Crop threshing or separating – Machine component arrangement and structure – e.g. – engine...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-24
2004-02-17
Kovács, Árpád Fábián (Department: 3671)
Crop threshing or separating
Machine component arrangement and structure, e.g., engine...
C460S023000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06692352
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
This invention relates to grain storage tanks on agricultural harvesting machines such as combines. More particularly, the invention relates to covers for such grain storage tanks. Such cover is used to close off a top opening of the grain storage tank, thus to shield grain, carried in the tank, from adverse weather conditions. Such cover is also used to protect the tank from e.g. tree branches which might otherwise drop into the tank through the top opening in the tank.
It is common for a conventional combine or other harvester to include a large capacity grain storage tank of e.g. about 100 bushels or more, for receiving and temporarily storing the grain or other harvested crop until such time as the harvested crop material can be unloaded from the harvester into an e.g. truck, wagon, or other vehicle which is used to carry the crop away from the field where the crop was grown, such as for permanent storage on the farm, or to an off-farm purchaser.
Hereinafter, the harvested crop will be referred to as grain. It will be understood that other crop materials can be harvested using such machines, and that all such other crop materials are thus intended to be included in such recitation of grain.
Also hereinafter, the harvester will be referred to as a combine, it being understood that the invention applies to other harvesting machines which include thereon tanks for temporary storage of the harvested crop.
Typically, such grain-receiving tank on the combine includes a plurality of underlying walls which define the tank as a receptacle. The underlying walls define a top opening of the tank. The top opening provides ready access to the interior of the tank from the top of the tank. The top opening also provides a visual inspection access for inspecting the condition and quality of the grain being carried in the tank. Further, the top opening enables the operator of the combine to have a top view of the upper portion of the tank from the operator's station in the cab, thus to see the grain in the tank as the grain begins to extend above the top opening in a nearly full tank, whereby the operator can ensure emptying the tank before the tank is over-filled. Further, the top opening provides an exit path for exhaust from the tank of dust which can be carried into the tank with the harvested grain.
It is common practice to equip the grain storage tank with one or more cover members, thus to overlie and close the top opening of the tank when desired, for example to keep out rain, dirt, and other foreign material. Such cover members, in the open orientation, provide access to the top opening of the underlying tank. Cover members also can serve, in the closed orientation, to close off the top opening of the tank, thus to prevent access to the tank through the top opening. Such closure can be particularly desirable during road transport for reducing the overall height of the combine. Such closure further inhibits entrance of dirt, dust, and other detritus into the tank. Such closure may also be desirable during certain harvesting operations for shielding the grain in the tank from rain.
Where possible, and commonly, grain tank covers on combines are retained in an open condition during the harvesting process, enabling an unobstructed top view of the harvested and stored grain, and potentially providing an increase in capacity of the tank by virtue of allowing a central portion of the pile of grain to extend somewhat above the top of the underlying grain tank.
A wide variety of grain storage tank covers are employed in conventional practice. For example, from 2 to 4 metal cover panels can be used to cover the top opening of the tank. Metal covers have the advantage of being strong and sturdy, but have the disadvantage of being bulky, heavy to install, heavy to transport as part of the combine, heavy to lift for opening the cover to thereby expose the top opening of the tank for the above-noted access and use, and such covers can require frequent alignment. To facilitate opening of such heavy covers, gas springs or other resilient apparatus are commonly used to assist in raising the cover panels and thus in opening the tank cover.
Other conventional embodiments of tank covers use flexible sheet material such as canvas or flexible plastic, stretched over a metal or other skeletal framework. Such structures are less heavy, and therefore less cumbersome. However, the flexibility of such cover materials renders the dimensions quite flexible, changeable when erected to thus expose the top opening of the grain storage tank, and potentially enables spillage of contents of the tank where the dimensions of the cover shift during use. In addition, the flexibility of such materials further prevents facile attachment of opening and closing apparatus, whereby facile opening and closing of such covers to enable access to the underlying tank is not enabled.
In addition, tank cover panels which extend upwardly from the outer edge of the tank top opening are somewhat susceptible to wind and other forces having horizontal components. Thus, tank cover panels which extend upwardly from the outer edge of the tank top opening, when in the open position, need to be firmly secured to the walls or other structure of the underlying tank in order to prevent such covers from being adversely affected by the wind. Even where firmly secured, the flexible nature of such flexible sheet materials precludes facile opening and closing of such structures, thus to control access to the tank from above.
It is known to provide permanently-positioned tank cover panels which extend inwardly from the edges of the tank opening, and to have pivoting metal cover panels which pivot upwardly from the permanently-positioned cover panels, whereby an inner portion of the area of the top opening of the grain storage tank can thus be opened to ambient. The advantage of such limited size opening is that the cover panels are sufficiently small as to have sufficiently low mass that simple, light-weight apparatus can be used in lifting of such panels, whereby lifting such panels to open a portion of the top opening for access to the tank is facilitated. However, such limited size opening limits the benefits which attend additional volume capacity of the tank.
It is also known to provide a semi-cylindrical plastic tank cover which entirely closes off the top opening of the tank when the cover is installed. Such plastic cover has a small off-center access panel which slides from an edge of the cover upwardly along the arcuate outline of the cover, thus to provide limited access to the interior of the tank adjacent an edge of the tank. Such semi-cylindrical tank cover thus makes little provision for increasing capacity of the tank at the edge of the tank, whereby only limited capacity increase is available, and is generally by piling the grain in the center of the tank, above the top edge of the tank, and accommodating any cascade of the pile toward the edge of the tank, up to the top edge of the underlying tank. Such conventional tank cover thus makes little provision for increasing capacity of the tank.
In the above noted conventional tank covers, in those covers which provide increased height of the tank, thereby to increase tank capacity, the cover panels are separate and distinct from each other; and any spaces between the respective covers constitute potential for spillage of the grain when the grain in the tank reaches above the top edge of the underlying tank. Some of such tank covers provide rigid filler panels which bridge and fill the spaces between the respective primary and/or secondary panels. However, such rigid filler panels are expensive to build, are mechanically complex, and constitute substantial extra weight.
Another method of dealing with spacing between adjacent cover panels is to structure the tank cover such that spacing tolerances between surfaces and/or edges of adjacent tank cover panels are carefully controlled. Such careful control in manufacture of the panels, as well as in the assembly of the panels,
Begyn Lawrence Paul
DePoorter Mark Charles
Dow Chad Allen
Gerber Edwin Milton
Herbst Garrick William
Deere & Company
Kovács Árpád Fábián
Wilhelm Thomas D.
Wilhelm Law Service
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