Harvesters – Motorized harvester – With condition-responsive operation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-07
2001-02-27
Pezzuto, Robert E. (Department: 3671)
Harvesters
Motorized harvester
With condition-responsive operation
C073S861730, C460S001000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06192664
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of Art
The present invention relates to harvesting machines for collecting crop material from the field, and more particularly to devices installed thereon for continuously measuring the rate of harvested crop material at a particular location in the machine.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is already well known in the art to equip agricultural harvesters with one or more devices for continuously measuring a flow rate of crop material therein. Such devices may comprise a grain flow sensor that measures the quantity of clean grain that is being delivered into a grain tank on the harvester. Their signal may be used for establishing the total yield for a field or a specific yield value for each portion of the field. The latter yield values may be combined with harvester position data from a global positioning system (GPS) sensor and harvester speed data for establishing a specific yield map for a complete field. The grain flow data provided by such devices, however useful they may be for information on the most useful portion of the crop, fail to give an indication on the total yield of the crop vegetation, which also includes straw or, in case of corn harvesting, corn stalks and leafs.
It is also known to monitor the load on one or more components of the harvester for automatically adjusting the settings thereof. Such settings may involve the travel speed of the harvester over the field or the speed of one of the crop processing apparatus inside the harvester, such as the threshing drum speed in case of a combine harvester. A prior art apparatus that has been used for predicting the total load on the crop processing apparatus measures the rate of incoming crop material at the header of a combine harvester. The header is equipped with a transverse auger that conveys cut crop material to the mouth of a straw elevator registering w ith the center of the header. The power required for rotating the auger is proportional to the mass flow rate of the incoming material and can be derived from the force on an idler sprocket in the chain transmission of the auger. A closed vessel, filled with hydraulic oil, and sealed with a rubber sheet was installed below the idler. The idler sprocket was mounted on a lever having an arm that engages the outer surface of the rubber sheet. The pressure of the arm on the sheet and hence the oil pressure in the vessel is directly related to the force on the sprocket and consequently to the torque used for rotating the auger. The pressure in the vessel is measured by an electric pressure transducer, which provides a good indication of the force on the idler sprocket. However this signal suffers from substantial noise caused by the other components of the header. Moreover the lever mounting of the idler was easily jammed by stray straw which accumulated onto and behind the lever.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a harvester equipped with means for measuring loads on components thereof for establishing the quantity of crop material passing at a particular location of the harvester, said means not suffering from excessive noise caused by surrounding components of the harvester.
According to the invention there is provided an agricultural harvesting machine, comprising:
means for collecting crop material from a field;
means for conveying the collected crop into the harvesting machine;
means for processing said collected crop; and
a sensor means for sensing the flow rate of at least a portion of said collected crop;
said sensor means further comprising a mechanical dampening means for dampening mechanical vibrations caused by said collecting means, said conveying means and/or said crop processing means.
Advantageously, the dampening means may be applied to a configuration comprising a sensor measuring the power taken up by a conveyor drive line. Such sensor generates a signal which is characteristic for the mass flow rate of the material transported by the conveyor. The dampening means may be constituted by a flywheel or inertia wheel, which may be driven via a flexible coupling by another inertia wheel.
The conveyor drive line may be a belt transmission comprising a pair of sheaves and a belt, or a chain transmission comprising a pair of sprocket wheels and a chain. The flow rate sensor may then sense the force induced on an idler wheel or sprocket by the belt or chain of the transmission. Such force is proportional to the torque transmitted by the transmission, which force in turn is proportional to the mass flow rate of the material transported by the conveyor.
For measuring the total flow of straw plus grain which is fed to the crop processing means of a harvester, the sensor may measure the torque of the transverse auger in the header.
The sensor arrangement may comprise a closed vessel filled with oil and having a wall portion upon which the force from the idler is transmitted. A pressure transducer can then be used for monitoring the power transmitted by the conveyor drive line. The number of movable components may be minimized by mounting the idler via resilient blocks onto the vessel and transmitting the force upon the idler via a plunger upon said wall portion. Such configuration is not rendered inoperable by the possible accumulation of stray crop material around the sensor arrangement.
An agricultural harvester equipped with a flow rate sensor means as described above and which further comprises means for establishing the position of said harvester in a field, means for sensing the speed of said harvester and means for logging the data generated by said position establishing means, said speed sensing means and said crop flow rate sensor means, can be used for establishing yield maps for a field.
The signal provided by the crop flow rate sensor means may also be used for adjusting the travel speed or the settings of the crop processing means, in order to keep the harvester operating at optimum efficiency.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5318475 (1994-06-01), Schrock et al.
patent: 5736652 (1998-04-01), Strubbe
patent: 5920018 (1999-07-01), Wilkerson et al.
patent: 5959218 (1999-09-01), Strubbe
Missotten Bart M. A.
Strubbe Gilbert J. I.
Miller Larry W.
New Holland North America Inc.
Pezzuto Robert E.
Stader J. William
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