US2689445A - Sickle guard - Google Patents

Description

P. W. MORRISSEY SICKLE GUARD Sept. 21, 1 54 2 ShetS-Sh8et 1 Original Filed June 29, 1946 IN VEN TOR.

BY V/Zw, aA v P 1954 P. w. MORRISSEY 2,689,445

SICKLE GUARD Original Filed June 29, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 BY flag 1 71 INVENTQR.

Patented Sept. 21, 1954 SICKLE GUARD Patrick W. Morrissey, Racine, Wis., assignor to J. I. Case Company, Racine, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Substituted for abandoned application Serial No. 680,396, June 29, 1946. This application June 8, 1950, Serial No. 166,914

3 Claims.

This application is a continuation of my copending application Serial No. 680,396, filed June 29, 1946, now abandoned.

This invention relates to a sickle guard and to a method of fabricating the same.

Heretofore sickle guards have involved the use of a principal supporting member or bar for attachment to the reaper, combine, or other type of harvester, and to which bar have been bolted or otherwise attached the plurality of guard fingers.

It is important that the individual ledger plate seats, each underlying a ledger plate, be carefully aligned, otherwise the sickle sections will bind or fail to shear properly. With individually secured guard fingers, it is extremely difficult to achieve such alignment. Moreover, individually secured fingers cast of malleable iron are subject to breakage.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide a sickle guard finger group, including an elongated body having a plurality of integral laterally-extending guard fingers, the unitary construction being the result of rolling or forming a member to the required transverse cross-seetional contour and shearing along a substantially U-shaped line to cut portions out of one edge to leave a plurality of guard fingers.

A further object is to provide a sickle guard finger group made by rolling a bar longitudinally to provide the desired fore-and-aft vertical cross section of the guard fingers and connecting bar.

Another object is to provide a one-piece body as aforesaid in which each finger supports a shield overlying the moving sickle bar, and also supports a fixed ledger plate for cutting co-operation with the sickle bar.

Other objects will become apparent as the description proceeds. l

In the drawings, which show one manner in which my invention may be embodied:

Fig. 1 is a broken plan view of an elongated sickle guard construction embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a section of the body indicating the method of its manufacture;

Fig. 4 is an expoded perspective view of a shield and a ledger plate;

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 1;

2 Fig. '7 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 1-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 8-8 of Fig. '1; and v Fig. 9 is a cross-sectional view taken on the lip 99 of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawings in detail, the sickle guard construction shown comprises a supporting bar 8, indicated as an angle iron extending the length of the sickle, and a sickle guard finger group made by rolling a steel bar to the cross section shown in Figs. 2 and 9 to provide the desired vertical fore-and-aft cross section of the guard fingers and the connecting bar, the upper surface portion being rolled to provide seats for the ledger plates and to provide guide means and clearance for the sickle bar 9. Each sickle guard group may have formed integrally wit the connecting bar l0 any desired number of guard fingers II. In practice, five guard fingers in a group have been found satisfactory, although a greater or lesser number may be used. The fingers H are formed, after the bar has been rolled to the desired cross section, by shearing out beteween the guard finger portions along a U-shaped line to provide the desired spacing of the guard fingers. This rolling operation insures that that portion of the guard finger which provides a seat for the ledger plate will lie in a plane common to all the seats, thus insuring alignment of the ledger plates with which the sickle bar sections co-operate.

Turning now to Fig. l, the connecting bar it is an elongated member having extending therefrom and integral therewith a plurality of laterally-extending guard fingers ll, there being as many such fingers as required by the length of the sickle bar or moving cutting blade.

The bar it comprises a flat mounting part Ha (Figs. 1 and 2) having a plurality of apertures I2 by means of which the assembly may be boltedto the bar '8 of the harvester. Adjacent the part I la is a channel Hi to receive certain parts of the reciprocating sickle bar 9, the channel being defined by a part I of substantially semicircular cross section. Projecting laterally from the part It is a plurality of usually equidistantly-spaced fingers I6 each having a nose I 1 formed by the arcuate sides and bottom of the finger.

Such body as just described is produced by the novel method of my invention, the steps including the rolling in a suitable stand of a blank 20 (Fig. 3) of the fore-and-aft cross-sectional contour shown in Fig. 2, and then punching or other- Wise removing from the blank 20 the plurality of peripherally U-shaped sections 2| to leave the fingers as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the arcuate surfaces forming the nose I! being the result of the rolling'and cutting-out operations aforesaid. The outer end of each U-shaped section 2| is flared to provide the nose portions 11. Apertures 12 may also be punched along with the sections I6, or they may be drilled. Such rolled members, fabricated as just described, may be made in any convenient length, and welded or otherwise joined end-to-end to provide a cutter bar of any length. Furthermore, the blank 20 may be extruded, forged, or otherwise worked to the desired cross-sectional contour.

The rolled cross section also includes the shoulder 23 against which are butted the individual shields 24 (Fig. 4) comprising the abutting edge 25, the attaching portion 26, and the shroud 27, the portion 26 being spot-welded to the finger I6 (Fig. 2).

Ledger plates 3| are of conventional construction, being riveted at 32 at one end to the finger l6, and provided with a nib 33 (Fig. 4) for retaining the other end, there being a pair of downward proturberances 34 deformed out of the plane of the guard 24 to marginally engage the nib 33. The rolled member also includes a surface 35 upon which the ledger plates seat. The ledger plate Si is provided with a rivet hole 35a for the rivet 32.

If desired, the sharp edges at the corners of the nose I! may be rounded slightly by grinding or otherwise, and the unit may be hardened adjacent the sickle bar 9 by induction heating or otherwise, if desired, as indicated by crosshatching at 36.

It will be evident from the foregoing description that by utilizing a rolled section, the several seats for the ledger plates are all disposed in one plane in order that all plates will co-operate properly with the common sickle bar. Thus problems of preliminary alignment of the ledger plates inherent in prior structures are dispensed with.

While I have shown particular embodiments of my invention, it will be understood, of course, that I do not wish to be limited thereto since many modifications may be made, and I therefore contemplate by the appended claims to cover any such modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A metal sickle guard finger having a pointed nose and a pair of integral supporting members extending laterally in opposite directions from the rear of said finger, the lateral surfaces of said finger and the lateral surfaces of said extension togethr forming a substantially continuous sheared tortuous surface having successive portions such as would be generated by a substantially vertical straight-line generatrix moving in a horizontal direction and guided in a tortuous horizontal path having the horizontal profile outline of the finger and members, the upper surfaces of said finger being generated by a laterally movable generatrix having the vertical profile outline of said finger surfaces and guided by a straight-line horizontal directrix.

2. A metal sickle guard finger having a pointed nose and a pair of integral supporting members extending laterally in opposite directions from the rear of said finger, the lateral surfaces of said finger and the lateral surfaces of said extension together forming a substantially continuous sheared tortuous surface having successive portions such as would be generated by a substantially vertical straight-line generatrix moving in a horizontal direction and guided in a tortuous horizontal path having the horizontal profile outline of the finger and members, the upper surfaces of said finger being generated by a laterally movable rollable generatrix having the vertical profile outline of said finger surfaces and guided by a straight-line horizontal directrix.

3. A metal sickle guard finger group comprising a plurality of integrally connected fingers arranged in spaced side-by-side substantially coplanar relation, each finger having a pointed nose and a pair of integral supporting members extending laterally in opposite directions from the rear of said finger, the lateral surfaces of said fingers and the lateral surfaces of said extensions together forming a substantially continuous sheared tortuous surface having successive portions such as would be generated by a substantially vertical straight-line generatrix moving in a horizontal direction and guided in a tortuous horizontal path having the horizontal profile outline of the finger and members, the upper surfaces of said fingers being generated by a laterally movable generatrix having the vertical profile outline of said finger surfaces and guided by a straight-line horizontal directrix.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Re. 451 Hussey Apr. 14, 1857 Re. 3,484 Newcomb June 1, 1869 164,434 Dutton June 15, 1875 262,262 Vroman Aug. 8, 1882 642,485 Pierson Jan. 30, 1900 1,171,764 Barden Feb. 15, 1916 1,610,401 Ward Dec. 14, 1926 1,726,378 Barber Aug. 27, 1929 1,755,534 Borkhuis Apr. 22, 1930 2,039,012 Lindberg Apr. 28, 1936 2,039,771 Bishop May 5, 1936 2,619,787 Mills et a1. Dec. 2, 1952

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