ADJUSTABLE STOP FOR FEEDER HOUSE DRUM

Abstract

An agricultural harvesting machine includes a feederhouse having a conveyor and a feederhouse drum. An adjustable stop limits the position of the distance between slats of the conveyor and a floor of the feederhouse. The stop includes a member attached to the feederhouse drum and a spacer rotatably mounted on the member that co-operatively engages with a shaped portion of the member in at least two orientations in which rotation of the spacer is prevented. The spacer engages the feederhouse, and each orientation results in a different spacing of the member and the feederhouse drum relative to the feederhouse.

Claims

1. A feederhouse for an agricultural harvesting machine, the feederhouse comprising: a feederhouse body comprising a floor; a conveyor comprising a plurality of slats; a feederhouse drum configured to drive the conveyor along the floor of the feederhouse body; an adjustable stop configured to limit a distance between the slats of the conveyor and the floor of the feederhouse, wherein the stop comprises: a member attached to the feederhouse drum; and a spacer rotatably mounted on the member for co-operatively engaging with a shaped portion of the member in at least two different orientations in which rotation of the spacer is prevented, wherein the spacer is configured to engage the feederhouse body and wherein each of the at least two different orientation results in a different distance from the member and the feederhouse drum to the feederhouse floor.

2. The feederhouse of claim 1, wherein the shaped portion of the member defines at least one spline formed on an outside surface thereof.

3. The feederhouse of claim 1, wherein the member has a shape selected from the group consisting of tubular, cylindrical, and square.

4. The feederhouse of claim 1, wherein the shaped portion of the member has at least two longitudinal grooves formed on an outside surface thereof.

5. The feederhouse of claim 1, wherein the member defines an annular groove followed by a ring, wherein the groove is operable to retain a position of a spring connected to an anchor point on an external face of the feederhouse.

6. The feederhouse of claim 1, wherein the member is fixedly attached to an outside of a front roller of a feeder conveyor.

7. The feederhouse of claim 6, wherein the member is fixedly attached to the outside of the front roller by bolts.

8. The feederhouse of claim 1, wherein the member defines an aperture configured to receive a shaft-locking pin.

9. The feederhouse of claim 1, wherein a bottom edge of the spacer rests on top of a shelf portion of the feederhouse body.

10. The feederhouse of claim 9, further comprising a spring operable to bias the bottom edge of the spacer against the shelf portion of the feederhouse body.

11. The feederhouse of claim 9, wherein the spacer defines an aperture shaped to receive and co-operatively engage with the shaped portion of the member and the aperture has at least one spline formed on an inner surface of the aperture.

12. The feederhouse of claim 9, wherein the spacer defines an aperture which is shaped to receive and co-operatively engage with the shaped portion of the member and the aperture has at least two longitudinal grooves formed on an inner surface of the aperture.

13. The feederhouse of claim 1, wherein the spacer defines an aperture shaped to receive and co-operatively engage with the shaped portion of the member.

14. The feederhouse of claim 13, wherein the aperture has at least one spline formed on an inner surface of the aperture.

15. The feederhouse of claim 13, wherein the aperture has at least two longitudinal grooves formed on an inner surface of the aperture.

16. The feederhouse of claim 1, wherein the spacer has a boss.

17. The feederhouse of claim 14, wherein the boss has at least two locking apertures.

18. The feederhouse of claim 1, wherein the conveyor comprises a chain-and-slat conveyor.

19. An agricultural machine comprising the feederhouse of claim 1.

20. The agricultural machine of claim 18, wherein the feederhouse is configured to detachably support a cutting header.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0036] Further advantages will become apparent from reading the following description of specific embodiments with reference to the drawings, in which:

[0037] FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a combine harvester.

[0038] FIG. 2 is an end view of a spacer 111 having an aperture 120 with longitudinal grooves formed on the inside surface of the aperture.

[0039] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a member 110 having splines formed on the outside surface of a shaped portion of the member 111.

[0040] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the spacer 111 in a first orientation and engaged with the shaped portion of the member 110.

[0041] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the spacer 111 in the first orientation and engaged with the shaped portion of the member 110 and with a shaft-locking pin 112.

[0042] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the spacer 111, member 110, and shaft-locking pin 112 in a second orientation.

[0043] FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the spacer 111, member 110, and shaft-locking pin 112 in the second orientation and engaged with a shelf 123 of a feederhouse.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0044] FIG. 1 illustrates in schematic form the main components of crop processing systems of a combine harvester 10. The crop processing system is shown in solid lines and the outline profile of harvester 10 is shown in ghost form. Thereafter, a specific embodiment will be described.

[0045] Combine harvester 10, hereinafter referred to as ‘combine,’ includes a frame 12 supported on front wheels 14 and rear steerable wheels 16 that engage the ground 101. A driver's cab 18 is also supported on the frame 12 and houses a driver's station from which a driver controls the combine 10.

[0046] A cutting header 20 is detachably supported on the front of a feederhouse 22 which is pivotable about a transverse axis x to lift and lower the header 20.

[0047] The combine 10 is driven in a forward direction (arrow F) across a field of standing crop 102. The header 20 cuts and gathers the standing crop 102 before conveying such as a crop material stream into a feederhouse 22.

[0048] A conveyor 24, which may be in the form of a chain-and-slat conveyor, is housed within the feederhouse 22 and operates to convey the crop material stream upwardly and rearwardly from the header 20 to a crop processor 26.

[0049] A front feederhouse drum 25 floats vertically, although stops are provided to maintain a small clearance between slats of the conveyor 24 and the feederhouse floor below the drum 25. As the crop material stream moves through the opening of the feederhouse 22, it is pulled under the drum 25 by the slats and moved upwardly and rearwardly along the feederhouse floor below the drum 25. The drum 25 is typically biased downward by a spring.

[0050] An adjustable stop enables the feederhouse drum 25 to be quickly adjusted by changing the position of the slats of the conveyor 24 relative and a floor of the feederhouse 22 when moving from smaller grain to larger grain and vice versa. Example embodiments will now be described with reference to FIGS. 2-7.

[0051] FIG. 2 shows a spacer 111 having a first lateral dimension (A) and a different second lateral dimension (B). This difference in lateral dimension enables the spacer to be used in at least two spacer orientations or locking positions, which in combination with splines either on an outside surface of a shaped portion of a member 110 (see FIG. 3 and discussion below) or an inner surface of an aperture of the spacer 111 and longitudinal grooves either on the outside surface of the shaped portion of the member or the inner surface of the aperture of the spacer 111, permit the stop position of the drum 25 to be changed to adjust the distance between slats of the conveyor 24 and a floor of the feederhouse 22.

[0052] In an embodiment, the spacer 111 as shown in FIG. 2 has eight cutaway sections 122 to reduce the weight of the spacer 111 without sacrificing physical properties.

[0053] The spacer 111 in FIG. 2 has an aperture 120 with 7 longitudinal grooves 114 formed on the inside surface of the aperture 120. Four of the longitudinal grooves 114 are larger so as to prevent rotation of the spacer and the other 3 smaller longitudinal grooves define allowed positions to prevent inadvertent positioning errors. The aperture 120 of the spacer 111 is configured to receive and co-operatively engage with the shaped portion of the member, which has 7 corresponding splines formed on the outside surface of the shaped portion of the member.

[0054] FIG. 3 shows a member 110 that can be attached to the outside of a front roller of the feeder conveyor 24, such as by bolts. The member 110 has a shaped portion 113 structured for engagement with the aperture 120 of the spacer 111, which has corresponding longitudinal grooves 114 that align with splines 115 formed on the outside surface of the shaped portion 113 of the member 110. As shown in FIG. 3, the shaped portion of the member 110 may have four larger splines and three smaller splines, which can engage or align with the corresponding four larger longitudinal grooves and three smaller grooves formed on the inside surface of the aperture 120 of the spacer 111.

[0055] Four of the longitudinal grooves 114 on the inside surface of the aperture 120 of the spacer 111 are larger to prevent rotation of the spacer 111, whereas the other three smaller longitudinal grooves 114 prevent inadvertent positioning of the spacer 111.

[0056] FIGS. 4 and 5 show the engagement of the shaped portion 113 of the member 110 with the aperture 120 of the spacer 111 in a first orientation of the spacer 111. FIGS. 6 and 7 show the engagement of the shaped portion 113 of the member 110 with the aperture 120 of the spacer 111 in a second orientation of the spacer 111. As shown in FIG. 7, the bottom edge of the spacer 111 engages the feederhouse 22, resting on top of a shelf portion 123 of the housing against which it is pulled down by a spring 121. In the first orientation of the spacer 111 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the distance between the slats of the conveyor 24 and a floor of the feederhouse 22 is decreased such that smaller grain can be conveyed effectively. This is due to the spacer 111 having a smaller lateral dimension (B), which is perpendicular to a shelf portion 123 mounted onto the feederhouse 22 when the spacer 111 is in the first orientation, which means the distance from the center of the member 110 to the shelf portion 123 is smaller than the distance from the center of the member 110 to the shelf portion 123 when the spacer 111 is in its second orientation (i.e., the orientation of FIGS. 6 and 7, in which the larger lateral dimension (A) is perpendicular to the shelf portion 123 mounted onto the feederhouse 22). The distal end of the member 110 is pulled down by the spring 121, which rests on an annular groove.

[0057] When larger grain such as corn is to be conveyed effectively or when there is a high throughput, the position of the spacer 111 can be altered manually to the second orientation or locking position as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. This is achieved by removing an optional shaft-locking pin 112 to allow the spacer 111 to slide along the shaped portion of the member 110 towards the direction of the spring 121. If no shaft-locking pin 112 is present, the spacer 111 slides along the portion of the member 110 towards the direction of the spring 121 to a section which has no splines or longitudinal grooves. The spacer 111 is then turned accordingly to a second locking position, which corresponds to a second orientation of the spacer 111. The spacer 111 is then slid back along the member 110 to allow for engagement of the aperture 120 of the spacer 111, which has longitudinal grooves 114 in or on the inside surface of the aperture 120 corresponding to the splines 115 formed on the outside surface of the shaped portion 113 of the member 110. The optional shaft-locking pin 112 is inserted into a locking aperture 118 of a boss 119 of the spacer 111 and into an aperture 117 in the member 110 to secure the position of the spacer 111 in the second locking position. In this second orientation of the spacer 111 or second locking position, the distance between the slats and the feederhouse floor below the drum 25 is increased so that larger grain such as corn can be conveyed without risk of damage. The second orientation of the spacer 111 or second locking position can also be used for when there is high throughput of crop.

[0058] As shown in FIG. 7, the bottom edge of the spacer 111 engages the feederhouse 22, resting on top of the shelf portion 123 of the housing against which it is pulled down by the spring 121. In the second orientation of the spacer 111 as shown in FIG. 7, the spacer 111 has a larger lateral dimension (A) perpendicular to the shelf portion 123 attached to the feederhouse 22, which means the distance of the center of the member 110 to the shelf portion 123 is greater than the distance of the center of the member 110 to the shelf portion 123 when the spacer 111 is in the first orientation. The distal end of the member 110 is pulled down by the spring 121, which rests on an annular groove.

[0059] While the present disclosure has been described herein with respect to certain illustrated embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize and appreciate that it is not so limited. Rather, many additions, deletions, and modifications to the illustrated embodiments may be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure as hereinafter claimed, including legal equivalents thereof. In addition, features from one embodiment may be combined with features of another embodiment while still being encompassed within the scope as contemplated by the inventor. Further, embodiments of the disclosure have utility with different and various machine types and configurations