Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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DRIVE REVERSING MECHANISM FOR THE HEADER OF A HARVESTING
~IACHINE
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to harvesting machines
and particularly to a drive reversing mechanism for the
header of a harvesting machine such as a combine har-
vester.
Combine harvesters generally include a header
which acts to pick up or cut the crop from the ground
and to transport it into the threshing section within
the combine. Various types of header can be provided
including blades, drapers, auger screws, feed conveyors
and various other arrangements, all of which are well
known in the art and need not be described in detail.
The choice of the various co~lbinations of the components
of the header can be made in dependence upon the type
of crop to be harvested and whether it is standing or
arranged in swaths.
In view of the cooperation of parts which is
necessary to transport the crop, it sometimes occurs that
an excess of material can cause a blockage or jam in the
parts or components at various locations. This is par-
ticularly applicable to the header auger which sometimes
becomes blocked by an excessively large lump of the crop
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material which can wedge between the auger flights and
the header floor. Arrangements can be made to discon-
nect the drive in such circumstances, for exampleg by a
clutch but this cannot occur until the blockage develops
by which time it is often wedged into position within
the components of the header.
Such an occurrence is fortunately fairly in-
frequent but when it does occur it causes a major stop-
page requiring considerable manual effort in removing
the blockage and allowing the header to continue in nor-
mal operation.
In view of the considerable work that is ne-
cessary, proposals have been made for providing a drive
to reverse the normal direction of the components to re-
move the blockage back in the direction that it has en-
tered the header. Such proposals for a reversing drive
have, however, been relatively complicated and therefore
fairly expensive making them an expensive option which
often cannot be justified in strictly economical terms.
In addition, there are already in operation large num-
bers of combines for which the option was not available
or for which it was rejected in view of the excessive
costs.
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SUMMAP~Y OF THE INVENTION
It is one object of the present invention~
therefore, to provide a drive reversing mechanism for
the header of a combine or the harvesting machine which
is simple and very economical and therefore can be at-
tached relatively cheaply to a combine eithe.r as original
equipment or as a retrofit for existing combines.
According to the invention, therefore, there
is provided a harvesting machine comprising a header in-
cluding drive means, components driven by said drivemeans in an operating directlon for collecting and trans-
porting a harvested crop into the harvesting machine,
and drive reversing means for driving said components in
the opposite direction, said drive reversing means com-
prising an electric motor having a drive pinion, bracket
means mounting said electric motor on said harvesting
machine, a gear wheel driven by said pinion, means com-
municating drive from said gear wheel to said components
to drive said components in the opposice direction, and
means for disconnecting the drive from said electric
motor to said components when said components are driven
in the operating direction.
According to a second aspect of the invention,
therefore, there is provided a drive reversing mechanism
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for the header of a harvesting machine, the header in-
cluding drive means, components driven by said drive
means in an operating direction for collecting and trans-
porting a harvested crop into the harvesting machine,
the drive reversing means comprising an electric motor
having a drive pinion, bracket means for mountin~ said
electric motor on said harvesting machine, a gear wheel
driven by said pinion, means for communicating drive
from said gear wheel to said components and means for
disconnecting the drive from said electric motor to said
drive communicating means.
It is one advantage of the invention, there-
fore, that the drive reversing mechanism comprises merely
a simple separate additional electric motor which can
simply be attached to the outside framework or housing
of the combine and can be used as a separate power source
when the drive to the components is halted following a
blockage or jam. In order to manufacture the mechanism
very cheaply, the electric motor can comprise a conven-
tional starter motor and solenoid which can be switchedinto operation simply by energizing the solenoid to drive
the pinion into driving contact with the gear wheel.
The dimensions of the gear wheel relative to
a chain drive system communicating the drive from the
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gear wheel to the components can be chosen to provide a
suitable gear ratio whereby the starter motor can pro-
vide sufficient torque to drive the components and to
unwedge the blockage.
Conveniently, therefore, the drive mechanism
can comprise a simple retrofit component comprising a
bracket supporting the starter motor and a shaft for sup-
porting the gear wheel and an attached chain wheel.
To provide a suitable safety feature, there
may be included a device for detecting the movement of
the components in the normal operating direction and for
preventing operation of the electric motor until such
components have fully halted.
With the foregoing in view, and other advanta-
ges as wisll become apparent to those skilled in the art
to which this invention relates as this specification
proceeds, the invention is herein described by reference
to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, which
includes a description of the best mode known to the
applicant and of the preferred typical embodiment of the
principles of the present invention, in which:
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 is a schematic side elevational view
of a header for a combine showing schematically the drive
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reversing mechanism attached at a convenient point on
the header.
Figure 2 is an isometric view of the drive re-
versing mechanism separated from the combine.
In the drawings like characters of reference
indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The header of a combine 10 is schematically
indicated at 11 and is shown merely as one example of the
type of header which could be used, although other types
are well known to one skilled in the art.
The header comprises a pick-up belt 12, a draper
13~ a conveyor screw auger 14 and a feeder chain 15.
The components are mounted within a housing and are all
of conventional form and therefore do not need detailed
discussion.
Each of the components is mounted upon one
or more shafts and is driven via th~t shaft from a chain
drive system including chains 16, 17 and 18 which com-
municate drive from a gear box 20 connecte~ to the PTOshaft of a tractor indicated at 21. The shaft 21 there-
fore in normal working of the combine acts to drive the
components of the header in a normal working direction
as indicated by the various arrows whereby material is
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picked up from a swath 22 and transported by the header
into a threshing section of the combine which is not il-
lustrated.
As explained previously, on infrequent occasions
the header can become jammed or blocked by an excessive
amount of crop material which acts to wedge generally ei-
ther the screw 14 or the feeder chain 15 thus prevent-
ing their further movement and acting to stall the com-
bine. This can be taken up by a slipping clutch between
the chain drive system 16 and the gear box 20 or by a
main slipping clutch indicated at 23 between the PT0 21
and the gear box 20. In any event, the combine is stalled
and no further material can be picked up or fed into
the combine.
In the normal course of events, it is necessary
for the operator to manually remove the blockage by pick-
ing out the material a bit at a time and this can be a
lengthy and dangerous action.
In accordance with the present invention the
header is modified by the addition of an electric drive
motor schematically indicated in Figure 1 at 24 which
drives a chain drive system 25 through a gear wheel 26
and chain wheel 27.
These features are shown in more detail in
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Figure 2 and it will be seen that the additional items
added to the header comprise a bracket 30 formed from
a first flat plate 31 and a second flat plate 32 at right
angles thereto with an upstanding flange 33 supported on
a lug 34 so that it stands up from the plate 3~, at a slight
angle to the vertical. The flange 33 provides a plate
35 to which can be attached the mounting bracket 36 of
the electric motor 24 by suitable mounting screws.
The electric motor 24 carries a solenoid 37
1~ and the motor 24 and solenoid 37 together are of the con-
ventional starter motor arrangement for an automobile
and for that reason can be obtained relatively cheaply
as they are a mass produced item. The details of the
electric motor are not shown but include a pinion 38
which is driven by the electric motor and which can en-
gage the drive wheel 26 under the control of the sole-
noid 37.
The plates 31 and 32 include suitable holes 39
by which chey can be attached to the housing o~ the header.
Th~ plate 32 supports a shaft 40 which extends outwardly
therefrom Eor supporting on bearings 41 the drive wheel
26. The position of the shaft 40 is arranged such that
the periphery of the drive wheel 26 can engage the pinion
38.
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g
Attached to the outer surface of the drive wheel
26 is the chain wheel 27 which is therefore co-rotatable
with the gear wheel 26 for communicating drive via the
chain 25 to the shaft/of the feeder chain 15.
The motor 24 is arranged such that it acts to
drive the gear wheel 26 in a direction to rotate the
feeder chain in the opposite direction to its normal di-
rection and via the chain couplings 17 and 18 also acts
to drive the draper, pick-up belt, conveyor screw in the
direction opposite to the normal direction.
A device schematically indicated at 42 is res-
ponsive to the motion of the gear wheel 26 and is connec-
ted in circuit with a switch 43 from a battery 44. The
device 42 comprises a switch operated by the halting of
the movement of the gear wheel 26 so that the switch 43
can only operate the motor 24 when the gear wheel 26 is
stationary.
Thus, when a jam or blockage occurs, the com-
bine will gradually or rapidly stall thus halting the
2~ header components and also the drive wheel 26. When this
occurs, the operative can operate the switch 43 to acti-
vate the solenoid 37 which starts the motor 24 and enga-
ges the pinion 38 with the periphery of the gear wheel
26. The gear wheel 26, therefore, drives the header com-
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ponents in the reverse direction to remove the blockageand drive it back out to the pick-up belt. The opera-
tive can then ensure that any increased amount oE crop
is removed so as not to repeat the blockage.
It will be noted that the diameter of the gear
wheels 26 and 271 are conside.ably greater than the dia-
meter of the chain wheel 27 so as to provide suitable
gear ratios so the motor 24 has sufficient torque to
drive the components of the heater.
Since various modifications can be made in
our invention as hereinabove described, and many appa-
rently widely different embodiments of same made with-
in the s?irit and scope of the claims without departing
from such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter
contained in the accompanying specification shall be in-
terpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting
sense.
