AU709528B2

AU709528B2 - Stalk puller and chopper assembly

Info

Publication number: AU709528B2
Application number: AU24906/97A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Peter Lloyd Mansur
Original assignee: Great Western Corp Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Great Western Corp Pty Ltd
Priority date: 1996-06-14
Filing date: 1997-06-16
Publication date: 1999-09-02
Anticipated expiration: 2017-06-16
Also published as: AU2490697A

Description

STALK PULLER AND CHOPPER ASSEMBLY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. FIELD OF INVENTION THIS INVENTION relates to a stalk puller and chopper assembly and in particular but not limited to an assembly suited to pulling and mulching cotton stalks.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART The following patents deal with stalk pulling apparatus of various kinds and ~also apparatus employing cutters to provide mulching.

15 Australian Patent No. 652375 to ARIZONA DRIP SYSTEMS INC et al describes a stalk puller employing self driven discs but there is no arrangement to mulch the stalks once they are extracted. The stalks must be gathered and burned or mulched separately.

0%Australian Patent Application No 47427/93 to QUICK describes a cotton 20 stalk puller where belts extract stalks and then a series of conveyors and screws deliver the stalks to a hammer mill for mulching. This puller is complex and expensive to make and maintain and the components are prone to become clogged with dirt.

Australian Patent No. 541023 and Australian Patent Application No.

80108/82 both to S. BEN-DOR LIMITED describe a stalk extracting and shredding implement where stalks are extracted by a pair of wheels, the stalks are then transferred to an oblique conveyor then to a set of four feeder rollers which feed the stalks into a shredder where a rotating shredder chops the stalks against stationary blades. This particular unit, as in the case of the previous unit is

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expensive to make and maintain and the components, particularly the stationary cutter blades are prone to become clogged and ineffective.

Australian Patent No. 657649 to STOKES describes a trash plant stem shredding apparatus which is quite similar to the S. BEN-DOR unit in that it employs wheel type extractors and feed rollers feeding the stalks into a chopper; but a different geometry is employed. Nevertheless the chopper used is still prone to become clogged.

Australian Patent Application No. 55037/86 to McLEAN describes a stalk puller and chopper assembly employing an arrangement similar to the S. BENo 10 DOR arrangement but the shredder employs two overlapping contra-rotating shredder blades. The stalks are still fed adjacent fixed cutters, in this case formed by openings in a shroud, the edges of the openings effectively provide fixed blades against which cutting takes place. This apparatus is also prone to become clogged.

o 15 Australian PatentApplication No. 49124/93 describes a shredder where nib rollers mounted on a tool bar in front of contra-rotating shredders pluck plants which are then shredded by the following shredders. This machine does not exercise any control over shredding.

Australian Patent No. 485,855 describes a stalk puller and shredder employing cone shaped feeders delivering stalks to a chopper assembly.

UK Patent No. 2245472 describes a chopping machine employing contra-rotating intersecting cutting blades which also link with spaced countercutters having disc shaped notched blades. The cutting blades have pivotally mounted Y-shaped ends that fit either side of the counter-cutters.

4 One major problem with the prior art arrangements is that the cutters are prone to become clogged with soil thereby reducing efficiency of the chopper.

Another problem of maintenance and expense arise due to the complexity, the machines usually involve chains, conveyors and feed rollers all adding to costs.

In addition there is little or any control over the orientation of stalks delivered to the cutters so cutting efficiency is compromised.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a stalk puller and •chopper assembly where a chopper assembly having a plurality of chopper blades 10 is operatively disposed relative to a feeder where the feeder interacts directly with the chopper by evenly feeding stalks sideways rather than endwise into the chopper, the feeder having a plurality of non-stationary anvils against which chopper blades chop the stalks, the relative disposition, relative speed of rotation of the anvils and chopper blades and position of the stalks during the chopping 15 action results in a self cleaning of the anvils and blades in order to inhibit clogging.

In one preferred form the stalk puller and chopper assembly comprises a puller means located upstream of a feeder means, the feeder means having an upstream end receiving stalks from the puller means and a downstream end delivering the stalks to the chopper, the downstream end of feeder and chopper being arranged in overlapping disposition so that the feeder provides nonstationary cutting anvils for the chopper, the action of the mobile cutting anvils and the chopper serving to inhibit clogging of the chopper.

The puller means preferably comprises a pair of contra-rotating inclined wheels. The feeder means preferably comprises a guide means feeding stalks into an array of rotating toothed feeder blades and there being associated therewith contra-rotating cutting blades arranged in alternating inter-digital relation with the feeder blades in order to chop stalks carried by the feeder blades.

The axis of rotation of the puller wheels, the feeder blades and the cutter blades are preferably parallel.

Preferably there are two pairs of cutting blades for each feeder blade with each a pair of cutting blades being spaced so that the feeder blades pass between 10 them in closely spaced relation.

In a further preferred embodiment the present invention resides in a modular stalk puller and chopper assembly comprising spaced modular assemblies supported by spaced wheels, each modular assembly comprising a frame module holding a puller shaft module, the puller shaft module driving contra-rotating puller wheels at a lower end thereof, a feeder shaft module carrying an array of feeder blades and a cutter shaft module carrying an array of cutter blades, the modules being arranged for operative travel of a stalk from the puller wheels through the feeder blades in a sideways orientation into the cutter blades.

In another preferred embodiment the present invention provides a compact stalk puller and chopper assembly comprising a frame, a puller shaft driving contra-rotating puller wheels at a lower end thereof, a feeder shaft having an array of feeder blades and a cutter shaft having an array of cutter blades, the feeder shaft and cutter shaft rotating about respective axes of rotation, the axis of rotation of the feeder shaft being disposed generally centrally in the frame between and behind the puller wheels and the axis of rotation of the cutter shaft being offset from and marginally outside the axis of rotation of the feeder shaft.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order that the present invention can be more readily understood and be put into practical effect reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention and wherein:- Figure 1 is a plan view illustrating operation of the row unit comprising a 10 pair of stalk puller and chopper assemblies according to the present invention shown drawn behind a tractor; Figure 2 is a side view illustrating a stalk puller and chopper assembly oooi according to the present invention; Figure 3A is a section through a typical stalk puller and chopper assembly 15 of the present invention illustrating the passage of a stalk through the assembly; Figure 3B is a schematic plan view showing the relative disposition of components of the two row stalk puller and chopper assembly of the embodiments of Figures 1-3A; Figure 3C is a view similar to Figure 3B but showing the repositioning of the feeder and cutter shafts to provide a more compact modular assembly in order to cater for more rows and simpler modular construction; Figure 4A is a plan view of a frame module corresponding to the assembly of Figure 3C; Figures 4B, 4C and 4D are drawings illustrating a cutter shaft module, feeder shaft module and puller shaft module respectively for assembly into the frame module of Figures 4A and Figure 5 is a perspective view of a frame module corresponding to the plan view of Figure 4A; and Figures 6 and 7 are schematic side views illustrating a four row unit made up of modules showing the unit in its operative stalk pulling position and in its transport position respectively.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 10 Referring to the drawings and initially to Figure 1 there is illustrated a stalk puller and chopper assembly 10 drawn behind a tractor 11, the stalk puller and chopper assembly comprising a puller means in the form of a pair of contrarotating rubber wheels 12 and 13 on a shaft 21. The wheels are located upstream of a feeder means comprising a pair of guide plates 14 and 15 and an array of 15 toothed feeder blades 16 mounted on a feeder shaft 17. The guide plates cooperate with the wheels and the rotating feeder blades 16 to deliver stalks extracted by the wheels to a downstream chopper assembly 19 where chopper blades 18 on shaft 22 shred the stalks which are then discharged rearwardly at in the form of mulch. As can be seen the stalks are controllably delivered sideways into the choppers. The clearance between the cutter blades 18 and the anvils of the toothed feeder blades is exaggerated in the drawings with the usual clearance being about 2mm. The toothed feeder blades rotate at approximately 100 RPM while the cutter blades rotate at approximately 900 RPM, the interaction between the blades and the toothed wheels and the stalks being 8 chopped results in a self cleaning action of the toothed feeder blades and cutter blades thereby inhibiting any clogging.

The stalk puller and chopper assembly described above is a relatively large machine and efforts to increase its capacity, to say four rows, by scaling it up to include extra pullers, feeders and choppers results in a machine that is too cumbersome.

In addition to this, the manufacturing process cannot readily adapt to packaging the machine for transport particularly for export purposes.

In the embodiment described below the stalk puller and chopper assembly 10 is configured where its capacity is increased but where the assembly has a more o °o e :.compact construction.

The previous embodiment is a dual row unit whereas the following embodiment provides for four rows by providing a multi-row stalk puller and chopper assembly of modular construction to facilitate manufacture and assembly.

15 As can be seen the unit illustrated in Figure 1 is suspended on a three point linkage to the tractor 11 and in the embodiment of Figure 1 two assemblies .can be used to extract spent plants from two rows behind the tractor.

The position of the shafts 17, 21 and 22 is shown in Figure 3B and as can be seen this arrangement provides a relatively wide assembly.

Figure 3C illustrates an alternative assembly where the shafts 21, 17 and 22 have been repositioned so that the assembly is narrower and therefore more compact so that four such units can be placed side by side. The units can be mounted on a supporting wheel assembly to increase the capacity of the unit to four rows.

This embodiment of the invention as compared to Figure 1 is illustrated in Figures 6 and 7 where the position of the wheel assembly is shown. The operation of the contra-rotating puller wheels, feeder and cutters remains unchanged notwithstanding the repositioning of the shafts 17, 21 and 22.

In order to facilitate assembly of a stalk puller and chopper assembly each stalk puller and chopper assembly is made from modular components and these are illustrated in Figures 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D and 5 where Figures 4A and 5 illustrate a frame module, Figure 4B illustrates a cutter shaft module, Figure 4C illustrates aa feeder shaft module and Figure 4D illustrates a puller shaft module. It will be 10 appreciated that one of the puller wheels is mounted as an idler wheel. As can POaa

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be seen in Figures 4A and 5, the frame module 23 hooks over a tool bar using the hook type attachments 24 and 25 and includes provision for mounting of the

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respective modules of Figures 4B, 4C and 4D at 26, 27 and 28 respectively.

Figure 4A shows the respective bearings in place at 26 and 27.

15 Four of these modules are stacked side by side as illustrated in Figures 6 and 7 with a pair of spaced wheels one of which can be seen in Figures 6 and 7. The arrangement utilises a two point linkage illustrated at 31 to move the puller and chopper assembly from its operative pulling position illustrated in Figure 6 to a raised transport position illustrated in Figure 7.

Whilst the above had been given away by way of illustrative example of the present invention may modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the broad ambit and scope of the invention as herein set forth in the appended claims.

THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS: 1. A stalk puller and chopper assembly where a chopper assembly having a plurality of chopper blades is operatively disposed relative to a feeder where the feeder interacts directly with the chopper blades by evenly feeding stalks sideways rather than endwise into the chopper blades, the feeder having a plurality of nonstationary anvils against which the chopper blades chop the stalks in a chopping action, the relative disposition, relative speed of rotation of the anvils and chopper blades and position of the stalks during the chopping action results in a self cleaning of the anvils and blades in order to inhibit clogging, the stalk puller 10 and chopper assembly comprises a puller means located upstream of the feeder, the feeder having an upstream end receiving stalks from the puller means and a downstream end delivering the stalks to the chopper blades, the downstream end of feeder and the chopper blades being arranged in overlapping disposition.

2. A stalk puller and chopper assembly according to claim 1 wherein the 15 puller means comprises a pair of contra-rotating inclined wheels, the feeder comprises a guide means and an array of rotating toothed feeder blades and there being associated therewith the chopper blades in the form of contra-rotating chopper blades arranged in alternating inter-digital relation with the feeder blades in order to chop stalks carried by the feeder blades.

3. A stalk puller and chopper assembly according to claim 2 wherein the puller wheels, feeder blades and chopper blades rotate around respective axes, the axes of rotation of the puller wheels, the feeder blades and the chopper blades being substantially parallel to each other and inclined to the horizontal.

Claims

4. A stalk puller and chopper assembly according to claim 1 wherein there are two pairs of chopper blades for each feeder blade with each a pair of chopper blades being spaced so that the feeder blades pass between them in closely spaced relation.
5. A stalk puller and chopper assembly according to claim 1 wherein the assembly comprises spaced modular assemblies supported by spaced wheels, each modular assembly comprising a frame module holding a puller shaft module, a feeder shaft module and a chopper shaft module in operative relation, the puller shaft module driving contra-rotating puller wheels at a lower end 10 thereof, the feeder shaft module carrying a shaft having an array of feeder blades and the chopper shaft module carrying a shaft having an array of chopper blades, the modules being arranged for operative travel of a stalk from the puller wheels 0 through the feeder blades in a sideways orientation into the chopper blades.
6. A stalk puller and chopper assembly according to claim 1 wherein the 15 feeder comprises a shaft carrying spaced toothed feeder blades and a stationary guide means adjacent the feeder blades so that the feeder blades move a stalk along the guide means to the chopper blades.
7. A stalk puller and chopper assembly according to claim 1 wherein the feeder comprises feeder blades rotating on a shaft and the chopper comprises chopper blades rotating on a shaft in inter-digital relation to the feeder blades, the speed of rotation of the feeder blades being substantially less than the speed of rotation of the chopper blades.
8. A stalk puller and chopper assembly according to claim 1 wherein the assembly has forward and rear ends and is coupled to a prime mover at the 12 forward end of the assembly and supported by wheels at the rear end of the assembly, the assembly being moveable between a lowered operative pulling position and a raised transport position DATED this 15th day of June 1999 GREAT WESTERN CORPORATION PTY LTD By its Patent Attorneys INTELLPRO 9* *U e e ABSTRACT A stalk puller and chopper assembly 10 drawn behind a tractor 11, the stalk puller and chopper assembly comprising a puller means in the form of a pair of contra-rotating rubber wheels 12 and 13 on a shaft 21. The wheels are located upstream of a feeder means comprising a pair of guide plates 14 and 15 and an array of toothed feeder blades 16 mounted on a feeder shaft 17. The guide plates co-operate with the wheels and the rotating feeder blades 16 to deliver stalks extracted by the wheels to a downstream chopper assembly 19 where chopper blades 18 on shaft 22 shred the stalks which are then discharged rearwardly at 4" in the form of mulch. As can be seen the stalks are controllably delivered sideways into the choppers. The clearance between the cutter blades 18 and the i: anvils of the toothed feeder blades is exaggerated in the drawings with the usual clearance being about 2mm. The toothed feeder blades rotate at approximately 100 RPM while the cutter blades rotate at approximately 900 RPM, the interaction between the blades and the toothed wheels and the stalks being "chopped results in a self cleaning action of the toothed feeder blades and cutter blades thereby inhibiting any clogging. oooe°