Rotor housing assembly for a harvester

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9788491-B2
Application number	US-201414772298-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 6, 2014
Priority date	Mar 7, 2013
Publication date	Oct 17, 2017
Grant date	Oct 17, 2017

Abstract

A rotor housing assembly for a harvester has at least one cover plate forming part of a generally cylindrical shaped rotor housing, a central longitudinal axis, and an inner surface, which, when mounted, faces the central longitudinal axis and has a first radius, and one or more rotatable vanes which each are rotatably mounted on an inner surface of the cover plate facing the central longitudinal axis at a rotation point. The one or more rotatable vanes have a contact surface with the inner surface. The contact surface has a second radius that is larger than the first radius of the cover plate. The inner surface of the top cover plate, per rotatable vane, has a symmetrically curved shape such that, during a rotation of the respective vane, the contact surface of the vane with the inner surface of the cover plate substantially follows the shape of the inner surface.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A rotor housing assembly for a harvester, comprising
at least one cover plate having a generally curved shape, forming part of a generally cylindrical shaped rotor housing, said at least one cover plate including at least one top cover plate, said at least one top cover plate having a central longitudinal axis, and an outer surface and an inner surface, which, when mounted, said inner surface faces the central longitudinal axis, said inner surface including:
at least one first curved section having a first radius; and
at least one second curved section in the form of at least one symmetrically curved shape, said at least one symmetrically curved shape defining a spherical surface, and said at least one symmetrically curved shape having a radius; and

a vane system comprising at least one rotatable vane rotatably mounted along the at least one symmetrically curved shape of the inner surface of the at least one top cover plate at a rotation point, said at least one rotatable vane having a contact surface with the at least one symmetrically curved shape, said contact surface of said at least one rotatable vane having a second radius, said second radius is larger than said first radius of said at least one first curved section of said inner surface, such that, during rotation of the at least one rotatable vane, the contact surface of the at least one rotatable vane substantially follows the at least one symmetrically curved shape and remains in contact with the at least one symmetrically curved shape of the inner surface of the at least one top cover plate.

2. A rotor housing assembly according to claim 1 , wherein:
the at least one rotatable vane is rotatable around a rotation axis through the rotation point, and in that, when viewed in a direction along the rotation axis, at least one rotatable vane is rotatably mounted between a first position in which the at least one rotatable vane forms a first angle with respect to a transverse plane through the rotation point and that is transverse on the central longitudinal axis, and a second position in which the at least one rotatable vane forms a second angle with respect to the transverse plane, and wherein said radius of the at least one symmetrically curved shape at each angle that is situated between the first and second angle is equal to said second radius of said contact surface of the at least one rotatable vane.

3. A rotor housing assembly according to claim 1 , wherein:
the rotor housing assembly is arranged to allow flow of crop material there-through, wherein the at least one rotatable vane comprises an upstream end coming last into contact with the flow of crop material, and in that the at least one cover plate comprises at least one longitudinally extending side at the side of the at least one cover plate where the upstream end of the at least one vane is situated, wherein, the at least one symmetrically curved shape comprises a transition zone having a flat surface and starting near the upstream end of the respective vane and ending at the longitudinally extending side of the at least one cover plate.

4. A rotor housing assembly according to claim 3 , wherein the transition zone has the shape of a semi-circular disk.

5. A rotor housing assembly according to claim 1 , wherein:
the outer surface of said at least one top cover plate is in the form of a generally cylindrical outer surface, wherein on the generally cylindrical outer surface one or more reinforcement ribs are arranged between one or more of the at least one symmetrically curved shapes.

6. A rotor housing assembly according to claim 1 , wherein:
the rotor housing assembly furthermore comprises a generally curved bottom cover plate forming part of said generally cylindrically shaped rotor housing and comprising an inner surface having a third radius, wherein, when mounted, the at least one top cover plate and the bottom cover plate abut against each other, and wherein where the cover plates abut, the radius of the inner surfaces of the cover plate coming first into contact with the flowing crop material is smaller than the radius of the inner surface of the cover plate coming last into contact with the flow of crop material.

7. A rotor housing assembly according to claim 1 , wherein:
the at least one rotatable vane is connected to one or more movable linkage bars by at least one releasable connection element.

8. A rotor housing assembly according to claim 7 , wherein:
the one or more releasable connection elements comprise a tearing system which is configured to apply a tearing force onto the respective vane to tear the one or more vanes against the inner surface of the at least one top cover plate.

9. A rotor housing assembly according to claim 7 , wherein:
each of the one or more releasable connection elements are movable in a corresponding slot, each of the slots comprising a wall sloping outwardly from the outer surface towards the inner surface of the at least one top cover plate.

10. A rotor housing assembly according to claim 7 , wherein a first set of vanes are connected to a first linkage bar and a second set of vanes are connected to a second linkage bar, the first and second linkage bar being connected to one another by means of a coupling piece in order to allow to vary the first position of the first set of vanes with respect to the first position of the second set of vanes.

11. A rotor housing assembly according to 7 , wherein the one or more linkage bars are connected to one or more actuators which are adapted to move the linkage bar(s).

12. A rotor housing assembly according to claim 11 , wherein:
between the at least one cover plate and the one or more actuators, a force sensor is provided that is arranged to measure the load on the one or more vanes.

13. A rotor housing assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the rotor housing assembly comprises a controller adapted to measure the effect of the position of the one or more vanes on fuel consumption, rotor and sieve losses, programmed to set the position of the vane(s) in optimal position on the go in function of the harvesting conditions.

14. A harvester comprising:
a rotor housing assembly for a harvester comprising at least one cover plate having a generally curved shape, forming part of a generally cylindrical shaped rotor housing, said at least one cover plate including at least one top cover plate, said at least one top cover plate having a central longitudinal axis, and an outer surface and an inner surface, which, when mounted, said inner surface faces the central longitudinal axis, said inner surface including:
at least one first curved section having a first radius; and
at least one second curved section in the form of at least one symmetrically curved shape, said at least one symmetrically curved shape defining a spherical surface, and said at least one symmetrically curved shape having a radius; and

a vane system comprising at least one rotatable vane rotatably mounted along the at least one symmetrically curved shape of the inner surface of the at least one top cover plate at a rotation point, said at least one rotatable vane having a contact surface with the at least one symmetrically curved shape, said contact surface of said at least one rotatable vane having a second radius, said second radius is larger than said first radius of said at least one first curved section of said inner surface, such that, during rotation of the at least one rotatable vane, the contact surface of the at least one rotatable vane substantially follows the at least one symmetrically curved shape and remains in contact with the

Assignees

• Cnh Ind America Llc

Inventors

• Duquesne Frank R G
• Maenhout Philip
• Missotten Bart M A
• Van Der Haegen Johan A

Classifications

• A01D41/00

  Combines, i.e. harvesters or mowers combined with threshing devices · CPC title

• A01F7/06

  with axles in line with the feeding direction {; Axial threshing machines} · CPC title

• A01F7/067 Primary

  with material-flow influencing means · CPC title

• A01F12/18 Primary

  Threshing devices · CPC title