US 10,070,585 B2Granted

Air system for an agricultural harvester

AssigneeCNH Industrial America LLC

InventorsMichael John Minnich, Robert D. Crandall, Timothy Alan Meeks, Arlan Davis, Jeffrey Mark Norton

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

An air system (50) for an agricultural harvester (10) includes an air flow splitter component (52) configured to be coupled to the agricultural harvester (10). The air flow splitter component (52) has an inlet (56) configured to receive air and a plurality of air outlets (58) configured to distribute the air. The air system also includes a plurality of air flow paths (60). Each air flow path of the plurality of air flow paths extends from a respective one of the plurality of air outlets and is configured to extend to a corresponding drum (12) of the agricultural harvester. Additionally, each air flow path includes a discharge outlet (80) that is configured to be disposed between a bottom surface (81) of the corresponding drum (12) and a bottom disc (85) of a doffer (42) of the corresponding drum (12) while the air system (50) is coupled to the agricultural harvester.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An air system for an agricultural harvester, comprising:

an air flow splitter component configured to be coupled to the agricultural harvester, the air flow splitter component comprising an inlet configured to receive air and a plurality of air outlets configured to distribute the air;
and
a plurality of air flow paths, wherein a first air flow path of the plurality of air flow paths extends from a respective one of the plurality of air outlets and is configured to extend to a corresponding drum of the agricultural harvester, the first air flow path of the plurality of air flow paths comprises a respective discharge outlet configured to discharge the air between a bottom surface of the corresponding drum and a respective bottom disc of a first doffer of the corresponding drum while the air system is coupled to the agricultural harvester, and the first air flow path comprises a rigid conduit having a bend that enables a first portion of the rigid conduit to extend along an external surface of a first lateral side wall of the corresponding drum and that enables a second portion of the rigid conduit to be positioned internal to the first lateral side wall of the corresponding drum while the air system is coupled to the agricultural harvester.

An agricultural harvester, comprising:

a first drum configured to receive and to process a crop as the agricultural harvester travels across a field;
an air system coupled to the first drum, comprising:
an air flow splitter component comprising an inlet configured to receive air and a plurality of air outlets configured to distribute the air;
a plurality of air flow paths, a first air flow path of the plurality of air flow paths extending from a respective one of the plurality of air outlets to the first drum, the first air flow path of the plurality of air flow paths comprising a respective discharge outlet configured to discharge the air under a first doffer of the first drum, a second air flow path of the plurality of air flow paths extending from a respective one of the plurality of air outlets to the first drum, the second air flow path of the plurality of air flow paths comprising a respective discharge outlet configured to discharge the air under a second doffer of the at first drum, and the first doffer and the second doffer are positioned between the respective discharge outlets of the first air flow path and the second air flow path along a lateral axis of the first drum.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.