Patent ID: 7473168

Claim:
In a combine for harvesting a crop bearing grain, a mechanism for conveying grain from a harvesting platform to a separator mechanism, the conveying mechanism comprising: feeder house having a forward crop inlet for receiving crop from the harvesting platform, a feeder house bottom, a rear opening for transmitting crop to the separator mechanism; and a conveyor comprising a transverse drum at a front end of the feeder house; at least two sprocket drive means at a rear end of the feeder house; at least two continuous conveyor chains being entrained around the sprocket drive means and the transverse drum so as to move laterally in the feeder house, around the transverse drum and the sprocket-driven means; and a plurality of slats secured to the continuous conveyor chains, the slats formed from a first long U-shaped piece of sufficient length to span at least the width of adjacent conveyor chains, and a second shorter U-shaped piece of a length to fit between adjacent conveyor chains, the first U-shaped piece and the second U-shaped piece each have a base opposite an open top, the bases of the long and short U-shaped piece being joined together with the short U-shaped piece centered on the long U-shaped piece so the open tops of the long and short U-shaped pieces face in opposite directions, and the slats being secured to the conveyor chains by a securing means secured through the chains and a plurality of through-material holes in the long U-shaped piece such that the crop material is drawn upwardly and rearwardly into the conveyor between the slats on an underside of the chain and the feeder house bottom and moved toward the separator mechanism.