Patent ID: 12232442

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly toFIG.1, an exemplary embodiment of an agricultural mower system100including a towing vehicle110and a mower conditioner120is illustrated. The towing vehicle110includes a chassis111and an engine, such as an internal combustion engine (ICE)112, to provide motive force to a plurality of wheels113,114. Some of the wheels, such as front wheels113, may be coupled to the chassis111by a steerable front axle115while the rear wheels114are coupled to the chassis111by a fixed rear axle116. It should be appreciated that, alternatively, the front axle115may be a fixed axle and/or the rear axle116may be a steerable axle. The towing vehicle110includes a tongue coupler117to which a tongue130is pivotably coupled, as will be described further herein. The towing vehicle110defines a towing centerline TCL. As illustrated, the towing vehicle110is in the form of a tractor, but it should be appreciated that the towing vehicle110may be other types of vehicles.

The mower conditioner120includes a frame121and a cutter bar123that includes an odd number of cutting discs122arranged side-by-side across a cutter bar width CBW. The frame121defines a frame width FW and includes a tongue coupler127that is pivotably coupled to the tongue130, which is pivotably coupled to the tongue coupler117of the towing vehicle110. The mower conditioner120defines a mower conditioner centerline MCL that bisects the cutter bar width CBW and the frame width FW and is offset from the towing centerline TCL, as illustrated, so the mower centerline MCL is not coaxial with the towing centerline TCL. The mower conditioner centerline MCL may also extend through the tongue coupler127. The frame121may be what is referred to as a “trail frame” that is adjacent to a rear of the mower conditioner120. A conditioning roll124is carried by the frame121behind the cutter bar123so the conditioning roll124can condition crop material cut by the cutting discs122. As the mower conditioner120is carried along an edge E of standing crops, the mower conditioner120cuts crops with the cutting discs122, conditions the cut crop material with the conditioning roll124, and directs the cut and conditioned crop material into a windrow behind the mower conditioner120.

In known mower conditioner systems, the cutter bar may include an even number of cutting discs. The cutting discs generally are provided as counter-rotating pairs so the cutting discs all rotate in a rotation direction that is opposite to the rotation direction of an adjacent cutting disc. The counter-rotating cutting discs not only cut the crop material but also help convey the crop material toward the conditioning roll. There is also demand for cutter bars that have an odd number of cutting discs. Each cutting disc having a corresponding counter-rotating cutting disc is not possible in mower conditioner systems having an odd number of cutting discs because at least one of the cutting discs will necessarily be unpaired. It has been found that there can be cutting performance issues with co-rotating discs, so minimizing the number of co-rotating discs can reduce the risk of there being cutting performance issues. It can also be expensive to manufacture conditioning rolls that are specifically sized—especially in the width direction—for mower conditioners with an even or odd number of cutting discs because producing lower numbers of a specific size can eliminate the economies of scale compared to a more universal size that can be used in multiple configurations.

To address some of the previously described issues, and referring now toFIGS.2and3as well, the conditioning roll124is offset with respect to the mower conditioner centerline MCL that bisects the cutter bar width CBW and the frame width FW so differing lengths of the conditioning roll124are on opposite sides of the mower conditioner centerline MCL. In other words, the conditioning roll124is not centered with respect to the mower conditioner centerline MCL, as opposed to the frame121and the cutter bar123that are centered with respect to the mower conditioner centerline MCL. It should be appreciated that while one conditioning roll124can be seen in the drawings, one or more additional conditioning rolls that are similar to the conditioning roll124may be placed adjacent to the conditioning roll124, e.g., directly above or below, to form a conditioner with multiple conditioning rolls.

As illustrated specifically inFIG.2, it can be seen that the cutting discs122include at least one pair of counter-rotating discs222, illustrated as three pairs of counter-rotating discs222, including a counter-clockwise rotating cutting disc222A and a clockwise rotating cutting disc222B adjacent to the counter-clockwise rotating cutting disc222A. At least one co-rotating cutting disc, illustrated as a single co-rotating cutting disc223that co-rotates with respect to its adjacent cutting disc222A, is also provided. As used herein, the “co-rotating” cutting disc223co-rotates with respect to its adjacent cutting disc222A in the sense that the co-rotating cutting discs222A,223rotate in the same direction, e.g., counter-clockwise as illustrated. It should be appreciated that while the co-rotating cutting discs222A,223are illustrated and described as rotating counter-clockwise, one or more cutting discs can also co-rotate with its adjacent cutting disc in the clockwise direction. A gearbox230may be provided to rotate one or more of the cutting discs222A,222B,223, either directly or indirectly.

The co-rotating cutting disc223may be an outermost disc, as illustrated, so the co-rotating cutting disc223is only adjacent to a single other cutting disc222A, which reduces the number of co-rotating cutting discs to a minimum. It should be appreciated that, in some embodiments, one or more co-rotating cutting discs may be provided that are adjacent to two other cutting discs, which may both rotate in the same direction as the co-rotating cutting disc. In some embodiments, the at least one co-rotating cutting disc223consists of a single co-rotating cutting disc223so there is only one cutting disc that co-rotates with an adjacent cutting disc but does not counter-rotate with another adjacent cutting disc.

In some embodiments, the conditioning roll124does not overlap with the co-rotating cutting disc223, which is best illustrated inFIG.2with a diameter D of the co-rotating cutting disc223not overlapping either lateral end125of the conditioning roll124in a direction of the mower conditioner centerline MCL. On the other hand, the conditioning roll124may overlap with all of the counter-rotating cutting discs222A,222B, i.e., the conditioning roll124overlaps with all of the cutting discs222A,222B except for the co-rotating cutting disc223. Each of the counter-rotating cutting discs222A,222B may define the same diameter D as the co-rotating cutting disc223. In this respect, the conditioning roll124may define a conditioner length CL that is less than the sum of the diameters D of the cutting discs222A,222B, i.e., 6*D. It should thus be appreciated that the conditioning roll124may define a conditioner length CL that is less than (N−1)*D, where N is the number of cutting discs222A,222B,223all having the same diameter D, so the conditioning roll124is relatively short in comparison to the sum of the diameters D of the cutting discs222A,222B,223and more akin to the length of a comparable conditioning roll provided for a cutter bar with a smaller, even number of cutting discs. In some embodiments, the conditioner length CL may be greater than (N−2)*D and less than (N−1)*D.

Referring specifically toFIG.3, a flow of crop material through the mower conditioner120is illustrated in greater detail. As can be seen, the flow of crop material starts at the front of the mower conditioner120, i.e., adjacent the cutter bar123, and flows behind the cutter bar123and the conditioning roll124as three distinct crop streams301A,301B,301C. The three crop streams301A,301B,301C each generally correspond to one of the pairs of counter-rotating cutting discs222A,222B, which is indicative that the counter-rotation of the paired cutting discs222A,222B cuts crop material and directs the crop material in a respective crop stream301A,301B,301C to the conditioning roll124. However, it has been found that the flow of crop material from the co-rotating cutting disc223, which may not overlap with the conditioning roll124, is entrained in the flow of crop material from the adjacent pair of counter-rotating cutting discs222A,222B. In this respect, the crop material cut by the co-rotating cutting disc223is being cut and then moved towards the adjacent cutting disc222A, resulting in a region of heavy crop material flow302between the cutting disc222A and its counter-rotating cutting disc222B. The region of heavy crop material flow302results due to the crop material cut by the co-rotating cutting disc223being mixed in with the crop material cut by the counter-rotating cutting discs222A,222B, with the counter-rotating cutting discs222A,222B conveying the mixed crop material flows towards the conditioning roll124. Since the co-rotating cutting disc223tends to move little crop material directly past itself, the conditioning roll124not overlapping the co-rotating cutting disc223results in a small percentage of cut crop material being unconditioned. Rather, the majority of the crop material cut by the co-rotating cutting disc223is moved by the adjacent cutting disc222A and its paired counter-rotating cutting disc222B to the conditioning roll124before being windrowed behind the mower conditioner120. Thus, offsetting the conditioning roll124surprisingly results in little cut crop material being unconditioned before exiting the mower conditioner120.

In some embodiments, the mower conditioner120also includes a deflector310that is disposed behind the conditioning roll124and configured to deflect crop material that has been conditioned by the conditioning roll124. For example, the crop streams301A,301B,301C may be deflected by the deflector310to form one or more windrows. The deflector310may be pivotable to a variety of deflecting positions. Similarly to the conditioning roll124, the deflector310may be offset with respect to the mower conditioner centerline MCL. However, the deflector310may be centered with respect to a roll centerline RCL bisecting the conditioner length CL of the conditioning roll124, as illustrated. The deflector310can thus be provided to help form uniform windrows.

From the foregoing, it should be appreciated that the mower conditioner120provided according to the present disclosure includes a conditioning roll124that is offset relative to the mower conditioner centerline MCL. Offsetting the conditioning roll124allows the mower conditioner120to utilize a conditioning roll124that is relatively short, compared to a similar conditioning roll for a smaller, even number of cutting discs, but still effective to condition most of the crop material cut by the cutter bar123. If the cutter bar123has seven cutter discs122,222A,222B,223, for example, the conditioning roll124may be sized to effectively work in a mower conditioner having six counter-rotating cutting discs without offsetting the conditioning roll124and also effectively work in the mower conditioner120with seven cutting discs122,222A,222B,223when offset. Thus, offsetting the conditioning roll124according to the present disclosure can reduce the cost of producing the mower conditioner120with an odd number of cutting discs122,222A,222B,223by allowing the conditioning roll124to be sized for interchangeable use in a cutter bar with an even number of cutting discs to take advantage of economies of scale.

These and other advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing specification. Accordingly, it is to be recognized by those skilled in the art that changes or modifications may be made to the above-described embodiments without departing from the broad inventive concepts of the invention. It is to be understood that this invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is intended to include all changes and modifications that are within the scope and spirit of the invention.