Crop processing apparatus
First Claim
1. Crop processing apparatus comprising crop processing means;
- drive means comprising an input drive shaft, an output driven shaft connected to drive the crop processing means, and transmission means through which power is transmitted from the input drive shaft to the output driven shaft and in which relative rotation between the input drive shaft and output driven shaft under constant load conditions causes a transmission loss;
a first sensor for producing an output signal corresponding to the rate of rotation of the output driven shaft;
setting means for selecting a reference signal corresponding to a selected level of transmission loss in the transmission means;
signal processing means which processes the output signal from the first sensor to produce a transmission loss signal corresponding to said transmission loss in the transmission means and which compares said transmission loss signal with said reference signal to produce a crop load control signal; and
actuator means that is controlled in accordance with said crop load control signal and is effective to vary the rate of feed of crop to the crop processing means to maintain a substantially uniform load of crop in the crop processing means.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Crop processing apparatus comprising crop processing means (18, 23, 24) driven by drive means (29) and an automatic control system comprising sensor means (50, 51) for sensing transmission loss in the drive means (29) and producing a corresponding transmission loss signal which is proportional to the load exerted by crop on the crop processing means, setting means (Sr) for selecting a desired level of crop load and producing a reference crop load signal (Sr) corresponding to a selected level of transmission loss, signal processing means (13) which compares the transmission loss signal with the reference crop load signal to produce a control signal (Se), and actuator means (14) that is controlled in accordance with said control signal and is effective to vary the rate of feed crop to the processing means to maintain a substantially uniform load of crop in the crop processing means. The transmission loss takes the form of relative rotation or slip between input drive and output driven shafts (31, 33). Preferably, the drive means comprises a belt driven (34), and belt slip is used as a measure of transmission loss. The belt slip in the belt drive to a crop threshing cylinder is preferably used as the control parameter. The sensor means (50, 51) measures the rates of rotation (Sb, Sc) of the input drive shaft (31) and output driven shaft (33, 36) and the signal processing means (13) calculates the ratio of said rates of rotation to determine belt slip. This belt slip value may be normalized using values of the rate of rotation (Sbn, Scn) of two shafts measured under standard, no-load conditions. The actuator (14) may be the forward speed controller of a combine harvester.
-
Citations
27 Claims
-
1. Crop processing apparatus comprising crop processing means;
- drive means comprising an input drive shaft, an output driven shaft connected to drive the crop processing means, and transmission means through which power is transmitted from the input drive shaft to the output driven shaft and in which relative rotation between the input drive shaft and output driven shaft under constant load conditions causes a transmission loss;
a first sensor for producing an output signal corresponding to the rate of rotation of the output driven shaft;
setting means for selecting a reference signal corresponding to a selected level of transmission loss in the transmission means;
signal processing means which processes the output signal from the first sensor to produce a transmission loss signal corresponding to said transmission loss in the transmission means and which compares said transmission loss signal with said reference signal to produce a crop load control signal; and
actuator means that is controlled in accordance with said crop load control signal and is effective to vary the rate of feed of crop to the crop processing means to maintain a substantially uniform load of crop in the crop processing means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
- drive means comprising an input drive shaft, an output driven shaft connected to drive the crop processing means, and transmission means through which power is transmitted from the input drive shaft to the output driven shaft and in which relative rotation between the input drive shaft and output driven shaft under constant load conditions causes a transmission loss;
Specification