GB937065A - Improvements in machines for harvesting tall row crops - Google Patents

Abstract

937,065. Harvesting sugar-cane. MASSEY-FERGUSON (AUSTRALIA) Ltd. Dec. 21, 1959 [Jan. 7, 1959], No. 43251/59. Class 6(3). In a sugar-cane harvester having vertical side-walls 21, 22 which pass on opposite sides of the crop-row, the cane-cutting means comprises a single rotary cutter 30 of which the axis of rotation is offset from the central longitudinal plane of the throat 23 defined by the side-walls. The side-walls include a frame structure 14A, 14C covered with sheet metal which is pivoted at its rear to a base-frame 13 mounted on land-wheels and is raisable by hydraulic rams 20 on each side of the machine. The front of each side-wall is supported by a ground-engaging shoe 25 floatingly suspended by parallel links 28 from the framestructure as described in Specification 937,066. Either one, Fig. 1, or two, Fig. 3, endless conveyers 81, 82 are provided flush with each side-wall interior to urge the canes rearwardly as they are cut by the cutter 30. A roller 60 feeds the bottom ends of the canes on to an endless conveyer 50 and a polygonal roller 80 engages the canes so that they are fed cutend-foremost between chopping rollers 77, 78. The chopped canes are fed by an endless elevator 100 to a hopper 23 feeding a wheeled receptacle 121 on a trackway 122. A rotary top-cutter 32 is mounted on an arm 33 controlled by a ram 34 and another ram 109 simultaneously lifts the conveyer 100 to a vertical position for transport, and, through links 112, 111, lifts the shoes 25. A serrated rotary cutter 130 is mounted in the outermost side-wall 22 to cut off bent-over canes. A motor 15 drives the moving parts and operates a hydraulic pump 19 supplying fluid to the rams. Specification 937,067 also is referred to.