Patent ID: 7373769

Claim:
A header of a crop cutting machine comprising: a cutter bar; a guard bar mounted on a front edge of the cutter bar; a plurality of cutter guards carried on mounting fasteners at spaced positions along the guard bar; a ground engaging bottom plate on the cutter bar extending rearwardly from the guard bar; and a wear shield covering the bottom plate such that the wear shield engages the ground underneath the bottom plate to protect the bottom plate from wear, the wear shield comprising: a wear body molded from a plastic material; the wear body having a front mounting portion and a rear covering portion; the front mounting portion being shaped to define at least one mounting hole receiving therethrough the a mounting fastener of a respective one of the cutter guards such that the front mounting portion is attached to the guard bar by the mounting fastener which mounts the cutter guard; the rear covering portion extending rearwardly from the front mounting portion such that an upper surface extends along the bottom plate to cover the bottom plate and having a bottom surface arranged for engaging the ground so as to underlie and protect the bottom plate; the front mounting portion and the rear covering portion having two side edges each located alongside a side edge of a next adjacent wear shield so that the wear shields are arranged side by side across the cutter bar; wherein the front mounting portion has upper surface portions arranged to lie in a common plane so as in use to butt against a bottom surface of the guard bar and wherein the front mounting portion has at least one recess therein recessed from the common plane and arranged to receive a portion of a respective one of the guards therein, which portion projects below the bottom surface of the guard bar.