Patent ID: 6116529
Filing Date: 2000-09-12
Classification: B02C

Abstract:
In a pull type forage harvester for hay, corn and other crop material, a frame mounted on wheels for forward travel in a field to gather crops, a housing on said frame having a forward opening, a shear bar over which crop material passes as the material enters said housing through said opening, a cutterhead in said housing and mounted thereon for rotation on an axis transverse to said forward travel, a transverse generally horizontal trough located downwardly and rearwardly of said cutterhead axis, a conveyor in said trough, means to receive chopped crop material from said trough and discharge it from the harvester, a series of knives on said cutterhead having cutting edges which travel in a circular path generating a cylinder and copperative with said shear bar to chop crop material fed into said housing, means rotatably driving said cutterhead whereby said knives travel downwardly and forwardly toward said shear bar and then downwardly and rearwardly toward said trough, a band around the cutterhead extending between the shear bar and a location below a lower portion of the cutterhead, the improvement comprising:a corn processor having a removable floor mountable on said housing around part of said cutterhead and extending from the lower end of said band to an upper terminal end, upper and lower corn processor rolls mounted on axes generally parallel to said cutterhead axis and defining between them a bite to receive chopped corn conveyed by the cutterhead over said floor, said upper and lower rolls having surfaces spaced from each other so that kernels of corn passed between them are cracked by the rolls, the surface of said upper roll being close to and in crop stripping relation to said circular path of travel of said cutterhead knives, said lower roll being so located above said trough and the conveyor therein that it deflects downwardly chopped corn thrown upwardly from the trough and having a surface located from said knives to form a passage for crop material, means on said harvester for driving the cutterhead and said upper roll in the same direction of rotation and driving said lower roll in an opposite direction, the speed of said rolls projecting processed corp crop therefrom, and a deflector mounted on the harvester in the path of processed corn discharged from between said processor rolls, said deflector extending to direct processed corn downwardly behind said lower roll and into said trough beneath the lower roll.