Harvesters – Motorized harvester – Including motorized vehicle causing transit of harvester
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-09
2004-03-30
Kovács, Árpád Fab (Department: 3671)
Harvesters
Motorized harvester
Including motorized vehicle causing transit of harvester
Reexamination Certificate
active
06711884
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the harvesting of grain and seed crops of the kind that are conventionally harvested by means of a combine harvester. More particularly, the invention relates to systems, methods and apparatus for harvesting such crops.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The applicant herein has already disclosed a novel method of and apparatus for harvesting grain and seed crops that provide an alternative to the use of conventional combine harvesters. In this regard, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,423 issued on Aug. 18, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,795,222 issued on Aug. 18, 1998; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,226 issued on Feb. 23, 1999; all of these patents having been assigned to McLeod Harvest Inc. and are referred to collectively in the following description as “the McLeod patents.”
A conventional combine harvester operates by carrying out all of the harvesting steps in the field on a continuous basis. The crop plants are cut, the cut plants are threshed to separate grain (or seeds such as peas, etc.), chaff and (inevitably) weed seeds from the stalks, the grain is then cleaned by separating it from the chaff and weed seeds, the grain is delivered to a waiting collection vehicle, and the stalks, chaff and weed seeds are returned to the field. The disadvantages of this are that (a) combine harvesters are very expensive to purchase and to operate; (b) they are not very efficient at cleaning the grain, so some grain is lost and/or further grain cleaning is required; and (c) chaff and weed seeds are returned to the field, so that their economic value is lost and weeds proliferate.
The concept underlying the systems disclosed in the above patents is that, instead of attempting to carry out all of the harvesting steps in the field, only the step of threshing and removing stalks is carried out, and the remaining product (a mixture of grain, chaff and weed seeds—referred to by the coined word “graff”) is collected and transported to a fixed grain cleaning site. The advantage of this is that the harvesting equipment may be less complicated and expensive than a conventional combine harvester, the cleaning of the grain may be carried out more efficiently at a fixed site, the economic value of the chaff and weed seeds may be realized, and the need for herbicides is reduced (because the weed seeds are collected rather than being returned to the field).
It has been found that this system is extremely effective, but inconveniences have been encountered in that graff has proven to be a difficult material to handle and process. Since graff contains a large percentage of chaff, it is bulky for its weight and it is quite fibrous in composition. Unlike grain collected by a combine harvester, graff does not easily “flow” from containers and it is difficult to move by conventional means, such as augers, because it bridges or binds within itself and does not flow internally to replace material that has been removed from the bottom of a container or pile of the material. In general, it can be said that graff tends to pack, clump, bridge, rat-hole and bind, rather than flow smoothly. This causes problems not only when the graff is stored in silos or the like before it is processed, but also causes difficulties of material flow within the harvesting device and transportation vehicles.
Moreover, graff is difficult to store because, if stored in the open, it tends to blow away and also to spoil if it gets wet. However, if stored in a container, it is difficult to remove for the reasons mentioned above.
Additionally, there is a need to improve the overall efficiency of the system generally and to improve the manner in which individual components operate in order to increase the economic competitiveness of the system with conventional harvesting systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to improve the efficiency and to reduce the equipment cost of carrying out a grain harvesting method of the type disclosed in the patents mentioned above.
Another object of the invention, at least in its preferred forms, is to overcome difficulties caused by the poor flow properties of graff.
Another object of the invention, at least in broader aspects, is to optimize a grain harvesting system as opposed to a single grain harvesting machine such as a conventional combine harvester.
Another object of the invention is to reduce the operational cost of carrying out a grain harvesting method of the type disclosed in the patents mentioned above.
Another object of the invention, at least in its preferred forms, is to improve the effectiveness of the harvesting unit used to separate the graff from the crop stalks in the field.
Another object of the invention, at least in its preferred forms, is to improve the effectiveness of the grain cleaning mill used to separate grain from the remainder of the graff at a fixed site and to process crop the residue.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of harvesting and cleaning a plant crop, wherein the crop is cut from a field area and threshed in a mobile harvesting unit to produce stalks that are returned to the field area and “graff”, a mixture including grain, chaff and weed seeds, which is collected within the harvesting unit; the collected graff is transferred periodically from the harvesting unit to at least one vehicle and transported by said at least one vehicle to a cleaning mill, and the graff is cleaned by the cleaning mill to produce a cleaned grain product and “millings”, a mixture including chaff and weed seeds. To avoid problems caused by the poor flow characteristics and very low density of graff, the method is operated to avoid storage of the graff prior to cleaning by the cleaning mill.
What we mean by avoiding storage of the graff prior to cleaning is that the graff is not transferred to any temporary storage container or storage pile from the time it is produced by the harvester to the time it is cleaned by the cleaning mill. The graff is held only in the harvester unit and the vehicle, and is fed immediately into the cleaning mill. Consequently, the use of stationary surge bins and the like at the cleaning mill or other area is specifically avoided. The graff is fed directly from the harvesting unit to the vehicle, and directly from the vehicle to the a receiving unit for the cleaning mill from which it is fed substantially immediately and completely into the cleaning mill.
Thus, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for harvesting and cleaning a plant crop, which includes a harvesting unit for cutting a crop from a field area and for threshing the cut crop to produce stalks that are returned to the field area and “graff”, a mixture including grain, chaff and weed seeds, which is collected within the harvesting unit; at least one vehicle for receiving collected graff from the harvester unit when the harvesting unit is at least partially full, and for transporting the graff to a cleaning mill; and a cleaning mill located at a site (yard area) remote from the field area, for cleaning the graff to produce a cleaned grain product and “millings”, a mixture containing chaff and weed seeds. The system specifically excludes and avoids the use of any device for storage of the graff prior to cleaning of the graff in the cleaning mill.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a stationary cleaning mill for graff, comprising an entrance (usually located at an elevated position) for the graff, screening apparatus for separating grain from the graff to produce cleaned grain and millings, and separate outlets for the cleaned grain and millings. The cleaning mill includes a receiving unit for the graff for feeding the graff to the entrance of the graff cleaning mill, the receiving unit being sized to permit a graff delivery vehicle to drive into the receiving unit to transfer an entire vehicle load of graff to the receiving unit by a direct dumping operation of the entire vehicle load.
In another aspect, t
McLeod Robert H.
Parson Kenneth Ross
Schadlich David Rodney
Kovács Árpád Fab
McLeod Harvest Inc.
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