Foods and beverages: apparatus – Means to treat food – By applying fluid
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-23
2001-12-11
Simone, Timothy F. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Means to treat food
By applying fluid
C099S600000, C056S002000, C056S014600, C056S016600, C460S108000, C460S110000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327970
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to grain cracking modules and more particularly pertains to improvements for a grain husk cracking plate for cracking the husk of harvest grains.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of grain cracking devices is known in the prior art. These devices “crack” or open the kernel of a feed grain by rupturing the outer husk of the kernel for enhancing the digestibility of the grain by livestock. The most common cracking apparatus comprises a pair of contacting rollers situated in the grain path within a grain harvesting machine. The harvested grain is forced between the rollers while traveling through the harvesting machine. The rollers crush the grain kernels therebetween. However, such roller-type crackers are expensive to maintain and replace, and are vulnerable to damage by foreign matter moving along the grain path with the grain.
Also known are “cracker” plates, which are positioned along one wall of the grain path in the harvesting machines so that grain kernels driven through the grain path strike against and are ruptured by stationary blades on the plate. However, the design of the heretofore known cracker plates has limited their use to only a few types of grain harvesting machines, while these cracker plates have been incompatible with, or inefficient when employed on, other types of harvesting machines. Significantly, the known cracker plates are also completely formed of a uniformly similar material. The cutting or rupturing edges of the blade members are most vulnerable to wear by the flow of grain and foreign matter traveling through the grain path. Significant wear of the cutting edge of the blades generally requires that the entire cracking plate must be replaced, regardless of the condition of the other portions of the plate.
In these respects, the grain husk cracking plate according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of cracking the husk of harvest grains.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of grain cracking modules now present in the prior art, the present invention provides a new grain husk cracking plate construction wherein the same can be utilized for cracking the husk of harvest grains.
The present invention generally comprises a grain husk cracking plate for attaching to a chopping cylinder housing of a harvester in proximity to a shear bar to crack husks of grain moving through the harvester. The grain husk cracking plate includes a base plate adapted for directing grain through the chopping cylinder housing of the harvester. The base plate has a top surface, a bottom surface, a pair of opposite side edges, and a leading edge and a trailing edge extending between the side edges. A plurality of blades are mounted on the top surface of the base plate for cracking the husk of grain traveling through the chopping cylinder housing and striking the blades. Each of the blades has a forward edge directed toward the leading edge of the base plate,a rearward edge directed toward the trailing edge of the base plate, and a pair of side faces. A carbide layer is formed on each of the blades, and the carbide layer is formed on a portion of a first one of the side faces of each of the blades adjacent to the forward edge of the blade.
In one aspect of the invention, each of the side mounting members has a pair of mounting structures for mounting the base plate to a grain harvester. A first one of the pair of mounting structures includes a first mounting aperture extending through the side mounting member adjacent to the leading edge of the base plate. A second one of the pair of mounting structures including a second mounting aperture extending through the side mounting member adjacent to the trailing edge of the base plate. Each of the mounting structures includes a threaded fastener coupled to each of the side mounting members. The threaded fastener has a hole in communication with the mounting aperture. The first mounting aperture is located adjacent to the first end of the side mounting member, and the second mounting aperture is located adjacent to the second end of the side mounting member.
In another aspect of the invention, each of the blade members has a forward edge directed toward the leading edge of the base plate, and a rearward edge directed toward the trailing edge of the base plate. Each of the blade members comprises a blade assembly including a base member and an edge member, with the base member having a forward surface with the edge member mounted thereon. The forward surface of the base member may have a depression, with the edge member having a rear portion received in the depression of the base member. The edge member of each blade assembly may be formed of a material with relatively greater hardness than the base member. The edge member of each blade assembly may comprise a carbide material, and the base member of each blade assembly may comprise an iron material.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new grain husk cracking plate apparatus which has many of the advantages of the grain cracking modules mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a new grain husk cracking plate which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by any of the prior art grain cracking modules, either alone or in any combination thereof.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new grain husk cracking plate which may be easily and efficiently manufactured and maintained in a more economical manner than existing contacting roller grain cracking devices.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new grain husk cracking plate which is of a durable and reliable construction, and which has blade members with an enhanced resistance to wear by the grain and foreign matter traveling through the grain path of the harvesting machine.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new grain husk cracking plate which is susceptible of a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly is then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such grain husk cracking plate economically available to the buying public.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of
Kooima John C.
Kooima Phillip G.
Kaardal & Associates, PC
Proehl Jeffrey A.
Simone Timothy F.
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