Wide cut rotary header having crop conveying slinger

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016183455-A1
Application number	US-201514968270-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 14, 2015
Priority date	Dec 30, 2014
Publication date	Jun 30, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A harvesting header has a crop conveying element fixed to an outboard cutter of a cutter bed. The crop conveying element includes at least one slinger attached to an upstanding spacer to space the slinger apart from a top wall of the cutter. The slinger includes a flat disc with a plurality of lobes extending outwardly from a central portion thereof and the spacer is shorter than impeller such that a top extremity of the slinger is spaced below an upper level of an outer impeller. The spacer is also smaller in diameter than the outer impeller so as to provide a space below the slinger allow flow of the crop material over the second outboard cutter, the space between the top wall of the cutter and the slinger being at least half of the height between a lower disc member and upper stationary grass ring of the outer impeller.

First claim

1 . A harvesting header comprising:
a set of centrally disposed conditioner rolls comprising conditioning structure to condition crop; a rotary cutter bed comprising:
a plurality of rotary cutters extending across the path of travel of the header to define a cutting plane, each cutter being rotatable about an upright axis, the conditioner rolls being behind the cutter bed to condition crop cut by the rotary cutter bed, wherein the plurality of rotary cutters comprises a set of inboard cutters disposed inboard of the lateral limits of the conditioning structure on conditioner rolls and a set of outboard cutters on either side of the conditioner rolls disposed outboard of the conditioning structure on conditioner rolls, wherein the set of outboard cutters on each side of the cutter bed comprises an outermost outboard cutter and a second outboard cutter adjacent the outermost outboard cutter,
an outer impeller fixed to the outermost outboard cutter for rotation therewith to convey cut crop material laterally inwardly toward the center of the header, the outer impeller having a lower disc member forming the bottom of an impeller cage and an upper stationary grass ring;
an intermediate impeller located between the axes of rotation of said two outboard cutters, wherein the intermediate cage-like impeller is suspended on the harvesting header above the cutting plane and not fixed to any of the cutters and rotates in the same direction as the outboard impeller; and
a crop conveying element fixed to the second outboard cutter for rotation therewith, the crop conveying element comprising at least one slinger attached to an upstanding spacer to space the slinger apart from a top wall of the second outboard cutter, wherein the slinger comprises a flat disc with a plurality of lobes extending outwardly from a central portion thereof and wherein the spacer is shorter than impeller such that a top extremity of the slinger is spaced below an upper level of the outer impeller, and wherein the spacer is smaller in diameter than the outer impeller so as to provide a space below the slinger allow flow of the crop material over the second outboard cutter, said space between the top wall of the cutter and the slinger being at least half of the height between the lower disc and upper stationary grass ring of the outer impeller.

2 . The harvesting header of claim 1 wherein the second set of outboard cutters comprises a pair of outboard cutters on each side of the conditioner rolls.

3 . The harvesting header of claim 1 wherein a bottom extremity of the intermediate impeller is spaced a short distance above the cutting plane of the cutters.

4 . The harvesting header of claim 1 wherein the outboard impeller is formed with lower, middle and upper discs.

5 . The harvesting header of claim 1 wherein the crop conveying element comprises two slingers attached to the spacer, one slinger spaced below the other slinger, wherein both slingers are positioned in the upper portion of the spacer so as to preserve the crop-passing space between the lower-most slinger and the inner outboard cutter.

6 . The harvesting header of claim 1 wherein the slinger comprises four lobes positioned equidistant around the circumference of the slinger.

7 . The harvesting header of claim 1 wherein the slinger is positioned above this mid-height of the outer impeller.

Assignees

• Agco Corp

Inventors

• Pruitt Martin E
• Bollinger Shane

Classifications

• A01D34/664

  Disc cutter bars · CPC title

• A01D34/668 Primary

  rotating · CPC title

• A01D43/10

  with means for crushing or bruising the mown crop · CPC title

• A01D82/02

  Rollers for crop conditioners · CPC title

• A01D2101/00

  Lawn-mowers · CPC title