GB1162006A - Improvements in or relating to Mowing Machines - Google Patents

Abstract

1,162,006. Flail-mowers. C. VAN DER LELY N.V. 11 Oct., 1966 [4 Nov., 1965], No. 45498/66. Heading A1F. In a tractor-drawn flail-mower hooked flails 9 extend outwardly from a driven horizontal shaft 8 and have a cutting-circle diameter of 10-50 cm, the flails being movable rearwardly relative to the direction of rotation of the shaft, against resilient opposition. The shaft 8 is journalled in a frame 1 supported at its ends by height-adjustable castors 23 and constrained, by pivoted struts 25, 26, to extend perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of a tractor 32, the truts being fixed to a tube 28 journalled on a horizontal shaft 29 carried by a frame 30 mounted on the hitch-links. The frame 30 also carries a gearbox 44 from which a telescopic shaft 40 is taken to drive the rotor-shaft 8. The flail-rotor is partly surrounded by a hood 19 with which it is not co-axial, being closer to the front of the frame 1 than to the rear. A rod 21 extends parallel to the front frame-member 2 but at a lower level to bend-over the vegetation before it is cut. The strut 26 is suspended by a spring 35 and chain 34 from the frame 30 and a strut 36 extends from the strut 26 to a bracket 37 on the top of the hood 19 where it is encircled by a spring 39 provide resilient resistance to upward movement of the mower in operation. The flails are pivoted on lugs 10 projecting from the rotor-shaft and are capable of backward movement against the resilient opposition of springs 17, or rubber blocks (Fig. 5, not shown). In a modification, (Fig. 6, not shown) the flails are not pivoted but project diametrically from sleeves slidable about the circumference of the rotor-shaft, the resilient opposition being provided, as in Fig. 3, by springs located between each flail and a fixed abutment 16 on the rotorshaft.