Harvesters – Motorized harvester – Including plural operating units and drive
Patent
1994-01-14
1996-02-06
Novosad, Stephen J.
Harvesters
Motorized harvester
Including plural operating units and drive
56504, A01D 4510
Patent
active
054888204
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention is concerned with an improved cane harvesting device and, in particular, to an improved cutting apparatus for cane harvesters.
In an endeavour to improve the cost efficiency of sugar cane harvesting, cane harvesting machines have rapidly evolved into quite sophisticated apparatus over the last decade or so.
A modern day cane harvester typically comprises a self propelled apparatus adapted to harvest both upright and laid over cane stalks, whether tangled or not. Such harvesters may include a topping cutter to remove the upper leafy portions of cane stalks and a base cutter to sever the cane stalks at or near ground level. The cane stalks are then fed by a conveyor means to cutting blades which sever the stalks into billets, typically from 200 mm to 250 mm in length. The billets are then transferred by a further conveyor to a storage bin associated with the harvester or directly into a transport vehicle which travels beside or behind the harvester as it carries out the harvesting operation.
Typical prior art cane harvesters of this type are illustrated in Australian Patent No. 480205, British Patent No. 1339816 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,404, 4,099,365 and 4,154,047.
Each of the prior art references incorporates a rotary cutting mechanism comprising contra-rotating blades synchronised to bring respective cutting edges together in a "pinching" action to sever the cane stalks into billets.
The major problem associated with "pinch" cutters is that as the cutting blades begin to wear, the "pinching" action is exacerbated and a clean sharp cutting action is no longer possible. After a relatively minor degree of wear on the cutting edges, incomplete severing of the cane stalks is likely to result.
Accordingly on prior art cane harvesting machines of the type employing contra-rotating cutting blades, considerable machine downtime is necessitated to resharpen and reset the cutting blades to minimise can juice losses in the severed billets.
With prior art harvesters of the type incorporating "pinching" cutter rollers the combined harvest losses due directly to the cutters and other factors can be as high as about 10% in some types of harvesters.
Australian Patent No. 525447 describes an alternative configuration of cane harvester in which the abovementioned prior art problems have been sought to be overcome. In this apparatus there is described a two bladed cutter contra-rotating in cooperation with a rotating anvil to obtain a "guillotine" like cut to sever the can stalks into billets. The rotating anvil serves also to act as a conveyer for the billets by throwing the billets upwardly into a curved chute.
Although the cane harvester, the subject of Australian Patent No. 525447, possessed a superior cutting apparatus in terms of minimising cane juice losses and machine downtime for blade sharpening and setting, the apparatus did suffer some losses of about 6-8% of the cane being harvested due to a degree of recirculation of the cane billets in the region of the cutters. This degree of waste is considered quite unacceptable in terms of the losses to cane growers.
In the apparatus of Australian Patent No. 525447, cane stalks are fed longitudinally into the cutting apparatus by opposed conveyor rollers via an opening in a housing in which the cutter blades rotate. Cane billets are severed in a "guillotine" like action when one of the two diametrically opposed cutting blades is aligned substantially perpendicularly with the cane stalks and a respective anvil face on the contra-rotating thrower which is synchronised to sweep the cane stalks against the perpendicular cutting blade. The cane billets with an attendant amount of "trash" in the form of leafy material are then propelled upwardly into a curved discharge chute into which is blown a downwardly directed air current which separates the trash from the billets and blows the trash out onto the ground surface via a trash exhaust port.
While the twin bladed cutter assembly rotates within a housing having front and back openings, the rotating anvil/thrower as
REFERENCES:
patent: 3103091 (1963-09-01), Duncan et al.
patent: 3530650 (1970-09-01), Phillips
patent: 3916605 (1975-11-01), Richards et al.
patent: 4550552 (1985-11-01), Stiff
patent: 4584824 (1986-04-01), Hiyamuta
Mainmeer Investments Pty. Ltd.
Novosad Stephen J.
LandOfFree
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