A crop harvesting header having a frame mounted on a propulsion vehicle has a cutter bar carrying a sickle knife and a draper transport. The draper is guided at its front edge by a longitudinally extending rail mounted on the frame for movement therewith. The cutter bar is mounted on the frame at spaced positions by spring blades attached to a fixed beam at the rear which allow up and down flexing movement of the cutter bar relative to the draper engagement member. At the center discharge the cutter bar is carried on shorter blades which are carried on a beam in front of the front draper roller. The small amount of flexing of the cutter bar combines with a balanced three piece header frame to provide effective ground following.

A draper head (2) for attachment to a harvesting machine (4) is provided. In order to be able to effortlessly equip the draper head (2) with an active fan, with which grains and ears of corn are blown in the direction of the belt conveyor device (12) in the region of the blade bar (8), a retrofitting interface (18) is provided, at which either a closed cover profile sheet (26) or an angle profile sheet (50) that is provided with air outlet openings (52) can be installed in the installation space (20).

A feeder housing for an agricultural harvester includes: a housing; a conveyor system disposed in the housing, the conveyor system including a drive shaft, at least one drive loop coupled to the drive shaft such that rotation of the drive shaft causes rotation of the at least one drive loop, and a plurality of crop grabbers coupled to the at least one drive loop; a rock beater disposed in the housing and including a rotatable beater roll and at least one fin carried by the beater roll; and a motor coupled to the beater roll and configured to rotate the beater roll. The motor is an electrically powered motor or a hydraulically powered motor. The motor is coupled to the beater roll such that the motor is configured to rotate the beater roll without rotating the drive shaft.

A combine includes a feeder housing that include a movable cradle frame at the front, configured to receive a header, so that a controlled movement of the cradle frame may be imparted to the header during a harvesting run. The combine further includes a driveline for driving moving components of the combine header. The driveline includes a belt drive mounted laterally with respect to the feeder housing. The belt drive is configured to transfer a rotation of a first drive axle that is part of the driveline, to a rotation of a second axle to which a drive axle of the header can be coupled. The belt drive includes two pulleys which are maintained in a common plane regardless of movement of the header relative to the feeder housing. The pulleys are rotatably mounted in a longitudinally extendable bridge structure, and are coupled to the first and second axles.

A combine includes a feeder housing that include a movable cradle frame at the front, configured to receive a header, so that a controlled movement of the cradle frame may be imparted to the header during a harvesting run. The combine further includes a driveline for driving moving components of the combine header. The driveline includes a belt drive mounted laterally with respect to the feeder housing. The belt drive is configured to transfer a rotation of a first drive axle that is part of the driveline, to a rotation of a second axle to which a drive axle of the header can be coupled. The belt drive includes two pulleys which are maintained in a common plane regardless of movement of the header relative to the feeder housing. The pulleys are rotatably mounted in a longitudinally extendable bridge structure, and are coupled to the first and second axles.

A crop divider includes a housing including an interior cavity and an adjustment assembly disposed within the interior cavity of the housing. In an embodiment, the adjustment assembly is configured to adjust a height of the housing relative to ground. In an embodiment, the adjustment assembly includes an adjustment handle disposed within the interior cavity and a pivot disposed vertically above the adjustment handle within the interior cavity of the housing. In an embodiment, the housing is configured to rotate about an axis through the pivot in response to rotation of the adjustment handle.

In a combine harvester (10), the forward-directed driveline from the combine is coupled to the transversely oriented header drive axle through a transverse gearbox (26) that is mounted on a moveable cradle frame (20) onto which the header is mounted. in addition, the housing (28) of the gearbox or at least the portion of the housing including the input axle of the gearbox is rotatably arranged relative to the cradle frame (20), about a rotation axis oriented transversely to the combine's forward direction. A mechanical link (45) is furthermore provided between the rotatable gearbox housing (portion) (28) and the feeder housing (11), configured to control the orientation of the input axle (29) of the transverse gearbox, so as to maintain the alignment of the input axle (29) relative to the driveline of the combine.

A method for operating a combine harvester configured with a number of working assemblies driven by at least one belt drive, and a ground drive, wherein the at least one belt drive and the ground drive are driven by a main drive comprising an engine, monitors for and accommodates slip. The working assemblies are monitored by sensors with respect to an occurrence of slip in the at least one belt drive. Signals representing slip are transmitted to a control device. The control device is connected to an input/output. The signals representing the slip are evaluated by the control device and the result is weighted. Depending on the weighting of the result, at least one measure is initiated by the control device, which results in a reduction of the slip and the at least one initiated measure is signalled by the input/output unit.

A control system and method for adjusting a rotational speed of a header on an agricultural vehicle based on ground speed of the agricultural vehicle. The header may include a plurality of cutters rotatably actuated with a header actuator. The control system may have a processor that compares a ground speed of the agricultural vehicle with a threshold ground speed. If the ground speed of the agricultural vehicle is below the threshold ground speed, the processor may command the header actuator to rotate the cutters at a constant predetermined rotational speed. If the ground speed of the agricultural vehicle is above the threshold ground speed, the processor may command the header actuator to increase rotational speed of the cutters in proportion to the ground speed of the agricultural vehicle.

In a combine harvester, the driveline coupling mechanism is configured to couple the header driveline to a jackshaft (22) extending from the feeder (8). The mechanism includes a pendulum arm (36) that is pivotably connected to the header (1). An actuator (45) is furthermore provided for driving a pivoting motion of the pendulum arm (36) about a pivot axis (37) oriented transversely with respect to the jackshaft. At the end of the pendulum arm, a bearing hub (30) is mounted including a shaft portion (32) that is rotatably coupled to the header driveline at one end and that includes one part (60) of a clutch at the other end. The second part (62) of the clutch is mounted on the jackshaft (22). The pivoting motion of the pendulum arm (36), driven by the actuator (45), closes or releases the clutch.