, planar shape, such as shown in
As shown in
In an alternative implementation, referring to
The detailed description and the drawings or figures are supportive and descriptive of the disclosure, but the scope of the disclosure is defined solely by the claims. While some of the best modes and other embodiments for carrying out the claimed teachings have been described in detail, various alternative designs and embodiments exist for practicing the disclosure defined in the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102023107613.2 | Mar 2023 | DE | national |
This application is a Continuation-In-Part of and claims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/417,355, filed on Jan. 19, 2024, which claims the benefit of German patent application DE102023107613.2, filed on Mar. 27, 2023, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 18417355 | Jan 2024 | US |
| Child | 18794180 | US |
