IES72950B2 - Winged mowing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an agricultural rotary mowing apparatus and more particularly to a winged mower.

Winged mowers comprise a central deck towed by a prime mower and at least one hinged deck attached to the or each side of the central deck perpendicular to the direction of travel. In most arrangements two hinged decks are provided each having rotor gearboxes mounted thereon and driven from the central deck gearbox which is driven from the power-take-off shaft of the prime mover. To ensure that the swathe cut by the mower is complete, the hinged deck rotors, which carry cutting· blades, are disposed rearwardly of the central rotor in a delta configuration so that the cutting areas of the blades overlap in the direction of travel of the mower.

To achieve this configuration, the central gearbox requires output drives to the hinged deck gearboxes which are angled (rather than perpendicular) to the direction of travel of the mower.. Such gearboxes are non-standard items and are relatively expensive.

Additionally, this configuration provides two other disadvantages. Firstly, the delta configuration of the rotor reduces the maximum width of the mower and the requirement that the deck totally covers the cutting blades results in a mower construction which is almost as long as it is wide. While the width may be altered by raising the wings to an inoperational transport position, the length of the mower remains unaffected and manoeuvrability is affected. Secondly, as the movement of the mower with respect to the ground is effectively controlled by the central deck the mower does not follow S72 9 5 (J - 2 the ground undulations efficiently as the central deck leads the wing decks to move befox'e the undulating ground is encountered. Additionally*, where the wing rotors are powered by belt drives , belt-slip prevents the rotors being arranged in a true rotor overlap arrangement due to the risk of rotor collision.

It is an object of the present invention to seek to alleviate the above disadvantages and to provide an efficient winged mower having a reduced length to width ratio.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an agricultural mower suitable for trailing by a prime mover, the mower comprising a central deck and at least one hinged deck laterally mounted thereto, said hinged deck being moveable between a cutting position and a transport position, each deck being provided with at least one gearbox characterised in that all the gearboxes are provided along a single elongate drive axis.

This arrangement allows the mower to be totally shaft driven facilitating timed blade overlap without collision. The overall length of the mower is minimised, increasing manoeuvrability.

The invention will now be described more particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings which show, by way of example only, one embodiment of winged mower according to the invention. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a schematical plan view of a prior art winged mower; Figure 2 is a schematical perspective view of the mower of the invention; Figure 3 is a schematical plan view of the mower detailing the drive shaft couplings between gearboxes; Figure 4 is a schematxcal side elevation of the mower; and Figure S is a detailed schematical perspective view of the pivot arrangement for mounting a hinged deck to the central deck.

Referring initially to Figure 1, the prior art winged mower has a central deck C to which a first and second hinged decks HI, H2 are pivotally mounted. Each deck C, H1e H2 has a rotor gearbox RG which receives power from a prime mover power-take-off (P.T.O.) shaft (not shown) through a splitter gearbox SG. Due to the configuration of the rotors, each of which have a cutting area indicated by a circle A, which overlaps with its adjacent cutting area in the direction of travel (arrow T), the gearbox output shafts S must be angled.

In Figures 2 to 4, an improved winged mower 1 has a central deck 3 which forms part of a wheeled chassis and to which two wing decks 5,6 are attached through hinges 9. Power is delivered to the mower by the P.T.O. shaft of a prime mover which is coupled to a T-configuration splitter gearbox 10 on the central deck 3. The outputs of the splitter gearbox 10 drives two identical T-configuration rotor gearboxes 11,12 which rotate the blade-carrying rotors 14,15. The rotor gearboxes 11,12 in turn provide power to their adjacent L-configuration wing deck mounted rotor gearboxes 17,19. The output drive shafts of the splitter gearbox 10 and the drive shafts 21,22,23,24 between the rotor gearboxes 11,12,17,19 share a single axis 20 which is disposed 90° from the axis of the P.T.O. drive shaft and 90° from the rotor drive shafts. This construction provides a winged mower which uses standard gearbox and drive components, is relatively easy to manufacture and service and follows undulating terrain efficiently.

Figure 3 illustrates the shafts 21,22,23,24 along the single drive shaft axis 20. In the cutting position, the hinged wing decks 5,6 are folded down over the ground but are not locked info position. This allows each wing deck 5,6 to pivot about the hinges 9 from approximately degrees above to 15 degrees below the horizontal cutting plane. The drive shafts 21,24 to the wing deck gearboxes 17,19 are each provided with universal joint 30 so that those drive shafts 21,24 can flex up to 25 degrees to accommodate the +/- 15? movement at the decks 5,6. When the shafts 21,24 are rotated so that the universal joints 30 are disposed with their drive side coupling in a horizontal position as shown in Figure 3, the wing decks 5,6 can be folded upwardly approximately 90 degrees into their transport position.. Hydraulic rams (not shown) feed from the prime mover· are used to move the wing decks between their transport and cutting positions.

In the cutting position, the mower 1 is brought into close juxtaposition with the ground. The height of the cut is controlled either by skids or rollers, rollers 35 being preferred. Transport wheels 40 are moved with respect to the chassis 4 so that the mower rests on the rollers 35, as shown in Figure 4, and which are provided at both front and rear of each deck 3,5,6. The rollers provide greater flexibility to the mower 1 to follow the contours of uneven ground to ensure even cut length is obtained and avoiding scalped areas where the cutting blades 15 hit the ground.

The hinges 9 comprise a pair of arms 50 on each wing deck 5,6, which arms receive pivot tabs 52 on the central deck 3. As shown in Figure 5, which illustrates the pivot and drive arrangement of one hinged deck 6, the pivot axis 9i? passes through the inner universal joint 30 of the drive shaft 24. As the pivot axis 9J’ and the universal joint coincide, the movement of the wing deck 6 with respect to the central deck 3 is not impeded by the rigidity of the drive shaft 24. This arrangement avoids the requirement to install telescopic drive shafts. The drive shaft 24 has a universal joint 30 at each end of its length to allow increased movement of the wing deck 6 with respect to the central deck 3. The pivot and drive arrangement between the other wing deck 5 and the central deck 3 is identical. Drive covers 55 including joint cowls are provided over the drive shafts 21,22,23,24 to lessen the incidence of accidental injury.

In a preferred construction, the mower 1 comprises a standard 6 foot (1.83 metre) wide grass mower deck 3 onto which two extensions 5,6 are fitted to increase the cutting width or swathe to 12 feet (3.65 metres). The cutting rotors 15 are contra-rotating to allow blade overlap without collision, the length of overlap being kept to a minimum but sufficient to prevent streaking of the mown surface. The mower 1 is approximately 4 feet (1.22 metres) in length excluding the chassis 4 which must accommodate the transport wheels 40 and a hitching bar 45 to link the mower 1 to the prime mover.

Xt will be seen that the mower 1 may be modified for a larger cutting swathe or width by utilising a wider central deck 3 and longer drive shafts 21,24 to the wing deck rotor gearboxes 17,19.

It will of course be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific details described herein, which are given by way of example only, and that various modifications and alterations are possible within the scope of the invention.

MACLACHLAN & DONALDSON, Applicants’ Agents, Merrion Square, DUBLIN 2.

Claims (5)

CLAIMS :

1. An agricultural mower suitable for coupling to a prime mover, the mower comprising a central deck and at least 5 one hinged deck laterally mounted thereto, said hinged deck being moveable between a cutting position and a transport position, each deck being provided with at least one gearbox characterised in that all the gearboxes are provided along a single elongate drive axis.

2. An agricultural mower according to claim 1, in which the single elongate drive axis is perpendicular to the direction of travel in the cutting mode, so that the overall length of the mower is minimised, thereby 15 increasing manoeuvrability.

3. An agricultural mower according to claim 1 or claim 2, in which a drive shaft to the gearbox on each hinged deck includes a universal joint disposed adjacent the pivot 20 axis of the hinged deck.

4. An agricultural mower according to claim 3, in which the drive shafts provide continuous drive to the gearboxes on each hinged deck when the hinged deck pivots 25 approximately 15° above or below the plane of the central deck.

5. An agricultural mower suitable for trailing by a prime mover, substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in Figures 2 to 5 of the accompanying drawings.