A concave for an agricultural combine includes threshing beds carried by a base frame and forming openings therebetween for grain to pass through. Each threshing bed includes a first end, a second end, a length from the first end to the second end, an inner extremity, an outer extremity, and a separating grate extending across one of the openings for separating grain from threshed crop material. The separating grate extends along the length between the first end and the second end, is between the inner extremity and the outer extremity and includes grate openings and spaced-apart bars. The bars are between adjacent grate openings and include struts each connecting two adjacent parts of the separating grate between adjacent grate openings and severed bars each including bar segments extending inwardly toward one another to respective free ends on either side of a gap between adjacent grate openings.

A harvesting machine including a cutting head configured to provide cut crop for threshing. The harvesting machine includes a conveyer disposed adjacent to the cutting head and configured to move the cut crop to be threshed along a path. A thresher is configured to thresh the cut crop to provide threshed grain from the cut crop. A separator is disposed adjacently to the thresher and is configured to separate debris from the threshed grain. A feed accelerator is disposed between the conveyor and the thresher, wherein the feed accelerator is configured to advance the cut crop along the path from the conveyor to the thresher. A pre-threshing device is disposed adjacently to the feed accelerator, wherein the feed accelerator interacts with the pre-threshing device to provide threshed grain, and the pre-threshing device is configured to collect the threshed grain before the remaining cut crop is threshed at the thresher.

The present invention provides an improved dust control system for removing debris and particulate matter from a fouled air stream. The system may be incorporated into crop harvesting equipment to eliminate the dust pollution generated by conventional harvesting equipment. The dust control system may use a multi-stage air filtering process that employs inertial separation techniques to eliminate particulate matter from the fouled air, without the need for water or electrostatic mechanisms to capture the fine particulates in the fouled air.

A combine harvester is disclosed with an infeed arrangement for receiving the harvested material, with a threshing device for degraining the harvested material, and with a cleaning device that is downstream from the threshing device for segregating the harvested material, and thereby separating the grain from the non-grain components. The cleaning device has a sieve device that can rotate about a rotational axis with an at least sectionally sieve-shaped sieve jacket that extends in a peripheral direction around the rotational axis. Separating the grain from the non-grain components is performed by the cleaning device by superimposing a rotary movement and oscillating movement of the sieve jacket such that the oscillating movement is directed transverse to the rotational axis of the sieve device, wherein the oscillating movement is caused by a segmentation of the sieve jacket in a peripheral direction, and a swinging of each peripheral segment of the sieve jacket about a pivot axis associated with the respective peripheral segment.

A combine harvester is disclosed with an infeed arrangement for receiving the harvested material, with a threshing device for degraining the harvested material, and with a cleaning device that is downstream from the threshing device for segregating the harvested material, and thereby a separating the grain from the non-grain components. The cleaning device includes has a sieve device that can rotate about a rotational axis with an at least sectionally sieve-shaped sieve jacket that extends in a peripheral direction around the rotational axis. Separating the grain from the non-grain components is performed by the cleaning device by superimposing a rotary movement and oscillating movement of the sieve jacket such that the oscillating movement is directed transverse to the rotational axis of the sieve device.

A separating and cleaning mechanism for an agricultural combine may include: a return pan. The return pan includes a textured floor, two augers, and two motors coupled to the two augers, respectively, to selectively drive the motors in rotation independently. The textured floor may oscillate in a fore-and-aft direction to move grain toward the two augers.

Weed seeds are destroyed in the chaff from a combine harvester by repeated high speed impacts caused by a rotor mounted in one of a pair of side by side housings which accelerate the discarded seeds in a direction centrifugally away from the rotor onto a stator including angularly adjustable stator surfaces around the axis. Thus the discarded seeds rebound back and forth between the rotor and the stator to provide a plurality of impacts. The destructor is mounted on a suitable drive shaft within the straw path and the chaff and weed seed material is carried from the rear end of the sieve to the destructor on the straw chopper by one or more fans driving the material through a transfer duct.

A threshing and separating system including a non-stationary rotor cage including a perforated cylindrical body extending in a longitudinal direction from a first open end portion to a second open end portion. The first open end portion supported by a first rotatable coupling point, and the second open end portion supported by a second rotatable coupling point. The threshing and separating system also includes a rotor configured to rotate within the non-stationary rotor cage to thresh harvested crop. The non-stationary rotor cage is configured to rotate about an axis extending between the first rotatable coupling point and the second rotatable coupling point, and to be rotationally driven by the rotor via the threshed harvested crop.

A rotary sieve cleaning shoe for cleaning grain, having at least one rotary sieve with a generally cylindrical volume arranged to rotate around a longitudinal axis and having at least one beater bar within the cylinder which remains stationary when the rotary sieve rotates.

A rotary sieve cleaning shoe including a housing containing one or more rotary sieves, each sieve with a longitudinal axis and the housing is mounted to a combine harvester, by an actuator which is configured to vary the angle between the plane of the combine harvester and the longitudinal axis of at least one rotary sieve.