Harvesters – Motorized harvester – Having motor on ground-supported carrier
Utility Patent
1999-07-30
2001-01-02
Pezzuto, Robert E. (Department: 3671)
Harvesters
Motorized harvester
Having motor on ground-supported carrier
C474S109000
Utility Patent
active
06167686
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the header of a harvester and in particular to a tensioner for a chain or belt drive for rotating components of the header.
2. Description of the Related Art
Headers for harvesters, such as a combine, typically have a crop cutting and gathering apparatus that removes a portion of the crop for subsequent processing by the harvester. The type of crop cutting and gathering apparatus varies from among header types. A platform has a cutterbar at the front and a reel to hold the crop against the cutterbar. A corn head is equipped with snapping rollers and deck plates to remove the ears of corn and gathering chains to move the ears rearward. Row crop headers have mating serpentine belts to gather and hold the crop and rotary knives to cut the crop. Once the crop has been cut, a conveying or transport device moves the crop laterally of the header to an outlet opening through which the crop moves into the feederhouse of the combine or onto the ground. The conveying device can be a crop converging auger or a draper belt.
Crop-conveying augers are typically mechanically driven from a power takeoff on the harvester. A drive shaft extending laterally along the rear of the header is coupled to the auger via a drive train having an endless flexible member, typically a chain, wrapped around sprockets. An idler engages the slack side of the chain to tension the slack side. The idler is typically in the form of a sprocket that is adjustably mounted to the header frame and is set in position to provide the desired tension. However, during operation of the header it may be necessary to reverse the direction of the auger drive train to remove a blockage of the cut crop. When this occurs, the normally slack strand of the chain now becomes the taut strand. This greatly increases the load applied to the idler. As a result, the idler must be designed with the additional load carrying capability required during the occasional reversing of the drive train direction. This adds significant cost to the frame and the idler support.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a header chain tensioner that can accommodate the reversal in the drive direction without requiring additional strength over and above what is necessary for normal operation.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide a pair of idler rollers, each supported on a pivot arm and engagable with the slack and taut strands of the chain. The pivot arms are mounted about a common pivot and are spring biased into engagement with the chain by a common spring. When the normally slack side of the chain becomes taut and assumes a straight-line position between the drive sprocket and the driven sprocket, the pivot arms will rotate about the pivot. The pivot arm on the normally taut strand, that has now become slack, will rotate to tension the now slack strand. A spring operatively coupled to the two pivot arms urges the tensioning rollers against the two strands of the chain and provide a fixed tensioning force on the chain that does not require adjustment. Alternatively, the two pivot arms can be adjustably fixed to one another by a bolt and nut assembly to provide an adjustable tensioning force on the chain.
The pivot supporting the two pivot arms of the chain tensioner can also be used to pivotally support an idler for an additional drive train if necessary. A harvesting platform typically includes a belt drive for a cutterbar at the front of the platform. The cutterbar can be driven by the same input drive shaft having a sheave thereon adjacent to the sprocket for the auger drive train. The belt extends to a sheave on the knife drive gearbox and has an idler to provide tension to the drive belt. By mounting the belt idler to the same pivot supporting the chain tensioner pivot arms, the number of mounting connections to the platform frame can be reduced.
While the invention is shown in the context of a platform having a cutterbar as the crop collecting apparatus, the tensioner can be used in other headers including corn heads having snapping rollers to remove the ears. In addition, while the tensioner is shown in the context of a chain drive, the tensioner can by used with a belt drive or other drive train having an endless member.
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Becker Klaus Ernst
McCredie Paul John
Deere & Company
Kováacs ÁArpáad Fáabiáan
Pezzuto Robert E.
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