MOWER

Abstract: A mower-conditioner (10) is provided with a conveyor (32) which has a planar surface and which is mounted at the rear for receiving and supporting crop discharged from the machine and for transporting the crop to one side of the machine. The conveyor (32) can be swung about horizontal pivots (38, 40) from this operative position to a raised inoperative position overlying the operative one. The machine (10) makes a first pass through the crop with the conveyor (32) raised and then a second pass with the conveyor (32) lowered to its operative position. In the second pass, the crop will be displaced by the conveyor (32) into the windrow formed during the first pass so that a double windrow is made. The procedure is then repeated. In the raised position the conveyor (32) is clear of any obstruction on the ground, and does not cause any significant extension of the machine.

Description: This invention relates to a mower for cutting crop and moving the cut crop rearwardly having a conveyor at the rear for receiving the cut crop and transporting it to one side of the machine, the conveyor being suspended by support arms and pivotable relative to the mower by way of at least one one-way hydraulic piston and cylinder unit about a horizontal pivot for its movement between a working position in the path of crop and a non-working position above the working position and away from the crop path. Conventional mower-conditioners for harvesting hay which are drawn by a tractor and which are supported on a pair of wheels have a disc-type cutterbar at the front feeding either a pair of conditioning rolls or a conditioning impeller housed under a hood. The cut and conditioned crop is directed, at the rear of the machine, into a windrow. Various proposals have been made for forming double windrows by using an attachment, at the rear of the machine, which conveys crop received from the conditioning rolls or impeller to the side of the machine to join a windrow which has been laid down in a previous pass of the mower-conditioner without using the attachment. Thus the attachment is designed to be movable between a non-working and a working position for the first and second passes respectively. For example, it has been proposed in FR-A-2 483 736 to provide a horizontal conveyor with a planar surface, at the rear of a mower-conditioner at a level above support wheels of the machine, which has a working position in which crop falls onto it from conditioning rolls. The conveyor extends diagonally (in plan view) from the hood outlet to terminate behind the left hand wheel and there discharges the crop. The conveyor is mounted for swinging motion about a vertical pivot near its discharge end, and the conveyor can be swung between its diagonal working position just described to a transverse non-working position in which it is spaced sufficiently behind the hood that the crop issuing from under the hood will fall to the ground before reaching it and will simply be laid down in a normal windrow. The machine (with the conveyor in the non-working position) forms such a windrow in a first pass over the field, and the conveyor is then moved to its working position and a second pass made whereupon the crop is discharged by the conveyor onto, or directly beside, the first windrow so a double windrow is thereby produced. In the conveyor's working position some part of the crop tends to miss it leading to losses. In its non-working position, on the other hand, the conveyor is still relatively near the ground so that it may sometimes be fouled by obstructions on the ground over which the machine has to pass. Furthermore, when in the non-working position the length of the machine is significantly extended, and indeed the balance of the machine (bearing in mind that it runs just on a pair of support wheels) can be affected. Furthermore a double windrowing attachement for a mower comprising a reversibly driveable horizontal conveyor has been proposed (EP-A1-0 165 602). The mower is provided with a pair of hydraulic cylinders for raising the mower from a lowered harvesting position into an elevated transport position and this upward movement is utilized for mounting the attachment to the mower frame. The attachment includes a transverse beam for movably supporting the conveyor such that the conveyor is transversely shiftable between a first crop discharge position for forming a windrow inboard of one side of the mower and a second crop discharge position for forming a second windrow along the opposite side of the mower. To prevent crop from being discharged from the conveyor onto uncut crop, a switch reverses a hydraulic drive for the conveyor prior to the beginning of movement of the conveyor from the first to the second discharge position and reverses the hydraulic drive responsive to the completion of movement of the conveyor from the second to the first crop discharge position. This known conveyor cannot be raised into a non-operative position with the mower still in its lowered harvesting position for discharging severed crop onto the ground in a single centrally disposed windrow. Even in a raised position of the mower cut crop will at all time fall onto the conveyor. There is also no reason at all for this conveyor to be pivoted upwardly or for the mower and the conveyor to be relatively adjustable in a vertical direction as this double windrowing mechanism is especially useful with large harvesters. The conveyor of the mower considered in the opening paragraph (GB-A-2 088 684) includes an auger having a series of flights and being rotatably supported within a trough for conveying cut crop laterally to an outboard position of the mower. The trough surrounding the top, rearward and bottom side of the auger is open along its front side to present an elongated port being below forming shields or a hood but distal to a conditioning mechanism when in the working position in which skids affixed to the underside of the trough ride along the ground. An extended portion of the auger projects through the discharge end of the trough laterally over the path of supporting wheels of the mower. This conveyor is a very complicated and expensive design of heavy weight. Also here in the working position of the conveyor some part of the crop tends to miss the auger leading to losses or to blockage. The heavy weight is affecting the balance of the machine in the non-working position. The sliding on the ground needs higher traction and much power is requested for driving the conveyor. The present invention enables one or more of the disadvantages discussed above to be overcome. According to the invention the conveyor has a substantially planar surface and is supported by the piston and cylinder unit against downward movement when in the working position which is such that the crop falls onto and is supported by the conveyor under it. Thus the working position can be near the ground to reduce losses, and yet the non-working position can be sufficiently spaced above any obstructions likely to be encountered. Furthermore, it is possible to arrange the non-working position, since it is above the working position, to be such that it does not represent any extension of the length of the machine. The mower can be in the form of a mower-conditioner which can have conditioning rolls or a conditioning impeller. An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a side view of a mower-conditioner with a double windrow attachent at its rear; and Fig. 2 is a plan view of the machine of Fig. 1. In the drawings, a mower-conditioner 10 has a frame 12 mounted on a pair of left and right wheels 14, 16 by wheel arms 18, 20 and is drawn by a tractor (not shown) by way of a drawbar 22 which also affords support for the front end of the machine. A disc-type cutterbar 24 runs laterally across the width of the front of the mower-conditioner 10 for delivering cut hay to an impeller 26 aligned therewith and somewhat overlying its rearward portion. The impeller 26 is housed beneath a hood 28 a portion of which is adjustable and which extends both forwardly above the cutterbar 24 and also rearwardly where it forms a coverging discharge outlet 30 for the crop. Drive for the cutterbar 24 and impeller 26 is transmitted from the tractor. The mower-conditioner 10 thus far described is conventional. At the rear of the machine 10 is a double windrow attachment in the form of a conveyor 32 with a planar conveying surface. The conveyor is suspended at its right and left ends by right and left cranked support arms 34, 36 which are mounted on the machine by horizontal pivot pins 38, 40 respectively. The right hand pivot pin 38 is located outboard of the wheel 16 whilst the left pin 40 is inboard of the wheel 14. The conveyor 32 is swingable upwardly and downwardly about the pins 38, 40 by way of a pair of left and right one-way hydraulic piston and cylinder units of which only the left hand unit 42 is shown in Fig. 1 since it masks the right hand unit and which are pivotally attached at their upper ends to brackets, e.g. bracket 44, rigid with the respective arms 36, 34 and at their lower ends to the machine 10, the axes of the units being indicated by lines 46, 48 in Fig. 2. The operative position of the conveyor 32 is that indicated in continous lines in Figs 1 and 2. In this position the conveyor 32 which is rectangular in plan view extends between the wheels 14, 16 but does not reach the path of the wheels, it being accomodated wholly within the track of the machine 10. Desirably the conveyor 32 is at least partly below the level of the axis of the wheels 14, 16. The conveyor 32 has a conveying element 50 formed from a wide belt of rubber, reinforced with polyester fibre, and cross slats of rubber-covered fibreglass attached by adhesive to the belt. The belt runs over end rolls 52, 54 one of which is driven by a hydraulic motor (not shown) and which are journalled in side walls 56, 58 of the conveyor 32. The side walls 56, 58 act as containment walls for the crop, the wall 56 being along the rearward side when the conveyor 32 is in the operative position and extending higher than the forward wall 58 to ensure deflection of any stray crop in flight onto the conveying element 50. Furthermore, the conveyor 32 is inclined at an angle preferably of 10 to 40° to the horizontal so that its rearward side is higher than its forward side. This tilt serves to increase the aggression on the crop. If desired, the forward side wall 58 can be formed to extend (in the operative position) at its upper portion closely toward the impeller 26 so that the wall 58 will catch stray crop, which may otherwise fall between the impeller 26 and the conveyor 32, and direct that crop onto the conveyor. The inoperative or storage position of the conveyor 32 is shown in broken lines in Fig. 1. Here, the conveyor is approximately upright, being in this embodiment at an angle of about 15° to the vertical although the precise angle is not critical. What is important is that the inoperative position is higher than the operative position and does not cause any significant increase in the length of the machine. It is desirable that the inoperative position overlies the operative position. The hydraulic motor driving the roll 52 or 54 is in hydraulic circuit with a valve arranged to stop the drive when triggered by the conveyor 32 moving to the inoperative position. In operation, for a first pass through a hay crop the conveyor 32 is in its raised storage position. The hay is severed by the cutterbar 24, passes rearwardly to the impeller 26 where it is conditioned travelling between the impeller 26 and the hood 28, and is discharged through the outlet 30 to form a windrow on the ground. At the end of the pass, the piston and cylinder units are retracted to swing the conveyor 32 downwardly through approximately 90° about the pivot pins 38, 40 to the operative position. A second pass is then made. The conditioned crop is discharged onto the moving conveyor 50 which ejects the crop at its left hand end onto (or closely beside) the windrow laid down on the first pass so that a double windrow is formed. Since the piston and cylinder units are operated "one-way", they do not resist any upward movement of the conveyor 50. Thus if the conveyor 50 encounters an obstruction on the ground it can ride over it without damage. At the third pass, the piston and cylinder units are again extended to return the conveyor 50 to its raised storage position and a single windrow is formed, and the procedure repeated.

Claims: Mower for cutting crop and moving the cut crop rearwardly having a conveyor (32) at the rear for receiving the cut crop and transporting it to one side of the machine, the conveyor (32) being suspended by support arms (34, 36) and pivotable relative to the mower by way of at least one one-way hydraulic piston and cylinder unit (42) about a horizontal pivot (38, 40) for its movement between a working position in the path of crop and a non-working position above the working position and away from the crop path, characterised in that the conveyor (32) has a substantially planar surface and is supported by the piston and cylinder unit (42) against downward movement when in the working position which is such that the crop falls onto and is supported by the conveyor (32) under it. Mower according to claim 1 characterised in that the conveyor (32) in its non-working position is approximately upright. Mower according to claim 1 or 2 characterised in that the conveyor (32) when in the working position is inclined so that its rearward side is higher than its forward side. Mower according to claim 3 characterised in that the conveyor (32) is inclined at an angle of 10 to 40° to the horizontal. Mower according to any preceding claim characterised in that in plan view the conveyor (32) when in the working position does not extend laterally to the path of supporting wheels (14, 16) of the machine. Mower according to any preceding claim having a disc cutterbar (24), a conditioning device (26) behind the cutterbar (24), and a hood (28) over the conditioning device (26), arranged so that crop cut by the cutterbar (24) is received therefrom by the conditioning device (26) characterised in that the conditioning device is an impeller (26), the crop is moved rearwardly between the impeller (26) and hood (28), and the hood (28) partially overlies the conveyor (32) when in its working position. Mower according to claim 6 characterised in that the conveyor (32) has a crop-containment wall (58) along its forward side when considered in the working position, the forward wall (58) extending sufficiently toward the impeller (26) so as to catch stray crop which may otherwise fall between the impeller (26) and conveyor (32). Mower according to any preceding claim characterised in that the conveyor (32) when in its working position is at least partly below the level of an axis about which supporting wheels (14, 16) of the machine turn. Mower according to any preceding claim characterised in that the conveyor (32) is drivingly connected to a hydraulic motor in circuit with an hydraulic valve which is arranged to be triggered by movement of the conveyor (32) to its non-working position to stop the drive to the conveyor (32). Mower according to any preceding claim characterised in that the conveyor (32) has a crop-containment wall (56) along its rearward side when considered in the working position. Mower according to any preceding claim characterised in that the non-working position of the conveyor (32) overlies the operative position. Mower according to any preceding claim, characterised in that the conveyer (32) is suspended by two cranked support arms (34, 36) of rigid construction and one of which is affixed to the rearward side of the conveyor (32) and pivoted to the frame (12) of the mower (10) by a horizontal pivot pin (38 or 40 resp.) Mower according to any preceding claim characterised in that the conveyor (32) is a belt conveyor.

Inventors: ROSTOUCHER, GUY
Applicants: DEERE & COMPANY
Application year: 1990
Main classification: A01D57
IPC codes: A01D57