Disk type mower

A mower with two pairs of counterrotating cutting disks has a frame on which two yokes are mounted for independent swinging about a horizontal axis transverse to the direction of travel, each yoke carrying a pair of coacting horizontal conditioning rollers which in a working position lie in the wake of a respective disk pair to gather and press the mown crop coming from these disks. The conditioning rollers are driven from a pair of ancillary shafts on the machine frame, operatively linked with the disk drive, through extensible and universally jointed transmission shafts enabling each yoke to be separately swung into a retracted position.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
Our present invention relates to a mower of the type wherein a wheeled 
frame, adapted to be towed by a tractor across a field whose crop is to be 
harvested, extends generally transversely to the direction of travel and 
carries two or more pairs of cutting disks counterrotating about generally 
vertical axes. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
A mower or harvesting machine of this character has been disclosed, for 
example, in commonly owned U.S. Pat No. 3,772,865. That patent also 
teaches the positioning of a deflecting drum in the wake of each disk pair 
for the purpose of gathering the mown crop into a windrow. 
In German printed specification No. 2,023,274 and corresponding U.S. Pat. 
No. 3,656,284 there has been described a harvesting machine of this type 
in which a pair of horizontal conditioning rollers, designed to gather and 
press the freshly cut stalks between them, are disposed rearwardly of a 
set of four cutting disks and are relatively counterrotated by a single 
chain linked with the disk drive. The roller surfaces are helically ribbed 
in a manner tending to concentrate the mown crop along the centerline of 
the swath cut by the disk array, thus leaving a single row of grass or 
other stalks intended to turn into hay or silage. One problem with such a 
transmission is that the driving chain exerts upon the two counterrotating 
rollers a transverse force urging them toward or away from each other, 
depending upon the connection between the chain and the associated 
sprockets, so that it is difficult to maintain a desired pressure 
therebetween. 
U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,311 relates to a different type of mower, using a 
cutter bar instead of counterrotating disks, in which a pair of 
conditioning rollers are driven through extensible and universally jointed 
shafts. The lower conditioning roller is journaled in fixed bearings on 
the machine frame while the upper roller is adjustable with reference 
thereto. Power is supplied to the roller shafts through a laterally 
disposed transmission housing. 
The accumulation of the mown crop in a single windrow midway of the swath 
is sometimes disadvantageous, as when only one pair of cutting disks are 
used to mow the edge of a field or to cut a narrow swath for some other 
reason. Also, problems of alignment, oil leakage, lubrication and 
accessibility arise with laterally mounted transmission systems, 
especially in a machine using more than two pairs of cutting disks. 
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
The general object of our present invention, therefore, is to provide a 
drive mechanism for the conditioning rollers of a disk mower obviating the 
drawbacks referred to. 
A more particular object is to provide means in such a mower for allowing 
selective deactivation of two or more pairs of conditioning rollers 
associated with respective disk pairs. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
We realize these objects, in accordance with our present invention, by the 
provision of separate supports for two pairs of conditioning rollers 
disposed in the wake of respective pairs of counterrotating cutting disks, 
each support extending rearwardly of the machine frame and being 
preferably provided with a pivotal mounting allowing it to be 
independently swung for elevating the rollers from a working position into 
a retracted position remote from the disk level. The roller pairs on these 
two supports are connected with the disk drive by way of transmission 
means including a power train common to both supports and a universally 
jointed and preferably extensible shaft individual to each roller. Such an 
array of two disk pairs and two roller supports can, obviously, be 
duplicated two or more times if there is an even number of disk pairs 
greater than two. 
Each support may be in the shape of a yoke with two lateral arms 
interconnected by the two roller shafts, the axis of the lower roller 
shaft (as seen in the working position) being advantageously fixed with 
reference to the yoke whereas the upper roller is journaled in bearings 
movable along the arms, preferably in longitudinal channels thereof. 
The common power train may include an overload-relieving clutch designed to 
arrest the roller drive if either or both pairs of conditioning rollers 
should jam.

SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION 
In the drawing we have shown a frame 11 for a mower generally similar to 
that disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 3,772,865, with a wheel 
base and a tow bar not illustrated here. Frame 11 carries at least two 
pairs 12, 13 of counterrotating cutting disks 12a, 12b and 13a, 13b with 
bases 14 resting on the ground in their working position. Though the axes 
of these disks are shown to be vertical, it will be understood that they 
could also be slightly tilted, e.g. as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 
3,626,284. 
Frame 11, extending perpendicularly to the direction of travel represented 
in FIG. 1 by an arrow A, is a hollow beam forming a receptacle for an oil 
bath in which a drive mechanism for the disks 12, 13 is immersed as 
diagrammatically indicated in FIG. 1. That mechanism comprises a main 
shaft 18 coupled via a pair of bevel gears 19, 20 with an input shaft 17 
which is driven from a non-illustrated power-takeoff shaft of the tractor 
by way of a universal joint 20a. Shaft 18 carries a set of bevel gears 21 
meshing with bevel gears 22 on the shafts of the several disks, the gears 
being so oriented that disk 12a, 12b and 13a, 13b counterrotate and move 
rearwardly along their confronting edges so that the stalks cut by their 
radially extending blades are propelled toward the back of the machine 
along the midplane of each disk pair 12, 13. These stalks are intercepted 
by respective pairs of horizontal conditioning rollers 15, 16 disposed in 
the wake of the disks, each roller pair being journaled in two lateral 
arms 5 forming a yoke with the shaft 35 of the lower roller 15 whose 
bearings 35a are fixedly positioned in these arms. The shaft 36 of the 
upper roller 16 has bearings 36a mounted in blocks 8 which are slidable in 
longitudinal channels 10 of the respective arms. Each block 8 is rigid 
with a stem 7 having a shoulder 7a, the free end of the stem 7 passing 
through a hollow spindle 3 which is matingly received in a nut 4 fixed to 
arm 5; a compression spring 6, inserted between spindle 3 and shoulder 7a, 
urges the roller 16 against roller 15 with a contact pressure which can be 
adjusted by rotating the spindle 3 in its nut 4 with the aid of a handle 
3a. Another handle 2 at the top of each arm is integral with a pin which 
can be fitted into either of two holes 2' and 2" on a pair of brackets 37 
rigid with frame 11 to which the arm 5 is pivoted by a pin 1, thereby 
enabling the yoke to be locked in a working position or in a substantially 
horizontal retracted position respectively indicated by full lines and by 
phantom lines in FIG. 2. 
In the working position, in which the yoke arms 5 are inclined at a small 
angle to the vertical, conditioning rollers 15 and 16 gather and press the 
oncoming crop material in essentially the manner described in U.S. Pat. 
No. 3,656,284. The rollers may be provided, for this purpose, with 
helicoidal ribs serving to direct the stalks toward the midplane of the 
associated disk pair. 
A sprocket 26 keyed to shaft 18 is linked by a chain 25 with a sprocket 24 
on a secondary shaft 23 which is parallel to shaft 18 and carries an idler 
gear 27. A friction clutch 28, serving as a protection against overload, 
couples the gear 27 with shaft 23 whereby two ancillary shafts 30, 32 
parallel to shaft 18 are driven via two further gears 29 and 31. Shafts 
23, 30 and 32 with their associated gears are disposed in an extension 11' 
of frame 11 which is also filled with oil for the purpose of lubrication. 
The ends of ancillary shafts 30 and 32, projecting through suitable oil 
seals from the receptacle formed by frame extension 11', carry universal 
joints 38a, 38b and 39a, 39b by which they are coupled with respective 
sections of two telescoped and therefore extensible shafts 33a, 33b whose 
complementary sections are coupled by similar universal joints with roller 
shafts 36 and 35. Thus, each ancillary shaft simultaneously drives two 
conditioning rollers journaled in respective pairs of supporting arms 5 on 
opposite sides of frame extensions 11'. 
The extensibility of shafts 33a, 33b and 34a, 34b allows either or both 
pairs of conditioning rollers 15, 16 to be retracted from their working 
position, as when the associated disk pair 12 or 13 is deactivated through 
a nonillustrated coupling. 
Universally jointed transmission shafts 33a, 33b, 34a, 34b do not exert any 
significant transverse force upon the conditioning rollers 15, 16 driven 
thereby whose contact pressure therefore depends exclusively on the 
setting of adjusting handles 3a. It will be apparent that the provision of 
two such handles for each adjustable roller 16 facilitates the positioning 
of that roller parallel to its companion roller 15.