US3724139A

US3724139A - Blade sharpening device for rotatable chopping cylinders

Info

Publication number: US3724139A
Application number: US00152206A
Authority: US
Inventors: J Leverenz
Original assignee: Gehl Co
Current assignee: Manitou Equipment America LLC
Priority date: 1971-06-11
Filing date: 1971-06-11
Publication date: 1973-04-03
Anticipated expiration: 1990-04-03

Abstract

A blade sharpening device for use on a rotatable chopping cylinder of a forage harvester or the like, which cylinder has a plurality of circumferentially spaced and generally parallel blades that are of a generally spiral shape. The device includes a carriage that moves along parallel to the cylinder and has a sharpening tool extending from it for contact with the blades, and guide means connected directly to the carriage for guiding abutment with a succeeding blade whereby as the carriage moves along the axis of the cylinder, the guide means abutting against the succeeding blades insures that the sharpening tool is at all times properly orientated to the blade being sharpened.

Description

Leverenz 51 Apr. 3, 1973 [54] BLADE SHARPENING DEVICE FOR ROTATABLE CHOPPING CYLINDERS [75] Inventor: John H. Leverenz, West Bend, Wis.

[73] Assignee: Gehl Company, West Bend, Wis.

[22] Filed: June 11, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 152,206

Primary Examiner-James L. Jones, Jr. Attorney-James Nilles [57] ABSTRACT A blade sharpening device for use on a rotatable chopping cylinder of a forage harvester or the like, which cylinder has a plurality of circumferentially spaced and generally parallel blades that are of a generally spiral shape. The device includes a carriage that moves along parallel to the cylinder and has a sharpening tool extending from it for contact with the blades, and guide means connected directly to the carriage for guiding abutment with a succeeding blade whereby as the carriage moves along the axis of the cylinder, the guide means abutting against the succeeding blades insures that the sharpening tool is at all times properly orientated to the blade being sharpened.

7 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEDAPRZ? 1975 3,724,139

SHEET 1 OF 4 INVENTOR= JOHN H. LEVERENZ ATTORNEY PATENTEDAPR 3 I975 SHEET 2 OF 4 INVENTOR JOHN H. LEVERENZ BY= zjf 'e ATTORNEY PATENTEU R 3 I935 SHEET 3 [1F 4 INVENTOR= JOHN H. LEVERENZ BY= ATTORNEY T "ti J| KO LO PATENTEUAPR 3 ms SHEET U 0F 4 R O T N E V m JOHN H. LEVERENZ ATTORNEY BLADE SIIARPENING DEVICE FOR ROTATABLE CHOPPING CYLINDERS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention pertains to sharpening devices for sharpening the blades of a cylindrical rotor of a forage harvester or the like and without the necessity of removing the knives from the harvester.

Prior art devices of this general type have been proposed and used with a certain degree of success. However, they had certain shortcomings because of their complex nature, and amount of time required to set them up for use and then disconnecting them after use, and the inability of some of these devices to maintain the blade being sharpened in proper orientation to the sharpening tool.

An example of a prior art sharpening device is shown in the US. Pat. No. 3,479,776, issued Nov. 25, 1969 to Berg and entitled Blade Sharpener. That particular prior art device utilized a lever extending generally radially from the cylinder and then interconnected by a complicated linkage mechanism to the axially movable carriage, and that particular device also utilized guide means which moved along the cutting or angled edge of the succeeding blade in order to guide the sharpening tool as it moved along the particular blade to be sharpened.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a blade sharpening device for a rotatable chopping cylinder of a forage harvester or the like, and which cylinder has a series of circumferentially spaced and generally parallel blades that are of a generally spiral shape. The device includes a carriage that moves parallel to the axis of the cylinder and has a sharpening tool for engagement with one of the blades as it moves longitudinally of the cylinder. A guide means is carried directly and rigidly supported by the carriage and has a guiding element that contacts the succeeding blade and thereby guides the sharpening tool in an exact manner over the blade to be sharpened. In this manner, all blades are sharpened precisely alike and the sharpening operation is guided by the shape of the blades themselves. The invention also provides a spring loaded means which acts against the cylinder and insures that the succeeding blade which is used for guiding purposes is held firmly against the guide means at all times during the sharpening operation. Still another aspect of the invention relates to means for manually shifting the reciprocating carriage along the guide track means and with a continuous cranking motion by the operator. Still another aspect relates to means for quickly and accurately changing the angle disposition of the sharpening tool relative to the blade being sharpened so that the desired bevel is maintained on the cutting edge of the blade.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will appear hereinafter as this disclosure progresses, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a forage harvester embodying the present invention showing certain parts being swung away from their normal operating position and other parts being shown as broken away or removed for the sake of clarity in the drawings;

FIG. 2 is an end elevational view of the device shown in FIG. 1, but on an enlarged scale and showing certain parts being broken away or removed for the sake of clarity, and showing the grinder carriage in the position when it commences its sharpening travel at one end of the knife;

FIG. 3 is a view taken generally along the line 3-3 in FIG. 2, certain parts being shown as broken away for the sake of clarity, and showing the carriage at one extreme end of its travel, before contact with a knife to be sharpened; and

FIG. 4 is a sectional, plan view taken generally along the line 4-4 in FIG. 2, but showing the carriage when about half-way through a sharpening pass over the knife, certain parts being shown as broken away or removed for the sake of clarity.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The general organization of the invention as applied to a forage harvester is shown in FIG. 1, the forage harvester including a housing H supported on ground engaging means such as the wheel means W, a blower B attachable to the housing for receiving the cut crop from the housing via the blower opening 1. The blower includes a fan F rotatably mounted therein which delivers the cut crop to the tangentially extending chute C in the known manner. The blower B has been shown for purposes of clarity as being swung to the rear of the housing, but it will be understood that in operation, the blower B will be swung snugly against the housing so that the opening 1 is in immediate adjacency with the housing for receiving cut crops therefrom. Furthermore, when the machine is operating in the field, another cover (not shown) would enclose the top of the chopping cylinder 5, to be described.

The housing also has a top cover 2 which is pivoted at 3 to the housing and which can be swung to the open position shown in FIG. 1 or to a rearward position in which it covers the sharpening device, now to be described, when the latter is not in operation.

The conventional chopping cylinder 5 is rotatably mounted in the housing and rotation in the direction indicated by the curvilinear arrow in FIG. 4. The cylinder has a series, for example six shown, of blades ll, 12, 13, 14, 1S and 16 which are circumferentially spaced and generally parallel to one another, and are mounted on the cylinder rotor frame 18. These conventional blades are arranged to define the periphery of the cylinder and are generally spiral in form. The blades include a front sharpening edge defined by the respective bevelled portions, for example 11a of the blade 11 which is shown in the position for being sharpened. These edges must be reground periodically to insure sharpness of the blade. The cylinder also includes a plate-like member 20 rigidly fixed to the outer'end of the cylinder shaft 21 and located on the outside of the housing II. This plate-like member has a series of projections 22 arranged around its periphery, one for each of the blades. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, spring loaded means 25 are provided to act between the housing II and the plate-like member so as to bias the cylinder in the direction of rotation indicated by the curvilinear arrow in FIG. 2. More specifically, the spring loaded means 25 includes an extensible strut 26 which is pivoted at 27 to the housing and whichhas a clevice 28 fixed by a bolt means 29 to the other end of the extensible strut 26. A spring 30 acts between an anchor 31 on the strut and the extensible end 32 of the strut to thereby urge the bolt means into firm contact with the projections 22 and consequently bias the cylinder in the direction of rotation noted, for a purpose that will hereinafter appear.

Guide track means in the form of a pair of

parallel rods

40 and 41 are mounted on the housing and are arranged in parallelism with the cylinder axis and adjacent the top opening 42 in the housing. One of said rods is mounted on each side of the housing and extend generally coextensively in length therewith.

Carriage 50 is slideably mounted on each of the

guide rods

40 and 41 so that the carriage can be slid from the end of cylinder to the other, more specifically across the full length of the cylinder 5. A sharpening tool in the form of a rotatable grinding wheel 52 extends from the electric motor 53 so that the latter can drive the wheel 52 through its drive shaft 54. The motor in turn is rigidly carried on the carriage by bracket 55 which is connected by an adjustable pair of arms 56 pivoted at 57 to the carriage proper. The other end of the arms 56 are threadably engaged with a crank 59 rotatably mounted in the bifurcated bracket 55. In this manner, adjustment of the crank 59 changes the height of the motor and the grinding wheel relative to the cylinder. The arms 56 are also connected by a link 62 which is pivoted at one end to the arms 56 at 63 and then connected at its other end to an eccentric 64 rotatably journalled and adjustably mounted in the carriage 50. Thereby adjustment of the eccentric 64 varies the angle of the motor 53 and its grinding wheel relative to the blade to insure that the desired angle is ground for the bevel edge 11a.

Guide means 70 are provided for insuring that the cylinder rotates the proper amount as the carriage moves axially thereover, so that the grinding wheel is at all times properly positioned in respect to the blade 11 being sharpened and that the proper edge is formed on the blade. This guide means includes an arm 71 which is rigidly fastened by bolts 73 to the carriage proper, which arm extends rearwardly from the grinding wheel 52. The guide means includes a shaft 74 which is threadably adjustable on the end of the arm and which carries a pair of rollers 76 at its lower end. The rollers are adapted to roll along the inner side 77 of that blade 16 which succeeds the blade 11 being sharpened. A pair of rollers are used to insure that at least one roller is in guiding contact with the guiding blade until the grinding wheel passes completely over the entire length of the blade. The guide means also includes a shoe 78 having a curved or angled leading edge 79 so that when the carriage is at one extreme end of the cylinder and the guide means is about to make contact with the corresponding end of blade 16, the guide means will make proper contact with the blade 16 to properly orientate the guide means and carriage in respect to the cylinder prior to the sharpening pass of the wheel 52 over the blade.

The spring loaded means 25 is provided for biasing the cylinder in the direction of rotation indicated in FIG. 2 by the curvilinear arrow as previously mentioned. In this manner, the blade 16 is held snugly against the rollers 76 of the guide means as the sharpening tool 52 moves axially along the cylinder. In other words, as the sharpening wheel 52 moves along the length of the cylinder to sharpen the blade 11, the cylinder must also rotate sufficiently, because of the spiral nature of the blade shape, to insure that the wheel 52 is presented at the proper attitude to the blade along its entire length.

The guide means can be shifted generally vertically on the arm 71 by means of the threaded nature of its rod 74 and the lock nuts 81 which can hold the rod 74 in any adjusted position relative to the arm 71.

Manually operated drive means are provided for driving the carriage 50 along the length of the guide track means 40, 41 in the either direction. This drive means includes a crank which can be continuously rotated by the operator so as to reciprocate the carriage along the guide track means. More specifically, the crank has a relatively small sprocket 92 fixed thereto and over which the endless chain 93 is trained. A shaft 94 is fixed within the housing and has a pair of

sprockets

95 and 96 fixed thereto. Chain 93 is trained over sprocket 95 while another endless flexible member in the form of a roller chain 97 is trained around sprocket 96. Another shaft 98 is also mounted in the housing and has a sprocket 99 mounted thereon and over which the chain 97 is also trained.

A drive chain pin 100 is carried by the chain 97 and extends from the side thereof, a plate member 101 is fixed to the carriage and has a vertical slot 102 formed therein for the reception of the chain pin 100. Thus the pin 100 travels in an orbital path with the chain 97 when the operator turns the crank 90. The pin 100 con sequently carries the carriage with it via the connecting slotted plate 101. At either end of travel of the carriage, the pin moves vertically in the slot 102 and continued rotation of the crank 90 then causes the pin to reverse its travel, carrying with it the carriage. As a result, continuous rotational motion of the crank 90 by the operator in one direction is translated into reciprocating motion of the carriage. Thus the grinding wheel 52 can be caused to make various passes, in either direction, over the blade being sharpened.

I claim:

1. A blade sharpening device for use with a forage harvester that harvests and delivers crops to a housing having a top opening, and a cutting cylinder rotatably retained within the housing and adjacent said top opening, the cylinder being composed of a plurality of circumferentially spaced and substantially parallel, peripheral and spiral shaped cutting blades supported on a cylinder frame, the sharpening device comprising: guide track means supported on said housing and dispositioned parallel to the cylinder axis, a movable carriage supported on said track means for movement parallel to the cylinder axis, a blade grinding wheel on the carriage and having a flat grinding surface engageable with a cylinder blade to be sharpened, a guide means rigidly secured to said carriage and spaced from said sharpening tool and including roller means for guiding engagement along and directly against an inner side of another cylinder blade which is circumferentially spaced from said blade to be sharpened, whereby as said carriage moves along said track means said guide means moves along and is guided by said another blade to maintain said sharpening tool in proper sharpening attitude relative to the blade to be' sharpened.

2. The sharpening device set forth in claim 1 including a spring loaded means connected between said housing and an axially extending portion of said cylinder for urging the latter in a direction of rotation whereby said another blade is held firmly against said guide means as said carriage moves along said track means in sharpening said blade.

3. The device of claim 2 further characterized in that said extending portion of said cylinder comprises a plate-like member located at one end of said cylinder and on the outer side of said housing and having a engagable series of projections selectively engagable by said spring loaded means whereby said cylinder is biased in one direction of rotation by said spring loaded means.

4. A device as set forth in claim 1 including a manually operated drive means connected to said carriage for moving the latter along said guide track means.

5. The device as set forth in claim 4 further characterized in that said manually operated drive means comprises an endless flexible member, means for rotating said endless flexible member, and a pin and slot connection between said carriage and said endless flexible member whereby as the latter travels in its path, said carriage is reciprocated along said guide track means.

6. The device as set forth in claim 1 further including manually adjustable means for angularly positioning said wheel with respect to the blades.

7. The device as set forth in claim 1 further characterized in that said guide means comprises a guide shoe having an inclined leading edge for aligning said guide means initially with said blade.

Claims

1. A blade sharpening device for use with a forage harvester that harvests and delivers crops to a housing having a top opening, and a cutting cylinder rotatably retained within the housing and adjacent said top opening, the cylinder being composed of a plurality of circumferentially spaced and substantially parallel, peripheral and spiral shaped cutting blades supported on a cylinder frame, the sharpening device comprising: guide track means supported on said housing and dispositioned parallel to the cylinder axis, a movable carriage supported on said track means for movement parallel to the cylinder axis, a blade grinding wheel on the carriage and having a flat grinding surface engageable with a cylinder blade to be sharpened, a guide means rigidly secured to said carriage and spaced from said sharpening tool and including roller means for guiding engagement along and directly against an inner side of another cylinder blade which is circumferentially spaced from said blade to be sharpened, whereby as said carriage moves along said track means said guide means moves along and is guided by said another blade to maintain said sharpening tool in proper sharpening attitude relative to the blade to be sharpened.