Abstract:
A picker bar includes spindles which are nonaligned in the vertical direction to define two or more offset sets of spindles on the bar and increase the number of spindles per unit length of the spindle bar. A spindle assembly includes a support carrying two spindles driven from a picker bar drive shaft by a single drive gear. Driven spindle gears are spaced on opposite sides of the shaft axis to facilitate close spacing of the spindles. A doffer column includes doffer pads of differing diameters to optimize doffing of the offset sets of spindles.

Description:
This is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 11/058,150 filed 15 Feb. 2005 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,650,735. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to cotton harvesters and more specifically to spindle picker bars for cotton picker row units. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Cotton harvesters often have a row unit structure with picker drums rotatable about upright axes adjacent a row-receiving area of the unit. The drum includes a plurality of upright picker bars having spindles which rotate in contact with cotton plants to remove the cotton. Corresponding spindles on the bars define generally horizontal spindle planes, with a typical drum having eighteen to twenty spindle planes. Doffers which rotate between the spindle planes in contact with the spindles to doff cotton wound on the spindles and direct the cotton towards air door structure for removal from the unit towards a basket or processor. 
     A conventional picker bar includes a single row of spindles spaced uniformly in the vertical direction. Each spindle includes a gear end engaged by a mating bevel gear located on an upright spindle drive shaft supported for rotation within a hollow portion of the bar. The spacing between the spindle planes and thus the density of the spindles on the picker bar is limited by the spindle support and spindle drive arrangement. Currently available drive shaft bevel gear and the spindle nut mounting arrangements prevent closer spacing of spindles. Therefore, increasing the spindle density for increased drum productivity while maintaining the reliability of the spindle, spindle bar and spindle drive has heretofore been a continuing source of difficulty. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A picker bar includes spindles which are nonaligned in the vertical direction to define two or more offset sets of spindles on the bar and facilitate closer vertical spacing of the spindles. The number of spindles per unit length of the spindle bar is thereby increased to provide more spindles in the pick zone for increased productivity. 
     In one embodiment of the invention, two spindles of a twin spindle assembly are driven by a central gear which, in turn, is driven by bevel gear mounted to the picker bar driveshaft. The two spindles are mounted at an angle to the vertical plane of the bar to define two vertical planes of spindles. The reduced number of drive gears on the drive shaft allows an increased total number of spindles on each picker bar and provides an increased number of horizontal spindle planes. The spindle plane spacing for the pair of spindles may be different than the spacing between planes for adjacent spindles in adjacent pairs, and doffing with such spacing is achieved with a doffer column having two different sizes or spacing of doffer pads. 
     Various drives, including a crossed helical drive, double shaft drive, spiral bevel gear drive, or a hypoid gear set can be utilized to achieve more than one vertical plane of spindles on a spindle bar. Two or more picker spindle planes lying on either side of the central axis of the bar allows the horizontal distance between the two closest pick zones to be reduced. With helical or hypoid type gear drives, the spindle planes may be offset from a parallel relationship. For example, by slightly angling the planes relative to one another, horizontal spindle distribution in the pick zone can be improved. 
     In an embodiment of the invention, two vertical planes of spindles on a spindle bar are offset from the central axis of the bar. As the bar is rotated on this axis by the cam in the doffing zone, the relation of the spindle to the doffer varies from one spindle of the pair to the other. A unique doffer arrangement having doffers of two different diameters optimizes the critical positional relationship between the spindles and the doffers for the spindles in the doffing zone. 
     These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the description below and the drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a cotton picker bar. 
         FIG. 2  is a top view of a portion of a cotton picker row unit including the picker bar of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  an enlarged view, partially exploded and in section, showing a portion of the picker bar of  FIG. 1  and the spindle support and drive arrangement. 
         FIG. 4  is an enlarged view of an alternate drive arrangement for the spindles. 
         FIG. 5  is a top view of an alternate embodiment of a cotton picker bar having two spindle drive shafts. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , therein is shown a portion of a cotton picker row unit  6  having a picker spindle drum  8  with picker spindle bar assemblies  10 . A doffer assembly  11  with doffer pads  11   a  and  11   b  is supported in the row unit adjacent the path of the picker bar assemblies  10 . Each picker bar assembly  10  includes a hollow picker bar  12  with an upper end  14  adapted for journaling in the row unit drum head and receiving a cast cam follower arm  16 . A spindle drive shaft  18  is rotatably mounted in the hollow picker bar  12 . A driven gear  20  is fixed to the upper end of the shaft  18  for meshing with a conventional drive gear such as sun gear (see  21  of  FIG. 5 ). 
     The picker bar assembly  10  includes at least two sets  22   a  and  22   b  of spindles  22  having axes of rotation  22   c . As can be appreciated from the figures, the two sets of spindles  22   a  and  22   b  are nonaligned in the vertical direction and are offset on opposite sides of the drive shaft  18 . The follower arm  16  is seated in a cam track  24  ( FIG. 2 ) to properly orient the bar  12  during harvesting so that the spindles  22  are maintained in a preselected attitude when removing cotton from the plants and when passing by the doffer assembly  11  and a conventional moistener pad assembly (not shown). 
     As shown in  FIG. 3 , the drive shaft  18  supports bevel pinions  26 . Each of the bevel pinions  26  meshes with a pinion  28  on a corresponding spindle assembly  32 . The assemblies  32  include a pair of spindles  22  with one of the pair of spindles located in a plane P 1  and the other of the pair located in a plane P 2 . The spindles  22  are rotatably supported in the bar  12  by twin spindle mounting assemblies  36 . A plane passing through the axes  22   c  of the spindles of a spindle pair is angled with respect to the horizontal so that a spindle pair defines two separate spindle picking planes (for example, see H 1 , H 2  and H 3 , H 4  of  FIG. 3 ). As shown the spindle picking planes are uniformly spaced in the vertical direction. However, other spacing configurations can be provided. For example, it may be advantageous to have a different spacing between spindle planes (H 1 , H 2 ) for spindles of a spindle pair than the planes (H 2 , H 3 ) for adjacent spindles on different spindle pairs. 
     As shown, the upper spindle  22  of each spindle pair lies in the spindle set  22   a  while the lower spindle of the pair lies in the spindle set  22   b . The doffer column  11  includes doffer pads  11   a  and  11   b . The doffer pads  11   a  that doff cotton from the spindle sets  22   a  are smaller in diameter than the doffer pads  11   b  that doff cotton from the spindle sets  22   b . Since the two vertical planes of spindles on the bar  12  are offset from the central axis of the bar, the relation of the spindle to the doffer varies from one spindle of the pair to the other as the action of the follower arm  16  in the cam track  24  rotates the bar  12 . By providing doffers of differing diameter, the angular relation between the spindles  22  being doffed and the rotating doffer pads  11   a  and  11   b  are optimized for both spindles of the pair in the doffing zone as shown in  FIG. 2 . The spacing between the individual doffer pads  11   a ,  11   b  assures proper vertical alignment with the spindle planes H 1 -H 4 . 
     As shown in the drawing figures, the spindles  22  are supported from the picker bar  12  in the upright planes P 1  and P 2  for rotation by the drive shaft  18 . The upright planes P 1  and P 2  as shown in  FIG. 3  are generally parallel and located adjacent but offset from each other. However, if the driving gears for the spindle drive are crossed helical or hypoid type, the planes P 1  and P 2  may be offset from a parallel relationship. By angling the planes away from or towards one another, horizontal spindle distribution in the pick zone can be optimized. 
     The twin spindle mounting assemblies  36  for each spindle assembly  32  include a drive gear journal  52  ( FIG. 3 ) with mounting flanges  54  which abut an apertured flat  56  formed on the bar  12 . A combination gear  60  includes a cylindrical central portion rotatably supported within the journal  52 . The inner end of the combination gear  60  includes the spindle assembly pinion  28 , and the journal supports the driven pinion  28  in contact with the drive shaft bevel pinion  26 . The opposite end of the combination gear includes a spur gear  62  which projects outwardly from the outer face of the journal  52  which rotates about a gear axis  62   a  perpendicular to the axis of the drive shaft  18 . 
     The mounting flanges  54  include diametrically opposed bores  64  rotatatably mounting the driven ends of the two spindles  22 . The twin spindle mounting assembly  36  is secured over central journal areas of the spindles  22  and over the drive gear journal  52  by mounting screws threaded into the apertured flat  56 . The mounting assembly  36  includes a base  70  with outwardly projecting spindle journal areas  72  with flanges  74  having apertures  76  for receiving the mounting screws  66 . The spindles  22  include cylindrical bearing areas  82  received within bushings  84  located in the journal areas  72 . The picking ends of the spindles  22  project from the journal areas  72 , and dust caps  88  help seal the bearing area. 
     The driven ends of the spindles  22  include spur gears  92  which mesh with the spur gear  62  to rotate the spindles about their axes  22   c  on opposite sides of the axis of the combination gear  62 . Cylindrical bearing areas  94  project inwardly towards the bar  12  from the driven end of the spindles  22  and are rotatably supported in the bores  64  of the drive gear journal  52 . The journal  52  is supported within a recessed area  102  in the flat  56 . 
     The base  70  is recessed to receive the spindle spur gears  92 . A double washer  108  is received over the spindle bearing areas  82  between the spur gears  62 ,  92  and the recessed portion of the base  70 . 
     In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 4 , a more conventional spindle nut assembly  120  mounts spindles  22 ′ directly in the spindle bar  12 ′ on opposite sides of a single spindle drive shaft  18 ′. Crossed helical drives  122   a  and  122   b  rotate the spindles  22  in the same direction about the spindle axes from the single shaft  18 ′. The spindles  22  of the set  22   a  and the spindles  22  of the set  22   b  are on the opposite sides of the shaft  18 ′ so the drive  122   a  is the opposite hand of that of  122   b  so all the spindles rotate in the same direction. The drives  122   a  and  122   b  include drive gears  126   a  and  126   b  which can either be formed directly into the drive shaft  18 ′ or can be separate gears pinned to the shaft. The spindles  22 ′ including driven ends having driven gears  128   a  and  128   b  projecting inwardly from the spindle nut assembly  120 . Cylindrical bearing areas  134  project axially from the driven ends and are rotatably supported by journal areas  136  formed in the bar  12 ′. 
     In another embodiment shown in  FIG. 5 , a double driveshaft bar  12 ″ provides drive to the two sets of spindles  22   a  and  22   b . The sun gear  21  drives a single intermediate gear  140  on the double driveshaft bar  12 ″. As shown, the intermediate gear  140  is centered between drive shafts  138   a  and  138   b  and is a combination gear having two gear profiles rotatable about a common gear axis. The first profile engages the sun gear and is sized to provide the proper gear ratio. The second profile is sized to give the desired spacing between the drive shafts  138   a  and  138   b . Alternatively, one of the shafts  138   a  and  138   b  may be driven directly from the gear  21 , with the second shaft driven from the first through an intermediate gear to keep the direction of rotation the same for both shafts. In this alternative arrangement, one upright plane of spindles would be aligned with the rotational axis of the bar  12 ″ and one would be offset from the axis. The arrangement shown in  FIG. 5  provides an equal offset for both planes of spindles to facilitate better spindle orientation relative to the doffer column  11 . A conventional bevel drive arrangement  150  is utilized between the spindles  22  and the drive shafts  138   a  and  138   b.    
     Having described the preferred embodiment, it will become apparent that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the accompanying claims.