Improvements in or connected with Machines for Cutting Hay, Roots, and other Substances.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 25th July, 1896
Complete Specification Left, 24th Apr., 1897-Accepted, 29th May, 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or connected with Machines for Cutting Hay,
Roots, and other Substances.
We, FRANK KNIGHT WOODROFFE, and HERBERT ARTHUR WOODROFFE, both of
the Albion Iron Works, Rugeloy, in the County of Stafford, Engineers, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to machines for cutting hay, roots and other substances, and
to that class of such machines in which the knives or cutters are carried upon a
rotating wheel.
In such machines as heretofore constructed; the knives or cutters have been
fixed so as to give a more or less chopping cut to the material. The object of our
invention is to arrange the knives so that they shall cut with a shearing cut, and to
this end the said knives are so mounted that they shall have a movement in a direction
more or less radial to the axis of their rotation.
In carrying our invention into practice we find it advantageous to arrange the
knives in conjunction with a cam or eccentric which will serve, as the knives rotate,
to cause them to slide or oscillate in the desired manner.
Dated the 25th day of July 1896.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicants.
Improvements in or connected with Machines for Cutting Hay.
Roots, and other Substances.
We, FRANK KNIGHT WOODROFFE and HERBERT ARTHUR WOODROFFE hotn of
the Albion Iron Works, Rugeley in the County of Stafford, Engineers, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to he
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:--
Our invention relates to machines for cutting hay, roots and other substances, and
to that class of such machines in which the knives or cutters are carried upon ..
rotating wheel.
In such machines as heretofore constructed, the knives or entters have been.
fixed so as to give a more or less chopping cut to the material. The object of our
invention is to arrange the knives so that they shall cut with a shearing cut, and to
this end the said knives are so mounted that they shall have a movement in a direction
more or less radial to the axis of their rotation.
In carrying our invention into practice we find it advantageous to arrange the
knives in conjunction with a cam or eccentric which will serve, as the wheel rotates,
to cause the said knives to slide or oscillate in the desired manner.

page_text: To enable our invention to be fully understood we will describe the same by
reference to the accompanying drawing, in which :-
Figure 1 is a front elevation of a chaff cutting machine having the knives
arranged in accordance with our invention; and,
Figure 2 is a section of one of the knives on the line 2-2 Figure 1.
Figure 3 is an elevation illustrating a modification.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.
a is the mouth of the machine through which the hay or the like to be cut is fed
in the usual manner, and is the fly wheel carrying upon its arms c, e the knives d, d
each of which knives d, d is secured to a plate e sliding upon an arm e as clearly
shewn in Figure 2, pins f, f inserted through slots in the said plates e serving to guide
the said plates and knives d.
The axle or shaft g on which the wheel is mounted is carried in bearings in
suitable brackets h one of which has formed in it a cam groove i, as shewn in Figure 1,
into which a pin j attached to each plate e and projecting through a slot k in the
wheel arm, runs. The said cam is so shaped that as the wheel rotates a
reciprocating movement of the knives upon the arms of the wheel will take place.
In the arrangement of our invention shewn in Figure 3, the plates e to which the
knives d, d are fixed, instead of being arranged to slide upon the wheel arms e, e
are pivoted to the said arms so that as the wheel rotates a oscillatory
movement instead of a reciprocating movement will be imparted to the said knives.
Although we have described our invention as applied to a chaff cutting machine, it
will be obvious that our invention is also applicable to the knives or cutters of
machines for cutting other substances as, for instance, to machines for cutting roots,
when such knives are carried by a rotary wheel.
It is to be understood that our invention is applicable to machines wherein
more than two knives or cutters are employed or wherein only a single knife or
cutter is used.
In order to reduce friction we sometimes make use of anti-friction balls, rollers or
the like instead of plain sliding surfaces.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is :-
1. In a machine for cutting hay, roots and other substances and wherein the
knives or cutters are carried by a wheel, the arrangement of the said knives or
cutters so that they shall have a reciprocating or oscillatory movement imparted
to thein during the rotation of the wheel, substantially as described.
2. In a machine for cutting hay, roots and other substances the combination with the
cutter wheel of cutters arranged to be reciprocated upon the said wheel, substantially
as described by reference to Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawing.
3. In a machine for cutting hay, roots and other substances, the combination with
the cutter wheel of oscillatory cutters arranged and operating, substantially in the
manner described by reference to Figure 3 of the accompanying drawing.
Dated this 24th day of April 1807
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicants.