Harvesters – Cutting – Reciprocating side cutter
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-29
2001-04-17
Will, Thomas B. (Department: 3671)
Harvesters
Cutting
Reciprocating side cutter
C056S296000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06216429
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention concerns a harvesting or gathering platform having an in-line knife drive and especially to a mounting bracket for the drive motor which assures proper alignment of the drive motor with the knife.
Harvesting platform knives have typically been driven by a gearbox having a rotating output shaft. The gearbox, or drive motor, output shaft is coupled to the knife by a drive arm. The output shaft rotates back and forth to produce an arcuate reciprocating motion to the end of the drive arm. As a result, the knife does not move in a purely linear motion. The knife end moves in the arcuate path of the drive arm, resulting in the knife end moving in an arcuate path as the knife reciprocates. The arcuate movement of the knife end causes a sine wave deflection of the knife to travel along the length of the knife. This deflection is more pronounced in a double cut knife where the knife stroke is longer, thus requiring greater rotation of the drive arm. One solution is to lengthen the drive arm. This reduces the angular extent of rotation of the motor output shaft needed for the longer stroke. A longer drive arm, however, presents other difficulties.
Another solution to the arcuate motion in the knife is to provide a knife drive that is linear. Such a linear drive is available from the Schumacher Company of Germany and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,291. This drive has a rotary input device, such as a pulley or gear, and an output shaft that reciprocates in a linear motion, normal to the axis of the output shaft. Such a drive is referred to as an “in-line” drive. With an in-line drive, it is necessary to properly position the drive motor output shaft so that the direction of motion of the output shaft is in-line with desired knife motion.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide for precise relative positioning of the drive motor with the cutterbar knife.
It is a feature of the invention to provide a mounting bracket for the drive motor that establishes the relative positions of the knife and the drive motor to assure proper alignment therebetween.
The present invention pertains to a harvesting platform having a frame, a cutterbar, a knife, a drive motor having a rotary input and a linearly reciprocating output shaft coupled to the knife and particularly to a one piece mounting bracket coupled to the cutterbar and the drive motor to establish the position of the drive motor relative to the cutterbar. The mounting bracket is a single piece casting having a cutterbar mounting face with a machined engaging portion and a drive motor mounting face with a machined engaging portion. The machined engaging portions enable the relative positioning of the cutterbar and drive motor to be established within the close tolerances of the machining operations.
The drive motor mounting face includes raised protrusions that engage the sides of the drive motor legs to prevent rotation of the drive motor about an axis perpendicular to the drive motor mounting face. The drive motor mounting face is formed by a flange extending upward from a base portion of the bracket. The flange is reinforced by a web to prevent twisting of the flange and misalignment of the drive motor.
The cutterbar mounting face is formed by a boss raised from the base portion of the bracket and having a machined upper surface forming the machined engaging portion of the bracket. Threaded apertures in the boss receive fasteners for attaching the cutterbar to the bracket. The bracket has further apertures and through bores to attach the bracket to a platform frame.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2630670 (1953-03-01), Sherman
patent: 3104511 (1963-09-01), Clark
patent: 3648444 (1972-03-01), Dunn
patent: 4023333 (1977-05-01), Anderson
patent: 4103556 (1978-08-01), Niday
patent: 4402174 (1983-09-01), Boone
patent: 4813291 (1989-03-01), Schumacher, II et al.
Deere & Company
Petravick Meredith C.
Will Thomas B.
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