Abstract:
A feeder drum used in an agriculture head to force the cut crop through an opening of the head. More specifically, the feeder drum is used to produce the transition from the lateral movement of the crop through the platform to a transverse longitudinal movement (with respect to lateral movement) which directs it to the platform carrier&#39;s feeder. Even more specifically, the feeder drum comprises a plurality of fins or blades attached to a cylinder, wherein the fins contain one side with a profile describing a convex curve.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present invention relates to harvesting platforms of the type that are carried on the front end of a combine tractor. More specifically, the present invention relates to set of feeder drums which are used in agriculture headers to direct the cut crop in a desired direction. The feeder drums are incorporated into platforms to force the crop material to flow through an open end of the platform so that it can be picked up by the carrier harvester feeder-house. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     A platform used in agriculture harvesting crops is universally defined as a head attached to a harvesting machine and that serves as a removable attachment for use when cutting requirements are request. It is made and assembled onto a main frame or chassis which is divided into a central section, the area corresponding to coupling with the harvester, and two side sections wings, that projects on either side of said central section according to a perpendicular direction to the advance direction of the harvesting machine. The platform has a cutting mechanism cutterbar projecting laterally across the width thereof, defined in front of the side sections and center section, and is configured to sever the standing crop. 
     Platforms contain a system for the transverse movement of the crop material. Typically it is formed by a helical screw conveyor and alternately today there exist systems containing a set of canvas or drapers for conveying. Both the canvas draper and the screw conveyor operate to transport the crop cut by the cutterbar and drive it into the center section. Furthermore, it is well known there are multitudes of arrangements where gadgets are used to force the material that reaches the center section of platform to pass through the feederhouse and to the combine&#39;s feeder thereof, to be later treshed by the harvester. Each prior art heads prefer one of these devices and determine the input mode of the crop material to the feeder of the harvester. 
     Finally, it is known that the cutterbar of some cutting platform is configured to flex in response to ground shape. In these, a series of sliding plates skid shoes are linked to said cutterbar to confer the ability to settle above the ground and slipping while operating. All this in view of making the cut of the plant as close to the ground as possible in practice, allowing the collection of those pods with beans sprouting in the lower part of the stem. Thus, when the head is advanced in work, the cutterbar is positioned virtually glued to the ground and curling up to mimic the natural unevenness of the field, resulting into a crop cut at constant height. While this well known in theory, most platform transitions from auger/flex-cutterbar to draper/flex-cutterbar does not respect the good design of the cutterbar of the first. In the chase of shortening the distance between the draper and the cutting zone most manufacturers have not developed a really effective, good angled, low losses cutterbar system. 
     Harvesting machines and threshing machines particularly relates to the sever and/or the collection of crops. These generally have an attached platform, arranged in the front part, which extends laterally to collect a preferred width of standing crop. This platform employs means of transportation for the delivery of the crop material to said harvesting machine for subsequent separation of grains and other treatments. The harvester/thresher uses a chain conveyor feeder to take the harvested crop in an essentially right angle from the platform. 
     There have been many mechanical devices designed for the transition from the lateral movement of the crop through the platform to a transverse longitudinal movement with respect to lateral movement, which directs it to the feederhouse, trying to turn ensure an even material flow. The main form of conveyor has a traverse screw type conveyor with a helical strip surrounding a cylinder in which several, at least two, opposite fillets with mounted blades are arranged on the outer surface of a cylinder, so that upon rotation of the drum the material is trapped between the ends of two straight opposite and helices is forced to move normal to the axis of rotation of said cylinder. 
     A feature which has been found relatively important to the successful transition of movement of the material to the feederhouse is the use of a plurality of retractable fingers configured to extend out of the cylinder of a screw conveyor (auger). These fingers are located in the intermediate section of the auger conveyor tube between the oppositely disposed screw flight on each end of the auger. This particular construction is shown in Patent Alvin W. Oehler, U.S. Pat. No. 2,529,180, Nov. 7, 1950. The core problem of the platforms that use a screw conveyor, with or without retractable fingers, for the transition of the crop material to the feederhouse of the harvester/thresher is its low capacity to manage material flow and the subsequent clogging of the mechanism. 
     Another form of cross conveyor mechanism was developed by Harvey Herndon, published as U.S. Pat. No. 2,671,553 on Mar. 9, 1954. This conveyor is constructed by a conveyor belt which covers the whole width of the feederhouse opening of the combine harvester and which is configured to run so that the upper portion of the belt carries the material to said feeder. 
     As it was found that the transverse feed belt itself was not able to feed and control the crop material volume delivered to the feeder, considerable width platforms are built especially with a secondary feeder apparatus including a rotatable member (cylinder) having retractable fingers and/or pallet members and which is mounted above the rear end of said central draper belt. Such a structure was revealed by Roger L. Patterson granted as U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,343 in Jul. 17, 1989 and as U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,966 in Sep. 18, 1990. This mechanism confines the material running over the cross conveyor belt and helps in feeding into the inlet opening of the feederhouse of the harvester. However, a design of this type has not been found capable of handling heavy crops without accumulation and jamming in front of the entrance to the feed channel. It is known that due to the nature of chain type of the feeder carrier of conventional harvesters, crop material has to be forced at the entrance of said feeder carrier for chains to be able to catch and transport it quickly. In an attempt to quickly feed material into the inlet opening, it was tried to drive the transverse conveyor belt at relatively high speeds. 
     Since increased flow velocity of the cross conveyor belt has not completely overcome the problem of clogging, an attempted solution has been developed by Gregory J. Honey, published as U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,371 in Nov. 7, 1995. In this structure there is one rotating drum disposed between the transverse belt conveyor platform and the inlet opening of the carrier feeder of the harvesting machine, whose rotation speed is set independently, and further characterized in that it has retractable fingers as means for engaging and dragging the material. However, even with the proposed improvements, the existence of the additional conveying element did not solve the lack of compression to the transverse flow material against the opening of the feeder carrier, a problem that grows when the crop is of bushy type, such as wheat, barley, or high yield soy bean and that cause jamming because the low ability to direct the entire flow of material. 
     There has been a continuing need to improve the technique of cross-mobilization mechanisms to reduce the complexity, and thus reduce the possibility of mechanical failure or jamming of the material, crop, between components. For example, Steve Tippery, Kaster Craig, Adam Lee Haworth, Cristoph Nathan and Jens Petersen, granted to CLAAS SELBSTFAHRENDE Erntemaschinen GMBH, Germany, revealed a solution mechanism in U.S. Patent U.S. Pat. No. 7,587,885 from Sep. 15, 2009. They determined, surprisingly, that the removal of the cross-carrying belt (central) improves feed efficiency of crop to the feeder carrier towards the harvester, and also produces a smoother transition from the lateral flow of material toward the cross-flow. The proposed mechanism is constructed using a cylindrical feeder drum, which combines the use of opposite helical flights and retractable fingers, and a floor-tray contoured that has two circular walls to force the material to change direction. However, it was found that the proposed solution mechanism is not able to handle large volumes, which have crops such as wheat, barley and high yield soy bean. In this mechanism, the working condition worsens to critical terms when it is necessary to advance the platform at high speeds, since the material (crop) begins to accumulate in the area near to the opening of the feederhouse until a point where the growth of mass of accumulated, unswallowed material is such that it is reached by the reel, which is followed by the latter engaging and throwing it forward, determining a circuit which is repeated while the volume of said material is not decreased (which always means slowing down harvest speed). 
     Lately, Deere &amp; Company revealed a new approach that insist on the usage of a central canvas. This disclosure was published as US20140237979 in Aug. 28, 2014. The innovation consist of two new conveyor members (drums with a rotational axis substantially vertical) located at a crop transition zone between the side draper conveyors and the rearfeeder drum with retractable fingers. The crop coming from the left and right endless belt conveyors thus needs to change its direction in the center of the platform from a lateral direction into a rearward direction. Under unfavorable circumstances, this area can be due to lack of moving feed elements between the rear end of the center conveyor and the upperfeeder drum subject to crop stalling, which allows crop to leak from the platform, causing crop losses and/or material to lodge in the left and right endless belts with the result of belt stalling. With the use of this new transition conveyors, which are disk-shaped and have fingers that are distributed around their circumference, John Deere platform could improve the flow of crop material at the transition zone. However, having studied other similar mechanisms, it is for sure that this new development will do nothing to help the mobilization at the dead zone (the central portion of the platform, just behind the cutterbar and before the central draper conveyor). 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a top front perspective view illustrating a feeder drum with convex fins isolated in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a detail front view of two fragments of the feeder drum shown in  FIG. 1 , where the convex fins are arranged oblique relative to the axis of rotation of the respective drum; 
         FIG. 3  is a detail lateral view of a side cut of the feeder drum shown in  FIG. 1 , where the convex shape of a fin is being highlighted; 
         FIG. 4  is a top rear perspective view of the feeder drum shown in  FIG. 1 , where two opposite helix curves have been outlined to show the path through which fins are arranged; 
         FIG. 5  is a front perspective view of an agriculture platform which features a set of the convex fins feeding drums relative to the present invention; 
         FIG. 6  is a rear perspective view of the platform shown in  FIG. 5 . This figure shows the spatial position of a feeder drum adjacent to an open end of the platform; 
         FIG. 7  is a front perspective detailed view of a fragment of the platform shown in  FIG. 5 . This figure shows a particular embodiment where a set of convex fins feeder drums are disposed at the open end where the platform is attached to a combine tractor; and 
         FIG. 8  is a side cut view of the central section of the platform shown in  FIG. 5 . This figure shows a particular embodiment where the convex drums are disposed with their fins overlapped. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Although the invention is described in connection with certain preferred embodiments and referring to the aforementioned figures, it is understood that this invention is not limited to these particular exemplifications. In contrast, the patent is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalent arrangements as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims set forth hereinafter. 
     Referring now to the drawings, particularly to  FIG. 1 , the feeder drum  700  selected for illustration is constructed as a tube  720  to which is attached a set of fins or vanes  710 . The feeder drum  700  is configured to be driven to rotate so that its fins  710  push the desired material according to a direction essentially normal to the rotation axis. Preferably, fins or vanes  710  present an elongated side face  711  which act on the material. This elongated face  711  enhances the surface area of contact to cause minimum damage to crop material. 
     As shown in  FIG. 2 , the fins  710  are constructed of two dissimilar ways, right and left. Rights fins  710   r  are mounted on the tube  720  so that its elongated face  711   r  is disposed at an angle MR to the left of the plane perpendicular to the rotation axis  701  of the feeding drum  700 . The left fins  710   l , however, are mounted on the tube  720  so that its elongated face  711   l  is disposed at an angle ML to the right of the plane perpendicular to the rotation axis  701  of the feeding drum  700 . This particular arrangement of fins  710   r ,  710   l  allow the feeding drum  700  to push the material into two new directions: left to right thanks to left fins  710   l  and right to left thanks to right fins  710   r . Importantly, although the preferred configuration exemplified in the figures shows the feed drum  700  with one half of the tube  720  filled with left fins  710   l  and the other half filled with right fins  710   r , it could be desired to have greater amounts of movements to the material by the alternate arrangement of the left and right fins  710   l ,  710   r  without affecting the spectrum scope of the following invention. 
     It could be also noticed that changes on the angles MR, ML of the fins  710   r ,  710   l  could be implemented without affecting the spectrum scope of the following invention. 
       FIG. 3  exemplifies an important aspect of the present invention, where the preferred geometric shape for the face  705  of the fin  710  that works in contact with the material to be transported is shown. Material-pushing face  705  is described as a convex profile with respect to the rotation direction G of the feeding drum  700 . In the detail view, the convexity of said face  705  is highlighted by the striped area (hatch pattern). Thanks to this particular construction of the fins  710 , transported materials such as crop or any other containing strands are prevented from wrapping around the central tube  720  when powered by said feed drum  700 . Additionally, both the diameter D of the tube  720  and the range U of fins  710  might be varied in different proportions according to specific needs, without altering the spirit and scope of the present invention. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 4 , two helices  720   l ,  720   r  are arranged on a feed drum with convex fins  700  to reveal another preferred constructive aspect the present invention. Thus, a set of right fins  710   r  is disposed around the tube  720  along a first helical curve  720   r , while a set of left fins  710   l  is disposed around said tube  720  along a second helical curve  720   l . The first helical curve  720   r  has a meaning different from that of the second  720   l  helical rotation curve. When the feeder drum  700  rotates in the working direction G, the first helical curve  720   r  is defined as a left-handed spiral when the observer&#39;s viewing line is set along the helix rotational axis, if said helix is rotated in a counter-clockwise direction and it moves away from the observer, then it is called a left helix, while the second helical curve  720   l  is defined as a right-handed spiral when the observer&#39;s viewing line is set along the helix rotational axis, if said helix is rotated in a counter-clockwise direction and it moves nearer to the observer, then it is called a right helix. 
     Thus, the feed drum  700  exemplified (when rotated in the working direction G is able to move the material along two directions relative to its rotational axis  701 : a first transverse direction and a second longitudinal direction. The first transverse direction is defined rearward when the material passes below the axis of rotation  701  or forward when the material passes over the rotating shaft  701 . Regarding the second longitudinal direction, the amount of alternation depends on the arrangement of the fins  710 ; the feed drum  700  embodied in  FIG. 4  is capable of moving the material from right-to-left and from left-to-right. Moreover, fins  710   l ,  710   r  could be partially or totally replaced by screw flightings (blades) configuring an auger type conveyor without interfering with the scope of the present invention. 
     There are many applications where the feeder drum with convex fins  700  is suitable for utilization. The particular interest is the installation of said feeder drums  700  on an agricultural platform used for harvesting crops. Referring to  FIGS. 5-7 , the harvester head selected for illustration comprises a flexible platform  100  mountable to a combine tractor, preferably harvesters. The platform  100  is configured to cut and harvest the crop when advanced in a direction V generally forward, so that the material is directed to an open end  102  of the platform and subsequently processed by other elements (not shown) of the agricultural threshing machine (not shown) to finally produce grains. 
     The platform  100  illustrated generally includes a chassis  101 , which is subdivided according to a central section  160  which projects forwardly of the open end  102 , and at least two side sections  162  projecting laterally on each side of said central section  160 . All sections  160 ,  162  are bounded at the front by the cutterbar assembly  201  and bounded at the back by the main frame  101 . The side sections  162  comprises a plurality of support arms  501  responsible for holding the cutterbar assembly  201  and responsible for sustaining partially the draper assembly  400 . Draper assembly  400  is configured to transport the cut crop from the side sections  162  to the center section  160 . The platform  100  also contains a central auger assembly  140  containing a right oblique auger  143 , a left oblique auger  141 , a central front conveying drum  142  and central rear conveying drum  144 ; contains a reel (not shown) extending laterally for almost the full width of the platform  100  and operates to push inward standing crop platform  100 . Both of the cutterbar assembly  201  as the draper conveyor  400  are preferably flexible so that the platform  100  can work virtually attached to the floor and adapted changing to the same curved profile of the ground while is operated. The platform  100  cited in the present invention is configured such that when advanced in the direction V it leads the standing crop to the draper assembly  400  with the reel (not shown) while it is severed by the cutterbar assembly  201 . The cut crop falls onto the conveyor canvases  400  that carry it to the central section  162  where the set of augers  140  ultimately redirect through the open end  102  to the feeder of the threshing machine (not shown) to be subsequently treated. 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 7 and 8 , the preferred arrangement is shown with two feeder drums  700  installed in an agricultural platform  100 . Both the front conveying drum  142  and the rear conveying drum  144  are constructed with aforementioned convex fins  700 . The cut crop the reaches the central region  160  of the platform  100  is trapped by the central set of augers  140  and forced by these to pass through the said open end  102  ( FIG. 6 ). Also, it is important to notice that the additional right oblique auger  143  and left oblique auger  141  could be removed without interfering with the scope of the present invention. 
     Importantly, both feed drums  142 ,  144  might be synchronized. A feature of a synchronized system is that the range of the fins  710  of both drums  142 ,  144  could be set overlapped determining an intersecting region  142   o  ( FIG. 8 ); and when fins  710  are helix-arranged synchronization causes no fin interference. Thus a self-cleaning function of the system is defined, where the fins  710  of the rear drum  144  passes through the space between the fins  710  of the front drum  142 , preventing long strands of material (and other plants) to wrap around the drums  142 ,  144 . 
     Another medular feature of the auger assembly  140  is the regulation of the relative positions between the drums  142 ,  144 . The spatial position of the rear drum  144  can be adjusted independently of the respective rear drum  144 . As shown in  FIG. 7 , the rear feeder drum  144  and the front feeder drum  142  both have a hanger at each end. Front feeder drum  142  is rotary mounted on a forward aspect of the corresponding hangers  142   i ,  142   j  while a rearward aspect of said hangers  142   i ,  142   j  is attached to the main frame  101 . Rear feeder drum  144  is rotary mounted on a forward aspect of the corresponding hangers  144   i ,  144   j  (not shown) while a rearward aspect of said hangers  144   i ,  144   j  (not shown) is attached to the main frame  101 . In a preferred embodiment, the front drum  142  is adjustable both in height and in a fore-and-aft direction (forward-rearward direction) relative to the respective rear drum  144  by a pair of hydraulic cylinders which are actuated during operation in real time from inside the cab of the combine tractor to which the corresponding platform  100  is attached; the position of the rear drum  144  is manually adjustable when the platform is stopped. 
     As shown in  FIG. 8 , another important feature of the present invention is the different diameters  142   u ,  144   u  of the feeder drums  142 ,  144 . In a preferred configuration, the diameter of the tube of the rear drum  144  is greater than front drum  142 , while the overall diameter  144   u  of the rear drum  144  is smaller than the overall diameter  142   u  of the front drum  142 . Whit such configuration, material is slightly compressed and pushed rapidly by the front feeder drum  142  towards the rear feeder drum  144 . Then, the rear feeder drum  144  highly compresses the material and send it slowly across the open end  102  of the main frame  101  to the feeder of the combine tractor (not shown) where the platform is attached.