Patent ID: 11930737
Assignee: CNH INDUSTRIAL AMERICA LLC
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 5:
6. An agricultural windrower, comprising:
a chassis;
a merger system carried by the chassis, the merger system comprising:
a frame suspended from the chassis;
a conveyor supported by the merger frame, the conveyor including an endless belt configured to convey crop material to a strip on the ground; and
at least one frame mount coupling the frame to the chassis;

at least one load sensor associated with the at least one frame mount; and
a controller operatively coupled to the at least one load sensor, the controller being configured to:
acquire load signals from the at least one load sensor at a certain frequency regarding a load at the at least one frame mount as crop material is conveyed by the endless belt of the conveyor, wherein the certain frequency is defined based on a period of time for the conveyor to rotate half of the endless belt;
determine a mass of the crop material conveyed by the conveyor and deposited on the ground based at least partially on the load signals;
determine a crop yield based at least partially on the mass of the crop material; and
output a yield signal corresponding to the crop yield of the crop material deposited in the strip on the ground.