A grain cleaning system in a combine harvester including a pair of side walls, a rear wall that extends between the side walls, a sieve that oscillates in a fore-and-aft path between the side walls, a fan unit for generating a cleaning airstream, and an outlet for discharging residue from a grain-cleaning process. The outlet is framed in part by a lower edge of the rear wall. An aperture is provided in the rear wall to provide air relief to enhance the fore-to-aft flow of the cleaning airstream. Optionally, an auxiliary fan may drive air through the aperture.

A return pan for an agricultural combine includes a textured floor, two augers, and two motors coupled to the two augers, respectively, to selectively drive the motors in rotation.

An agricultural grain cleaner includes an inlet chute having an inlet end and an outlet end positioned below the inlet end. A crop distribution member is positioned adjacent the outlet end of the inlet chute. The crop distribution member includes a distribution disc rotatable relative to the inlet chute about a vertical central axis to impart a horizontal trajectory, away from the central axis, to crop material supplied to the distribution disc from the inlet chute. A fan is operable to generate an air stream from below the crop distribution member, across the horizontal trajectory, to an air-chaff outlet. A grain collection chute has an inlet to receive grain that is cleaned of chaff by the air stream. A tailings collection chute is positioned adjacent to the grain collection chute on a radially inner side thereof.

Floor-standing equipment and methods that employ them use nylon netting and/or fine mesh to trim off leafy matter, break down leafy matter, and separate various aspects of plants from each other. The netting and/or fine mesh is formed into large cylindrical drum into which plant material is loaded through a door flap in the mesh cylinder. An electric motor or handcrank causes the load to tumble over and over a horizontal axle for 3-5 minutes at about 35 RPM. The plant matter trims, separates, and breaks itself down which then drops through the netting, down through a funnel bag into a basin on the floor. The flowers and/or larger plant material are then dropped out separately through the door flap in the netting and through the funnel bag into a second basin on the floor which replaced the first.

A spreader of a combine for conveying crop residue rearwardly from a rotor assembly includes a frame coupled to the combine and has a top portion adapted to receive a portion of crop residue during a harvesting operation. An impellor includes one or more blades for rotatably conveying crop residue rearwardly, and an actuator is controllably moved between an extended position and a retracted position. The actuator is pivotally coupled to the combine. A linkage assembly is pivotally coupled to the actuator at one end and to the frame at another end. The spreader is disposable in a first position when the actuator is in the extended position, and the spreader is disposable in a second position when the actuator is in the retracted position. A movement from the extended position to the retracted position induces pivotal movement of the spreader from the first position to the second position.

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 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 grain cleaning system in a combine harvester including a pair of side walls, a rear wall that extends between the side walls, a sieve that oscillates in a fore and aft path between the side walls, a fan unit for generating a cleaning airstream, and an outlet for discharging residue from a grain cleaning process. The outlet is framed in part by a lower edge of the rear wall. An aperture is provided in the rear wall to provide a means of air relief to enhance the fore to aft flow of the cleaning airstream. Optionally, an auxiliary fan may be provided to drive air through the aperture.

A combine harvester with separably driven rotor portions for threshing grain is described herein.

An agricultural grain cleaner includes an inlet chute having an inlet end and an outlet end positioned below the inlet end. A crop distribution member is positioned adjacent the outlet end of the inlet chute. The crop distribution member includes a distribution disc rotatable relative to the inlet chute about a vertical central axis to impart a horizontal trajectory, away from the central axis, to crop material supplied to the distribution disc from the inlet chute. A fan is operable to generate an air stream from below the crop distribution member, across the horizontal trajectory, to an air-chaff outlet. A grain collection chute has an inlet to receive grain that is cleaned of chaff by the air stream. A tailings collection chute is positioned adjacent to the grain collection chute on a radially inner side thereof.