FIELD HARVESTER FOR ROW CROPS

• US 3,705,482 A
• Filed: 02/10/1971
• Issued: 12/12/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Josef Purrer
• Original Assignee: Josef Purrer
• Inventors: Purrer, Josef
• Primary Examiner(s): Mancene, Louis G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Oliff, J. A.
• Application Number:
  US05/114,329
• Time in Patent Office: 671 Days
• Field of Search: 56/13.4,13.6-13.9,14.3,16.2,60,61,95,110,119
• US Class Current: 56/13.9
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 43/082 Gathering units

Abstract

A field harvester for row crops, especially stalk crops such as corn, has a stalk-entrainment device formed by a pair of rearwardly converging augers or conveying worms which, at the rear of the entrainment device, are in superposed relationship to deposit stalks upon a conveyer with the butt end of the stalk forwardly. The stalks then move transversely beneath a feed drum to the chopper and blower blades. The cutter consists of a plurality of blades arranged on a disk rotated at the base of the throat of the stalk-guide device.

Claims

1. A field harvester, comprising:

a support for traversing a field having a row crop in a longitudinal direction of movement of the support;

a chopper on said support for receiving crop material to be chopped in a direction horizontally transverse to said longitudinal direction a crop-intake device mounted on said support and having a pair of longitudinally extending adjacent conveyer worms having linear axes of rotation converging rearwardly with respect to the direction of advance of the harvester, said worms having forward lower ends at the same level spaced apart transversely of said longitudinal direction to provide a proximal worm having its lower end closer to the chopper than the lower end of the other relatively distal worm, said proximal worm having a rearward upper end vertically overlying the rearward upper end of the distal worm for guiding a stalk crop longitudinally into said device and laterally feeding said stalk crop to said chopper; and

conveyer means between said chopper and said device for displacing the guided stalk crop in said transverse direction to said chopper.

2. The field harvester defined in claim 1 wherein each of said worms has a helix intersecting the path of the helix of the other worm at the rearward ends of said worms.

3. The field harvester defined in claim 2 wherein said worms are each provided with co-operating entrainment means at their rearward ends for engagement with said crop and advancing toward said chopper.

4. The field harvester defined in claim 3 wherein said worms are rotated in opposite senses to feed said crop between them to said chopper.

5. The field harvester defined in claim 4, further comprising cutting means disposed at the rearward end of said device close to the ground for severing the stalks of said crop from said ground, the cutting means comprising a disk rotatable about an axis lying in a vertical plane and provided with an array of radial blades.

6. The field harvester defined in claim 5 wherein said axis includes an angle of about 45* with the ground surface.

7. The field harvester defined in claim 5 wherein said conveyer means includes an endless conveyer having a first roll proximal to said chopper and a second roll proximal to said cutting means for conveying the crop from said device to said chopper, said disk being rotated in the dIrection of said conveyer for carrying said crop onto the latter.

8. The field harvester defined in claim 7 wherein said entrainment means includes a plurality of equispaced serrated blades formed on said rearward ends of said worms, said blades extending along axial planes of the respective worms, said rearward ends being located above the forward ends of said worms.

9. The field harvester defined in claim 7 wherein said support is provided with a pair of wheels and means enabling said support to be towed by said tractor.

10. The field harvester defined in claim 7, further comprising means for mounting said support upon a three-point hitch of a tractor.

11. The field harvester defined in claim 7, further comprising a forage wagon, said support being mounted directly upon said forage wagon.