Abstract:
A spring tine for use on the pickup assemblies of crop baling machines and the like comprises a single, continuous strand of resilient material formed into a base of multiple, side-by-side, helical coils and an elongated leg projecting outwardly from the base. The leg is formed to present a relief notch in an inner section of the leg adjacent the base for avoiding interference with a support member for the tine when the tine springs back and forth during operation.
Abstract:
An apparatus for laterally displacing and inverting a windrow of crop material is disclosed wherein a pickup engages a windrow of crop material along a first path and elevates the windrow into a table where it is conveyed in a semi-circular path by a horizontal conveyor until it is rolled off a discharge edge of the table into a second path laterally displaced from the first path. The speed relationship between the horizontal conveyor and the forward movement of the apparatus is such that the elevated windrow of crop material is gently rolled off the discharge edge of the platform in such a manner that the windrow is inverted when it engages the ground. A method of laterally displacing and inverting a windrow of crop material is also disclosed wherein the windrow is gently picked up, conveyed and turned upside down without the need for a structural device to engage the windrow and positively invert it. This method of turning a windrow of crop material results in a laterally displaced windrow that has been fluffed to more efficiently facilitate the drying thereof.
Abstract:
An endless belt type windrow pickup mechanism is mounted on the front of a combine platform and includes a frame with opposite sides supported on ground engaging gauge wheels so that the opposite sides of the frame swing vertically relative to one another as the machine advances over uneven terrain. The pickup mechanism includes a belt with a large number of fingers that lift the crop from the ground and move the crop rearwardly along the upper run of the belt. An improved windrow hold-down device has a plurality of flexible fingers that engage the top of the mat of crop material moving rearwardly on the upper run of the belt, and means are provided for adjusting the attitude of the fingers and also accommodating vertical shifting of one side of the pickup mechanism relative to the other.
Abstract:
The present invention relates to a speed control unit associated with a peanut combine for driving and controlling the peripheral speed of a forwardly disposed crop engaging pick-up reel rotatively mounted transversely about the front of the peanut combine. The speed control unit basically includes a dual input drive system including a first drive operatively connected to at least one ground engaging wheel of the combine for providing an input drive corresponding to the ground speed of the peanut combine. A second generally constant input drive is provided from a power take-off source associated with the peanut combine. These two drives simultaneously drive a centrifugal clutch which includes an output drive member that is driven at a speed corresponding to the faster of the two input drives. In controlling the peripheral speed of the pick-up reel, the clutch assembly and speed control unit is so designed that the pick-up reel is driven from the output drive member of the clutch assembly such that the peripheral speed of the pick-up reel is generally equal the ground speed of the peanut combine as long as the ground speed of the combine is at least equal to or greater than a selected speed. Where the speed of the peanut combine falls below said selected speed, then the second generally constant input speed from the power take-off source is operative to drive the output drive member of the clutch assembly and consequently the peripheral speed of the pick-up reel is driven at a relatively constant speed in this case.
Abstract:
If the next charge to be stuffed into the baling chamber has not yet reached the desired size and density by the time the stuffing fork and compacting plunger are ready to begin their next operating cycles, the plunger and the fork are temporarily deactivated until the charge reaches full size and density. Thereupon, the fork stuffs the entire charge into the baling chamber in a single cycle of operation for compaction by the plunger. The baler is loaded from the bottom of the baling chamber through an upwardly curved duct that serves both as an accumulating chamber and as a pre-compression area into which the charge is progressively packed by a rotating, retractable finger drum at the lower end of the duct. The plunger closes the top of the duct during such accumulation and pre-compression, and in order to provide ample time for the plunger to retract from the duct when the stuffing cycle commences, the fork moves slowly at first but then quite rapidly once the plunger has retracted. Actuation of the plunger and stuffing fork occurs automatically in response to obtaining the predetermined density of the accumulated charge as sensed by a pressure-sensitive device on the loading duct.
Abstract:
A swath pickup includes a pair of spiders one on each end of a frame and angulated with respect to the direction of travel. A forked inwardly offset arm is pivotally secured to blocks on the outer ends of each arm of the spiders in the form of a universal joint and a transversely extending member from which pickup teeth extend, extends between each offset arm on one spider and the corresponding offset arm on the other spider. The spiders are rotated by a motor and the angular relationship of the spiders causes the members and the pickup teeth to reciprocate transversely as they rotate. The offset arms enable a pickup of reduced diameter to be provided which increases the efficiency of the pickup action yet provides sufficient room at the spiders for the installation and operation of the universal joints and arms to the spiders.
Abstract:
Debris is picked up by equally angularly spaced brushes. Each brush is arranged in a helix for cooperation with a plurality of stripper bars. The helix causes the brush to engage the end of only one of the stripper bars at a time during rotation to reduce the shock load on the stripper. Each brush can have a row of tines adjacent thereto with the rows of tines being equally angularly spaced.
Abstract:
An agricultural device with a transverse cutter and gather reel. The gatherer reel is an ''''oblique reel'''' with tine bars carried between end members rotating on parallel offset axes. The tine bars are also axially moveable to cause an attitude change in the tines by rotation of the tine bars about their own axes.
Abstract:
In the harvesting of agricultural crops, the crop is lifted off the ground continuously by a pickup unit as the vehicular harvesting machine is advanced across the field along the crop windrow. The machine has a crop-handling assembly which includes an elevator for receiving the crop from the pickup unit and continuously raising the crop to a level higher than the bed of the crop-receiving body of the machine. The crop-handling assembly also includes a conveyor which continuously receives the crop from the upper end of the elevator and moves the crop in a horizontal direction rearwardly for dumping into the open top of the body. The conveyor is extensible fore and aft of the body so that as the crop gravitates from the rear end of the conveyor it is spread evenly front to rear of the body. The entire elevatorconveyor assembly and the pickup unit thereon are also shiftable laterally with respect to the wheeled vehicle to spread the crop evenly from side to side of the body. The crop is fed between the side walls of the body and between upward extensions of such walls, and those extensions are shifted against the crop from time to time to compress it against the bed of the body and form a stack. Each extension also has a ram for compressing the sides of the stack in the body. The body is tiltable rearwardly and has a tailgate which may be unlocked and swung upwardly to permit the stack to be pushed rewardly out of the body off the tilted bed through use of a rearwardly moving, upright ''''false front.
Abstract:
A hay baling machine consisting of a wheeled frame adapted to be towed, an upwardly opening V-shaped trough carried by said frame and comprising an inclined wall and a relatively angled platform, hay pick-up and transporting devices carried by said frame and operable to pick up hay from the ground and deposit it in said trough, a powered rotary spindle disposed in said trough parallel to the apex thereof and movable away from said apex, and powered conveyor chains carried by said platform and movable at right angles to the apex thereof, whereby hay desposited in said trough is wound on said spindle to form a cylindrical bale constantly rotated by said conveyor chains, said spindle being removable from said bale and said platform being pivotally movable to be inclined downwardly toward its free edge, whereby said bale may be discharged to the ground.