GB2218313A - Improvements in and relating to a rotary mower - Google Patents

Improvements in and relating to a rotary mower Download PDF

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Publication number
GB2218313A
GB2218313A GB8910924A GB8910924A GB2218313A GB 2218313 A GB2218313 A GB 2218313A GB 8910924 A GB8910924 A GB 8910924A GB 8910924 A GB8910924 A GB 8910924A GB 2218313 A GB2218313 A GB 2218313A
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GB
United Kingdom
Prior art keywords
crop
blade assemblies
rotary
mowing apparatus
mower
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
GB8910924A
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GB8910924D0 (en
Inventor
Robert White
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Publication of GB8910924D0 publication Critical patent/GB8910924D0/en
Publication of GB2218313A publication Critical patent/GB2218313A/en
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A01AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
    • A01DHARVESTING; MOWING
    • A01D57/00Delivering mechanisms for harvesters or mowers
    • A01D57/30Rotating attachments for forming windrows

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  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Environmental Sciences (AREA)
  • Harvester Elements (AREA)

Abstract

A crop mowing apparatus comprising a rotary mower having two units (1, 2), each unit (1, 2) having a pair of drum mowers (3, 4), and a rotary swather (5 or 6) generally between and behind the mowers (3, 4) wherein each rotary swather (5 or 6) gathers the crop cut by its associated mowers (3, 4) and deposits it as a single, uniform swath (7) on the ground between and behind the units (1, 2). <IMAGE>

Description

IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO A ROTARY MOWER The present invention relates to a rotary mower.
The harvesting of a large crop of grass, for example in the making of silage, requires three separate operations. Firstly, the grass is cut by a mowing machine such as a rotary mower and forms the cut grass into one or more swaths between the drums of the mower. Secondly, two or more swaths of mown grass are gathered into a single swath by a swathing device. Finally, the swaths of grass are gathered up by a forage harvester. Thus, cutting of the crop requires a separate pass to be made, by three different machines. Some conventional rotary mowers produce swathes which are too widely separated to be gathered by a forage harvester in a single pass. It will therefore be appreciated that the harvesting of a crop can be a costly and time-consuming operation, requiring many passes over the field by each type of machine in turn.A further disadvantage of the conventional harvesting system is that the swathes produced by the swather tend to be uneven in width and height, and this lack of uniformity in the swath results in decreased efficiency of the forage harvester in gathering the crop.
The object of the present invention is to seek to alleviate the above disadvantages.
According to the present invention there is provided a crop mowing apparatus comprising a rotary mower having three or more blade assemblies which form two or more pairs of blade assemblies and means for forming swaths located between the or each pair of blade assemblies and adjacent the trailing edge thereof, whereby crop cut by the or each pair of blade assemblies is collected by the swath forming means and deposited on the ground therefrom in a uniform neat swath.
Preferably, the means for forming swaths is a rotary swather comprising a central rotatable shaft and a plurality of flails.
Preferably, the shaft of each rotary swather is rotatable about an axis parallel to the axes of rotation of the blade assemblies.
Advantageously, the shaft is driven by a powered drive means such as a hydraulic motor, vee belt drive, chain drive or electric motor.
Conveniently the flails are composed of material such as rubber, plastic, spring tine, steel, composites or combinations thereof.
Advantageously, the mower comprises two side-by-side units, each unit having two blade assemblies and one rotary swather, the rotary swather being located generally behind and between the two blade assemblies.
Conveniently, the crop mowing apparatus may be front,rear, side or off-set mounted on a prime mover such as an agricultural tractor so that the apparatus leads into the crop in use.
The crop cut by the blade assemblies of each unit iscollected by the rotary swather of each said unit and deposited from there towards the centre of the mower so that the crop gathered from each said unit forms a single, continuous swath on the ground as the mower passes along.
The apparatus will now be described more particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show by way of example only, one embodiment of a rotary mower according to the invention.
In the drawings; Figure 1 is an elevation view of the apparatus from the rear; and Figure 2 is a plan view of the apparatus.
Referring now to the figures, the mower comprises two substantially identical units 1, 2. Each unit 1, 2 carries a first rotary mower 3 which rotates in the clockwise direction, as indicated by the arrow A, and a second rotary mower 4 which rotates in the anti clockwise direction, as indicated by the arrow B. Each rotary mower 3, 4 is a drum mower, having cutting blades (not shown) attached to the skirt of the drum. The sweep of the mower 4 of unit 1 and mower 3 of unit 2 overlap so as to cut the crop between the units 1 and 2. The unit 1 carries a rotary swather 5 which rotates in the clockwise direction as indicated by the arrow C. The unit 2 carries a rotary swather 6 which rotates in the anticlockwise direction as indicated by the arrow D.Each rotary swather 5, 6comprises an upper plate 100 and a lower plate 110 connected by a drive shaft 120 which is in turn connected to a drive means (not shown). The upper plate 100 and lower plate 110 have eight vertical members 130 disposed between them, each of the vertical members 130 having perpendicularly attached thereto five flails 140 in regular spaced apart relationship, the flails 140 being arranged outwardly from the vertical members 130 with respect to the drive shaft 120.
The use of the apparatus will now be described.. The direction of motion of the mower in use is shown by the arrow E in figure 2. As the mowers 3, 4 come into contact with and cut the crop, the clockwise and anticlockwise rotation of the mowers 3, 4 respectively cause the cut crop to be thrown onto the flails 140 of the rotary swathers 5, 6. The rotary swathers 5, 6 in turn rotate at, for example, one hundred and twenty five revolutions per minute, so as to throw the crop onto the ground in a single uniform swath 7. The arrangement of the rotary swathers 5, 6 is such that, as shown in figure 2, the left hand swather 5, rotates clockwise so as to throw the cut crop to the left and the right hand rotary swather 6 rotates anticlockwise so as to throw the cut crop to the right. It will therefore be appreciated that the crop is deposited on the ground as a uniform swath 7.
The apparatus according to the present invention thus combines the cutting and swathing operations into a single machine, so that only two passes of the field as a whole are necessary to harvest the crop. Another advantage of the mower described herein is that the swathers produce a neat uniform swath of crop which can be collected by the crop collecting machine more efficiently than the swath produced by a conventional swathing machine.
A further advantage of the mower according to the invention is that since it comprises two conventional mowing units, it can in one pass cut a strip of crop which is 5 metres in width and, as described above, produce a single swath of crop from the pass.

Claims (8)

1. A crop mowing apparatus comprising a rotary mower having three or more blade assemblies which form two or more pairs of blade assemblies and means for forming swaths located between the or each pair of blade assemblies and adjacent the trailing edge thereof, whereby crop cut by the or each pair of blade assemblies is collected by the swath forming means and deposited on the ground therefrom in a uniform neat swath.
2. A crop mowing apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein the means for forming swaths is a rotary swather comprising a central rotatable shaft and a plurality of flails.
3. A crop mowing apparatus according to Claim 2, wherein the shaft of each rotary swather is rotatable about an axis parallel to the axes of rotation of the blade assemblies.
4. A crop mowing apparatus according to Claim 2 or 3, wherein the shaft is driven by a powered drive means such as a hydraulic motor, vee belt drive, chain drive or electric motor.
5. A crop mowing apparatus according to any of Claims 2 to 4 wherein the flails are composed of material such as rubber, plastic, spring tine, steel, composites or combinations thereof.
6. A crop mowing apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the mower comprises two side-by-side units, each unit having two blade assemblies and one rotary swather, the rotary swather being located generally behind and between the two blade assemblies.
7. A crop mowing apparatus according to Claim 1 wherein the apparatus may be front, rear, side or off-set mounted on a prime mover such as an agricultural tractor so that the apparatus leads into the crop in use.
8. A crop mowing apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.
GB8910924A 1988-05-12 1989-05-12 Improvements in and relating to a rotary mower Withdrawn GB2218313A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
IE134488A IE881344L (en) 1988-05-12 1988-05-12 Crop rotary mower

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
GB8910924D0 GB8910924D0 (en) 1989-06-28
GB2218313A true GB2218313A (en) 1989-11-15

Family

ID=11025816

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
GB8910924A Withdrawn GB2218313A (en) 1988-05-12 1989-05-12 Improvements in and relating to a rotary mower

Country Status (2)

Country Link
GB (1) GB2218313A (en)
IE (1) IE881344L (en)

Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB1174728A (en) * 1967-07-28 1969-12-17 Zweegers & Zonen P J Mowing Machine
US3772865A (en) * 1972-03-06 1973-11-20 Fahr Ag Maschf Drum type mower
GB1386631A (en) * 1971-03-05 1975-03-12 Fahr Ag Maschf Rotary mower
GB1472124A (en) * 1973-04-13 1977-05-04 Lely Nv C Van Der Hay-making machines
EP0238159A1 (en) * 1986-01-22 1987-09-23 Kidd Farm Machinery Limited Mowing machine

Patent Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB1174728A (en) * 1967-07-28 1969-12-17 Zweegers & Zonen P J Mowing Machine
GB1386631A (en) * 1971-03-05 1975-03-12 Fahr Ag Maschf Rotary mower
US3772865A (en) * 1972-03-06 1973-11-20 Fahr Ag Maschf Drum type mower
GB1472124A (en) * 1973-04-13 1977-05-04 Lely Nv C Van Der Hay-making machines
EP0238159A1 (en) * 1986-01-22 1987-09-23 Kidd Farm Machinery Limited Mowing machine

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
GB8910924D0 (en) 1989-06-28
IE881344L (en) 1989-11-12

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Legal Events

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WAP Application withdrawn, taken to be withdrawn or refused ** after publication under section 16(1)