Patent ID: 8118652

Claim:
A beater and adjacent feed section for use in a combine harvester in which harvested crop is fed by the beater as a number of separate streams through a plurality of ramps in the feed section towards a rotor which rotates within a housing about an axis disposed generally longitudinally relative to the combine, said ramps adjoining said housing at a transition edge, with said transition edge defining a plurality of transition edge sections corresponding to said plurality of ramps, the beater rotating about an axis generally transverse relative to the combine and being divided asymmetrically along its length into a number of beater sections corresponding to the number of streams of crop, each section of the beater having differently angled crop feeding members which direct crop into said number of separate streams, each stream being directed by one of said plurality of ramps as a crop steam across one of said plurality of transition edge sections of said transition edge in a direction generally perpendicular to said transition edge section.