Harvesters

Details Harvesters Harvesters

1983-12-07

1986-03-11

Peshock, Robert

Harvesters

Motorized harvester

Having driven means for handling or treating crop

56 128, 56 139, A01D 4510, B65G 5344, B65G 5348

Patent

active

045745676

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to improvements to harvesters in particular sugar cane harvesters.
Conventional cane harvesters normally include a forwardly extending topper mechanism with is adapted to cut the tops from cane prior to the cane being gathered by the harvester. Cane harvesters also include a base cutter assembly for cutting the cane at its base and a chopper mechanism which cuts the harvested cane into billets and directs the cane billets onto a primary elevator for transport to a secondary elevator so that the cane billets can be deposited in a collection bin or the like. Many machines also incorporate blowers so that trash collected by the harvesters can be blown through a discharge chute at the rear of the machine.
The above known machines suffer a number of disadvantages. Firstly in some harvesters the topper mechanism tends to direct the cut cane tops into the path of the harvester particularly where cross-winds are blowing. This consequently results in the harvester collecting extraneous material and loss of commercial cane sugar. To overcome this disadvantage, some topper mechanisms employ rotating vanes mounted above the topper cutting disc which pelt the cut tops of the cane outwardly to either side of the harvester. Whilst this arrangement usually ensures that the cane tops are not collected by the harvester, a danger is obviously created to people working in the area such as bin halt-out drivers.
A further disadvantage in the known harvesters occur when sugar cane that has fallen over as a result of wind or heavy rain, or standover can is to be harvested. In such instances, there is an uneven feed of cane to the chopping mechanism resulting in an uneven deposit of cane on the primary elevator. As a consequence an uneven flow of the chopped-up material has to be handled by the blower which can cause blockages in the trash discharge system. Furthermore, the deposit of billets into the secondary elevator in such circumstances tends to be uneven and often the trash is not clearly stripped from the billets.
Yet a further disadvantage of the known harvesters occurs when the primary elevator is depositing cane billets onto the secondary elevator for transport to a bin collection area. Difficulties often occur at the top or return point of the primary elevator in that in adverse conditions, for example when the cane is wet or where down cane is being harvested, trash tends to collect at that point. Similarly, if the knives of the harvester become blunt the chopped-up material does not flow clearly past the end of the primary elevator. As a result of the above, blockages can occur and the flights on the primary elevator, during their return, take some or all of the chopped-up material including billets back onto the ground resulting in waste. Furthermore, build-up of trash can occur around the top or return point which can cause a reduction in the cross-sectional area of the passage through which billets are deposited from the primary elevator onto the secondary elevator. This disadvantage is also encountered in other harvesters such as wheat harvesters where the harvested product is carried along by an elevator for deposit at the return point of the elevator.
Yet a further disadvantage of the known harvesters occurs particularly where green sugar cane is being cut. In such instances, large quantities of waste material or trash is collected and if there are strong winds blowing, most of the trash is exhausted by the harvester into the next row of cane which is to be cut. The harvester then collects double the amount of trash on its return run and in order to obtain a clean sample of cane billets, the harvester has to be driven slower thus reducing the capacity of the machine and reducing harvester efficiency. Furthermore, the extra trash can cause blockages within the harvester.
The present invention aims to overcome or alleviate at least some of the above disadvantages of the prior art harvesters. In particular, the present invention provides an arrangement to reduce blockages at the top or return

REFERENCES:
patent: 1990250 (1935-02-01), Pitcher
patent: 3863431 (1975-02-01), Fowler

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