Patent ID: 6113491
Filing Date: 2000-09-05
Classification: A01F

Abstract:
In a rotary chopper arrangement connected to an outlet at a rear end of a harvester combine, said rotary chopper including a housing for comminuting material to be cut and a chopper rotor mounted therein for comminuting said material to be cut, said chopper rotor driven by a drive shaft, said housing having an inlet for admission of the material to be cut, an outlet for discharge of the comminuted material, and a pair of laterally spaced sides defining a width of said chopper inlet and outlet, said chopper rotor journaled at each of said side walls and including a plurality of rotating knives mounted thereon, said housing having a plurality of counter-acting knives mounted thereon so as to be complementarily matched and positioned with said plurality of rotating knives, the improvement comprising: a fan for supplying a supplementary air blast to the housing in order to increase the amount of discharged comminuted material and to achieve improved spreading of the comminuted material on the ground, said housing having an air admission intake formed therein intermediate of said housing inlet and outlet, wherein said fan is directly driven by said drive shaft of said chopper rotor and said supplementary air blast supplied to said air admission intake is adjustable according to a desired spreading width of the comminuted material.