Harvesters – Cotton – Pneumatic
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-01
2001-03-27
Pezzuto, Robert E. (Department: 3671)
Harvesters
Cotton
Pneumatic
C056S041000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06205756
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to cotton harvesters and more particularly to an improved conveyor system for transporting loose cotton fiber from the doffer area of the harvester to a cotton collection basket. The improved system utilizes both pneumatic and mechanical means to transport the cotton and is constructed to permit the use of more picker units with less complicated structures than has heretofore been possible.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
Mechanized cotton harvesters have been used or proposed in the industry for at least the last 80 to 85 years. In mechanized cotton harvesters two principle elements have always been present, specifically, some means by which the cotton can be removed from the plants and secondly a means for transporting the picked cotton from the removal area to a place of storage, which is commonly a large collection basket. From the collection basket, the picked cotton is generally compacted into bales or the like and sent for subsequent processing for use in the textile industry. Initially the mechanical picking of the cotton was accomplished by elongate elements that extended outwardly from the base unit of the harvesting apparatus in a direction generally parallel to the rows of cotton being picked. An example of such an apparatus can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,355,880, issued Aug. 15, 1944 to Macha. In this apparatus cotton stripping elements extend forwardly from the harvester apparatus body to engage two rows of cotton with longitudinally extending rotating elements having fingers that remove the cotton from the plant. The cotton that was thus freed from the plant was then conveyed rearwardly by screw conveyors into a pair of transversely extending conveyors which in turn, moved the cotton toward a mechanical belt, located midway between the two transversely extending conveyors, to remove the material to a collection basket.
As the development of harvesters progressed in ensuing years, the cotton was picked principally by means of harvesting means that included a picker spindle and a doffer type construction which harvests lint cotton from the plant without removing the total cotton boll. In this construction the picker spindle and the associated doffer rotate about vertical axes, so that the relatively greater weight of the stripper elements which had in prior equipment extended longitudinally outwardly away from the main body of the harvester was eliminated. With a reduction in the amount of effective weight that had to be supported from the front of the harvesting apparatus, it became possible for the width of the picking apparatus to be increased and for the number of rows of cotton that could be picked to be increased commensurately. Whereas it had earlier been possible to pick only one or two rows it became possible to increase that number to four, for example.
With the advent of improved apparatus for freeing lint-type cotton from the plant, new delivery means which incorporated a variety of pneumatic means to carry the cotton from the doffer area rearwardly and upwardly into a collection basket were developed. Early attempts to create the necessary airstream involved the use of fans which subjected the cotton to injury from the fans because of its incidental contact with the fan blades. In later developments, the pneumatic delivery systems were improved by various types of construction in which a vacuum was created next to the doffer mechanism that connected to a pneumatic tube that conveyed the cotton to the cotton basket, without any necessity of the cotton passing through a fan. One such construction can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,112, issued Feb. 26, 1985 to Thedford, et al., and assigned to International Harvester Company.
In the picker spindle and doffer type cotton picking harvester the cotton enters into the stripping/doffing area between plant lifters which direct the plants between a forward and a rear positioned spindle/doffer operating pair, so that the plants passing between adjacent plant lifters are subjected to stripping on both sides. Since cotton is being removed from two sides of the plant row, it is necessary that a vacuum delivery system be provided for each of the stripping/doffing (picker head) units. This means that for a harvesting apparatus capable of simultaneously picking four rows of cotton that there are eight picker heads and, concomitantly, eight vacuum delivery systems to remove the cotton from each of the eight picker head doffers. Thus, although in theory, additional rows of cotton could be picked merely by adding additional picking heads and vacuum delivery systems, it became apparent that the increased weight and complexity of delivering cotton by the vacuum removal means through individual vacuum tubes became both expensive initially and somewhat more problematical in effectiveness during operation.
Difficulties also arose in the use of purely pneumatic delivery systems with the advent of high yield cotton where larger quantities of cotton had to be delivered. The inability of the pneumatic delivery systems to process the greater cotton volumes caused the operator to operate the harvester at lower speeds across the fields and thereby reduced harvester efficiency. As higher cotton yields were being produced, the difficulties arising from attempting to convey cotton totally by pneumatic means where a multiplicity of picking heads were being utilized acted as a limitation on the size of equipment that could be used.
It is a principle object of the present invention to provide an improved conveyor system for use on cotton harvesters that will permit the use of apparatus capable of processing greater quantities of cotton than has previously been possible.
An additional object of this invention is to provide an improved conveyor system for use on a cotton harvester in which means is provided to collect the cotton emanating from all of the doffer mechanisms and removing it from a transport housing means through a single pneumatic duct that transports cotton into a collector basket.
A further object of this invention is to provide an improved conveyor system in which cotton from all of the picking heads is discharged into a transversely extending conveyor system that moves the cotton to a single point of discharge into a pneumatic conveyor, which carries the cotton to the collecting basket.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an improved cotton conveyor system which utilizes a transversely positioned spiral feed screw system for receiving cotton from all of the picking means and mechanically moving it to a single location for pneumatic removal to the cotton collecting bin.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1135096 (1915-04-01), Beach
patent: 1885437 (1932-11-01), Harazin
patent: 2355880 (1944-08-01), Macha
patent: 2491777 (1949-12-01), Smith
patent: 3378309 (1968-04-01), Copley et al.
patent: 3464191 (1969-09-01), Copley et al.
patent: 3515437 (1970-06-01), Copley et al.
patent: 4501112 (1985-02-01), Thedford et al.
Adamson James Kelley
Orsborn Jesse H.
Richman Kevin Scott
Case Corporation
Mayer Brown & Platt
Pezzuto Robert E.
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