The present invention refers, more particularly, to an agricultural implement in the form of a wire cutting front for harvesting sugar cane, which cutting is performed at the time of harvest, next to the bases of the plants.
The present platform has means for the set to be used in two different ways:
a. the simplest way is by its direct coupling to a usual tractor and, in this case, the set forms a wire cutting front for at least two lanes of plants and also, in this case, the cut plants are thrown behind over the soil and organized in rows for later collecting; and
b. the second option for use of the set is more complete, i. e. it includes means for coupling itself to a usual self-propelled machine, also known as automotive, which characteristics vary, but it usually adds devices for receiving and processing cut canes as collected by the platform, performing at least three processing stages, especially fragmentation in billets (chopping), leaf removal (cleaning) and moving billets to pack them for appropriate transshipment or for any kind of cargo and transport vessel.
The platform at issue is also of the type having all its moving parts activated by hydraulic engines, having as a source of activation a usual hydraulic pump usually fixed to said tractor or self-propeller for processing the harvested cane.
As known, since the advent of the flex car, the sugar-alcohol field has benefited from a new cycle in sugar cane planting to produce fuel alcohol, not only to substitute petroleum due to the increase in international prices, but also for questions related to climate change, since ethanol is an alternative renewable, less polluting energy source. From the energy sources as used, sugar cane became an important energy matrix, overcoming hydraulic energy, just behind petroleum.
Obviously, not only the consumption of fuel alcohol has considerably increased sugar cane planting, but also the consumption of all other derivatives from such culture, especially: sugar, food and even its residues are used as an energy source, such as bagasse, which is used as fuel for boilers, cellulose production and feed for confined cattle.
Despite the economic benefits as presented by the expansion of the sugar-alcohol field, environmental impacts caused by burning have been a cause for worry, and, for that reason, there are already laws forbidding to burn the plants at the harvesting stage. Said laws, despite not having a deadline to come into force, have already become a tool enabling considerable changes in agricultural implements as used for harvesting sugar cane without the stage of burning its leaves.
Considering current law circumstances and targeting small and medium producers of products derived from sugar cane, the industrial field of agricultural implements has concentrated efforts to develop new machines for harvesting sugar cane without previous burning.
Obviously, the state of the art offers a range of machines for that purpose, such as taught by the documents: BR102014032269, BR112015031412, BR202014014302, BR202014014292, BR102014005942, BR102013016989, BR202013016074, BR202013013322, BR202013013145, BR102013010820, BR202012021829, BR202012020652, BR102012016510, BR102012013599, BR102012009691, BR102012007864, BR102012006658, BR112012031090, BR1107105, BR1107149, BR1106521, BR9101818, BR1102255, BR1003832, BR9000243, BR1000130, BR1000129, BR0905146, BR0905546, BR0902597, BR0901847, BR0900868, BR0900660, BR0924091, BR0803094, BR0804386, BR8801206, BR8800901, BR0800094, BR0718357, BR0709365, BR0603248, BR0601956, BR0602115, BR0602398, BR8600817, BR0505162, BR0504922, BR0505161, BR0504923, BR0504925, BR8400814, BR8400083, BR0302376, BR0201867, BR0106044, BR0105615, BR0105023, BR9904482, BR7900025, BR9802986, BR9702997, BR9704191, BR9704373, BR7502738, BR9500633, BR7500199, BR9400226, BR9303089, BR9303218, BR9204564, BR9204012, BR9206252, BR9102016, BR7100333, BR9001917, BR8903260, BR8706619, BR8703409, BR8406779, BR8406061, BR8401328, BR8304418, BR8204617, BR8202642, BR8202643, BR8006949, BR7805293, BR7905238, BR7901280, BR7805303, BR7802657, BR7705347, BR7702546, BR7700258, BR7607340, BR7604564, U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,679, U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,700, U.S. Pat. No. 6,272,820, U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,477, U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,969, U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,340, U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,797, U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,820, U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,716, U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,856, U.S. Pat. No. 5,379,577, U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,114, U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,533, U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,759, U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,904, U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,819, U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,216, U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,219, U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,110, U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,392, U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,662, U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,952, U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,174, U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,512, U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,824, U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,567, U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,896, U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,552, U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,142, U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,130, U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,129, U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,602, U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,244, U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,999, U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,826, U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,441, U.S. Pat. No. 4,407,111, U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,325, U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,947, U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,337, U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,775, U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,569, U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,344, U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,110, U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,098, U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,596, U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,047, U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,883, U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,365, U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,060, U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,809, U.S. Pat. No. 4,065,912, U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,996, U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,308, U.S. Pat. No. 3,952,482, U.S. Pat. No. 3,950,924, U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,307, ES440418, DE2536333, GB1427930, GB1424511 and AU2060976.
The field of harvesting machines for sugar cane is extremely variable, including different solutions for small, medium-sized and large farmers. Therefore, there are implements just to cut plants, others cutting and removing leaves, others adding complements to cut them into billets, others with resources to process residual straw, so that there are many variations, but one preponderant detail in said implements, be them large, medium-sized or small, is the fact that they perform cutting by rotating knives.
On the other hand, implements intended just for cutting are usually considerably troublesome and, besides using rotating cutting knives, they have not been especially developed for small, medium-sized and large producers.
An agricultural machine with a wire cutting system eliminating traditional rotating knives;
an agricultural harvesting machine with means for working coupled to a usual tractor, by using its mechanic power (TDP) converted into hydraulic power (pump) to activate different devices of the set, so that it may form a wire cutting front for at least two lanes of plants which are cut and thrown behind over the soil and organized in rows for later collecting and processing;
an agricultural harvesting machine, wherein the same means above allow for coupling the set to any self-propelled machine, also known as automotive, which characteristics vary, but it usually adds devices for receiving and processing cut canes as collected by the platform, performing at least three processing stages, especially fragmentation in billets (chopping), leaf removal (cleaning) and moving billets to pack them for appropriate transshipment or for any kind of cargo and transport vessel.
Another object of the invention is to provide an implement of the type having all its moving parts activated by hydraulic engines, having as a source of activation a usual hydraulic pump jointly working with said tractor or self-propeller for processing the harvested cane.
Another object of the invention is to provide a cutting system substituting traditional knives with just a special steel cable being the continuous cutting wire moved by pulleys, extending itself over the whole width of the platform, where it forms a substantially more efficient cutting system in comparison with the knives.
Another object of the invention is to provide means for the set to become modular, thus allowing its configuration to work with a cutting front liable to be determined to cover one, two or more planting lanes. Obviously, said versatility has been possible as a function of the core structure of the set, which may grow modularly in its width, and consequently the whole set may be sized to cut one, two or more planting lanes.
For better understanding of the present invention, its detailed description is subsequently presented with reference to the attached drawings.
According to these illustrations and their details, more particularly
Therefore, the platform is coupled to a tractor or self-propeller by means of its mouth structure (2), and thus, the whole device is displaced against two planting lanes, one lane for each inlet gap (E). Under this condition, the plants are reached by the usual lane dividers (4), which are rotating helical rollers turning in such a sense to separate interlaced canes between one lane and the other, allowing only the canes from the lane to be cut to be correctly guided towards the inlet gap (E) against the corresponding guiding sets (5) which, on the other hand, even before the cut, allow the plants to be sloped ahead until a given angle and, at that moment, the wire cutting device (3) cuts the bases of the plants, at which time they are cut down. On that moment, its cut edge is already directed to inside the platform, where it is pulled by the vertical pulling sets (6) and horizontal pulling sets (7). Cut plants are thrown behind and prepared in rows for later collecting. This situation occurs when the platform is operated on a usual tractor, but, if the set is coupled to a self-propeller, it receives the canes and performs other processing steps, such as: chopping into billets and cleaning (removal of leaves and other disposable parts).
The modular structure (1), shown in detail by
The mouth structure (2), as shown by
The cutting wire device (3) is shown in detail by
The traction pulleys (28A) and (28B) are equally assembled over rolling hubs (32) with the respective hydraulic engines (33), and also the pulley (28A) is fixedly assembled to the corresponding support formed by the rectangular frame (9) of the compartment (8C).
The traction pulley (28B) is assembled so to reciprocate with a single alternate movement, to keep the tension of the continuous cutting wire (27), and thus its rolling hub (32) is fixed to the edge of an “L”-shaped swing arm (34), which other edge is radially fixed to a rolling bearing (35) which, on the other hand, is located over a support (36) fixed to inside the frame (9) of the left structural case (8C) of the modular structure (1), including a hydraulic damper (37) which edges are hinged, respectively, to said “L”-shaped support (34) and to said modular structure (1). Under this condition, the continuous cutting wire (27) may suffer impacts which are neutralized by the floating effect of the traction pulley (28B) and the respective hydraulic damper (37).
The usual lane dividers (4) are shown in detail by
Both supports in the form of rectangular plates (41A and 41B) have their front edges interlinked by a hinged arm (43), also defining two hinged points (44) at the edges of said plates (41A and 41B), where they form hinged couplings for the respective parts of a laid down “V”-plate body (45), which sloped apex is turned frontwards and includes a lower sliding side (46) combined with an internal structure (47) and different external supports (48), the latter ones forming the assembly means for a pair of usual rotating lane-opener cylinders (49A) activated by the respective hydraulic engines (49B), turning in opposite senses, so that the canes from the lane to be cut may be guided towards the corresponding inlet space (E) between said lane dividers (4).
The vertical pulling set (6) is shown in detail by
Rotating units (53) for each inlet space (E) turn in opposite senses to align and guide cut canes inside the inlet space (E). The discs (54) force the canes to the center of the inlet space (E) and, at the same time, toothed rulers (56) work as jaws displacing the plants behind, towards horizontal pulling sets (7).
Horizontal pulling sets (7) are initially shown by
The pair of upper pulling rollers (61A) is floating and, for that purpose, their bearings (62A) are slidably located in oblong tears (65) cooperating for the set to be freely and automatically displaced below and above, defining self-regulation for passage according to the volume of cane pulled between said pulling rollers (61A) and (61B).
Concerning
Vertical pulling rollers (66B) have their edges with the respective bearings (69) and hydraulic engines (70) fixed to the modular structure (1) and below the crossbeams (14A) and (14B).
By observing
Vertical (6) and horizontal (7) pulling sets sum a quantity of pulling rollers allowing to form a true tunnel with rectangular section and variable height, wherein the plants are pulled behind and, from that point, if the set is assembled over a usual tractor, cut canes are thrown over the soil and organized in rows, so to be later collected, but, if the set is assembled over a self-propeller, it directly receives canes from the platform and makes a complementary process which, despite being able to vary, performs at least two further steps: chopping and cleaning, transforming canes into leaf-free billets, to then accumulate them for transshipment or for any transport vessel.
As stated, the platform at issue has been built to simultaneously cut two lanes of plants, but, keeping the same embodiment concept, it is possible to manufacture platforms with a larger number of modules, practically changing just the sizing of the structure (1), by increasing its modular parts to assemble a larger wiring cut device and increasing the number of other devices, which is a significant advantage for the process for manufacturing the set.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2016 007269 7 | Apr 2016 | BR | national |