GB2096453A - Straw chopper and spreader assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

A straw chopper and spreader assembly for receiving straw from a threshing machine has a casing enclosing a pair of contra-rotatable flail assemblies (23). The flails (23) are mounted in different horizontal planes and have blades which overlap so as to shear and chop the straw. At the rear of the casing is a rear outlet defined between a rear skirt (34) and a bottom extension of the casing. The rear skirt (34) is adjustable so as to enlarge or reduce the size of the rear outlet. In addition to discharge through the rear outlet, chopped straw is also discharged laterally through side chutes (40) which have removable end portions (42) so that discharge selectively may be outwardly and upwardly or outwardly and downwardly. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Straw chopper and spreader assembly This invention relates to new and useful improvements in straw choppers and spreaders including means to collect and spread chaff, and adapted to be secured underthe rear, substantially horizontal, discharge area of a threshing machine as a combine or the like.

An efficient chopper and spreader device should satisfy several criteria. Firstly, of course, it should chop the straw received from the straw walkers, readily and easily and distribute same behind and to the sides of the machine with little chance of jamming of clogging occurring. In other words the choppers or flails should chop and distribute the straw in such a way that encountering temporarily heavy stand will not cause the straw to back up in the discharge area.

Secondly, it should also collect and distribute the chaff rather than just dump it in the swath immediately behind the discharge.

It is also desirable that some control be provided for controlling the area distribution of the chopped straw both rearwardly and sideways.

A further desirable feature is the provision of means whereby, if desired, the straw chopper can be made inoperative and adjusted readily so that the straw can be dumped from the discharge of the combine into a windrow immediatelytherebehind in the usual manner without the straw being chopped.

Conventional straw chopping devices merely receive the straw which is then chopped and spread with little control being provided.

The present device overcomes disadvantages inherent with conventional straw chopping and spreading devices and satisfies the above enumerated requirements in a satisfactory manner.

The device is also designed to be secured by mounting brackets to a wide variety of harvester combine machines.

With the foregoing in view, and other advantages as will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates as this specification proceeds, the invention is herein described by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, which includes a description of the preferred typical embodiment of the principles of the present invention, in which: Figure 1 is an isometric, partially sectioned schematic view of the straw chopper secured to the rear end of the harvester combine.

Figure 2 is a view similarto Figure 1 but showing a side elevation thereof.

Figure 3 is a side view of the machine secured to the rear end of a harvester combine.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary end elevation showing a method of attachment of the straw chopper and spreader to the side of the discharge.

Figure 5 is a top plan view of Figure 3.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary view substantially along the line 6-6 of Figure 5.

Figure 7 is a front elevation of the skirt per se reduced in scale from Figures 3 and 4.

Figure 8 is a partially sectioned rear view of the flail assemblies and drive therefor.

In the drawings like characteristics of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.

Proceeding therefore to describe the invention in detail, reference should first be made to Figure 3 in which 10 illustrates the lower side of the discharge area at the rear of the combine, the side of which is indicated by reference character 11. Within the side 11, is shown the rear end of the conventional sieve component 12 above which (not illustrated) is situated the straw walkers which deposits the straw over and downwardly in the direction of arrow 13, into the straw chopper and spreader assembly collectively designated 14 and which is secured adjacent the rear of the discharge area of the combine.

The assembly 14 is enclosed within a casing col lectivelydesignated 15 including side plates 16, front plate 17, a rear casing area 18 and base 19 forming a boxing secured to the side plates 20 of the discharge area by means of brackets 21 secured by bolts 22 and having a configuration similar to that shown in Figure 4.

Figure 5 shows a pair of flail assemblies 23 in side by side relationship each consisting of four blade assemblies 24 having pivotal flails 25 secured to and extending radially therefrom and mounted upon ver tical spindles 26 extending downwardly from gear boxes 27 which in turn are driven by cross shaft 28 from pulley 29 and connected to a source of power from the combine (not illustrated).

The other ends of the cross shaft 28 are enclosed within guard and lifting handle assemblies 30 as clearly illustrated in Figures 4 and 5.

The gear boxes ensure that the flail assemblies rotate in the direction of arrows 31 thus ensuring that all straw dumped downwardly through the open upper side of the spreader and chopper casing 17, pass through the areas between the overlapping flails, the ends of which overlap as clearly shown. In this connection, the horizontal planes of rotation to the two flails are slightly misaligned so that there is no chance of interception one by the other yet at the same time the overlapping relationship was such that a shearing action was provided thus giving a good chopping action to the straw passing downwardly through the flails. The lower ends of the spindles 26 are supported within bearings 32 within the lower wall 19 of the casing.

A vertically situated adjustable skirt 34 is situated at the rear of the casing, said skirt having horizontal outer portions 35 and inwardly and forwardly curved portions 36 which terminate in a common apex 37 when viewed in plan as shown in Figure 5 and the curvature of the portions 36 is similar to the curved ture of the tips 38 of the flail assemblies as shown in dotted line in Figure 5 and these tips just clear this curved area once again showing that the straw is caught by the flails priorto being expelled outwardly The drawing(s) originally filed was/were informal and the print here reproduced is taken from a later filed formal copy.

after chopping. The skirt is adjustable vertically through means such as vertical slots 38 shown in Figure 7 and bolt passing therethrough securing the skirt to the rear of the casing and is will be observed that the lower edges 39 of the skirt inclines upwardly and outwardly from the aforementioned apex 37.

Reference to Figure 3 will show that this skirt is adjustable so that the lower edges thereof are adjustable from a position shown in phantom in Figure 3 to a position shown in full line thus varying the distance from the lower edge 39 and an extension 19A of the base of the casing. This, together with the sloping configuration of the edges 39, controls the volume of chopped straw being spread rearwardly and the volume of the remainder of the straw which is ejected sideways through the two side chutes collectively designed 40.These chutes 40 (shown in rear elevation in Figure 6) include downwardly and outwardly extending upper plates or walls 41, lower plates 42 which extend downwardly, then horizontally and then upwardly as shown at 43, with this outer portion 43 inclining upwardly beyond the outer edge 45 of the upper wall 41 thus directing the chopped straw being discharged therethrough, upwardly and outwardly to each side of the combine.The bottom of lowerwall 42 can be removed, if so desired, so that the chopped straw being rejected is directed outwardly and downwardly by the upper wall 41 and thus terminates closer to the sides of the combine so that the vertical positioning of the skirt together with the use of the lower wall 42 of the chute gives considerable control to the distribution of the chopped straw depending upon the desires of the operator, together with the density of the straw passing through the combine.

The sieves 12 reciprocate in the direction of double headed arrow 44 (see Figure 3) and a transversely corrugated chaff conveying tray 45 is pivotally secured by the upper end thereof across the rear end of the sieves by means of pivot 46. This tray, which spans the discharge area, inclines rearwardly and downwardly and is supported at the lower end thereof by means of a pivoted hanger bracket 46 at each side thereof pivoted by the lower end to the lower end of the tray by means of pivot 47 and by the upper end thereof to the rear 14 of the casing 10, by means of pivot pin 48.

A pair of chaff spreading discs collectively designated 49 are detachably secured to the lower ends of spindles 50 supported in bearings 51 and extending downwardly below the casing 14 and just forwardly of the flails 23. These discs include a disc-like face 52 and vertically situated spreader bars 53 radially extending from the center thereof and the lower end 54 of the tray 45, dumps the chaff onto the discs just forwardly of the spindles 50.A pulley 55 is provided on the lower end of the shafts 26 and a corresponding pulley 56 of a slightly larger diameter, is secured to the shafts 50 in horizontal alignment with pulleys 55 and a V-belt shown schematically by reference character 57 extends around these pulleys and sup plies rotational drive to the spreader disc assemblies 49 so that the chaff is distributed by these discs as it is dumped from the reciprocating tray 45, onto the upper surfaces of the discs.

Occasionally, it may be desirable to lay the swath of straw in the conventional manner without chop ping same so that it may be picked up and used for other purposes, same being picked up by conventional meansata latertime.

Under these circumstances, the drive to the flails is disconnected, the chaffspreading discs are removed from the spindles 50 and the lower front side portion of the casing shown in phantom and indicated by reference character 58, is unhitched from the main casing 14 and is hinged rearwardly around pivot point 59 to take up the position shown in phantom and to be detachably held in this postion by means of a detachable link 60. The hinged portion includes the base 1 9A, side portions 16A, and front wall portions 17A. This allows the strawto be dumped straight through the casing 17 and onto the ground without passing through the flail area.

Figure 8 shows the drive and mounting for the two flail assemblies, clearly showing the spaced apart horizontal plane of rotation of each flail and Figures 1 and 2 show schematically, the path of the straw and chaff through the machine with the straw path being indicated by broad headed arrows 61 and the path of the chaff being indicated by broad headed arrows 62.

It will therefore be seen that this straw chopper and spreader and chaff distributor is provided which is extremely flexible in its operation to suit various conditions and requirements.

Claims (8)

1. A straw chopper and spreader assembly for connection to the rear discharge area of a threshing machine such as a combine or the like, said threshing machine including reciprocating straw walker assemblies feeding straw to said discharge area and a reciprocating chaff conveying tray situated spaced below said straw walker and also communicating with said discharge area to receive straw therefrom, a pair of contra-rotating flail assemblies in said casing receiving straw and chopping same, said flails rotating in different horizontal planes whereby the blades thereof overlap one another two provide straw shearing action therebetween, an adjustable skirt at the rear of said casing to control discharge of chopped strawtherebehind and adjustable chutes extending one upon each side of said skirt to control the ejection of and direction of straw to the sides of said skirt.

2. Astrawchopper and spreader assembly for connection to the rear discharge area of a threshing machine including means for feeding strawto the discharge area, the said assembly comprising a casing, first and second flail means in the casing for receiving straw and for chopping same, the first flail means being rotatable relative to the second flail means, and the first and second flail means including blades which lie in different horizontal planes and overlap one another two provide a straw shearing action therebetween on rotation of the first flail means, means for discharging chopped straw laterally of the casing and adjustable means for controlling the discharge of the chopped straw to the rear of the assembly casing.

3. An assembly according to claim 2 wherein the first and second flail means comprise a pair of contra-rotatable flails each provided with a plurality of radially projecting blades.

4. An assembly according to claim 2 or 3 wherein the adjustable means for controlling the discharge of the chopped straw from the casing includes a rear skirt defining, together with a bottom wall of the casing, an outlet to the rear, the rear skirt being movable relative to the bottom wall to enlarge or reduce the size of the rear outlet.

5. An assembly according to claim 2,3 or4 wherein the means for discharging chopped straw laterally of the casing includes side chutes for directing chopped straw outwardly to each side of the assembly.

6. An assembly according to claim 5 wherein each of the chutes has an inner downwardly directed portion and an outer upwardly directed portion, the upwardly directed portion being removable whereby lateral discharge may be controlled selectively by retention or removal of said upwardly directed portion so as to cause discharge of the chopped straw either upwardly and outwardly away from the assembly or outwardly and downwardly adjacent the assembly respectively.

7. An assembly according to any of claims 2 to 6 wherein the casing includes a pivotally mounted front portion which may be hinged rearwardly to prevent chopping of the straw if desired.

8. A straw chopper and spreader assembly substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.