Patent ID: 7993188

Claim:
In a crop residue handling arrangement adapted for being mounted to a rear end of a combine harvester and including a rotary chopper having a bladed rotor mounted within a chopper housing with the chopper housing defining an inlet for guiding crop residue to the rotor and a discharge duct for directing a stream of chopped crop residue rearwardly; a blower including a blower rotor mounted within a blower housing located centrally behind, and spaced to the rear from, said chopper and defining a forwardly opening inlet for receiving said stream of chopped crop residue exiting said discharge duct of said chopper, and defining an upwardly and rearwardly disposed discharge spout for directing crop residue to a collecting receptacle; and a pair of spreader disks being respectively mounted on opposite sides of said blower; and a transition duct arrangement being mounted between said chopper and said blower and pair of spreader disks, the improvement comprising: said transition duct arrangement including a top wall having a forward edge connected to a top of said chopper discharge duct and having a rear edge spaced vertically above said pair of spreader disks, and a pair of side walls being respectively joined to opposite sides of said top wall and extending forwardly from opposite ends of said rear edge; and right and left upright crop residue deflector vanes located beneath said top wall and having respective pivotal mountings at their rear ends for permitting the deflector vanes to pivot, about respective axes extending perpendicular to said top wall at respective locations at opposite sides of said inlet to said blower housing, between a first extreme position, wherein forward ends of the deflector vanes engage each other thereby preventing said stream of chopped crop residue from entering said blower housing while dividing said stream into first and second parts that are respectively directed to said pair of spreader disks by said vanes and said opposite side walls, and a second extreme position, wherein said forward ends of said deflector vanes are located at opposite sides of said stream of crop residue, whereby the entire stream is directed to said blower; and a power actuator being coupled to said right and left deflector vanes for moving said vanes between said first and second extreme positions.