Stalk roll assembly for management of harvest residue
Assignee360 Yield Center, LLC
InventorAustin Ehle
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A stalk roll assembly for header of a combine harvester. The assembly includes first and second stalk rolls spaced laterally with respect to one another and rotating in opposite directions. Each stalk roll includes a frusto-conical nose and a cylindrical body. The cylindrical body includes a plurality of radially extending flutes. The nose includes a pair of helical flights. The plurality of flutes includes at least one cutting flute having a straight edge and a plurality of puncturing flutes with teeth. The stalk rolls are laterally offset a distance that permits the tips of the flutes to laterally overlap and the teeth of the puncturing flutes are longitudinally offset so the tips of the teeth are received between with the valleys of the teeth of the other stalk roll.
Claims16
A stalk roll assembly for a header of a combine harvester, comprising:
- a first stalk roll rotating in a first rotational direction about a longitudinal axis, the first stalk roll having a frusto-conical nose transitioning into a cylindrical body, the cylindrical body having a length, a plurality of flutes spaced around and extending radially outwardly from the cylindrical body and extending along the length, and a pair of flights extending helically along the frosto-conical nose, at least one of the plurality of flutes comprising a cutting flute having a straight outer edge, at least one of the other plurality of flutes comprising a puncturing flute having an outer edge with a plurality of teeth spaced longitudinally along the length;
- a second stalk roll rotating in a second rotational direction opposite the first rotational direction, the second stalk roll having a frusto-conical nose transitioning into a cylindrical body, the cylindrical body having a length, a plurality of flutes spaced around and extending radially outwardly from the cylindrical body and extending along the length, and a pair of flights extending helically along the frosto-conical nose, at least one of the plurality of flutes comprising a cutting flute having a straight outer edge, at least one of the other plurality of flutes comprising a puncturing flute having an outer edge with a plurality of teeth spaced longitudinally along the length;
- wherein the second stalk roll is spaced a distance laterally with respect to said first stalk roll such that the outer edges of the plurality of flutes of the first stalk roll laterally overlap with outer edges of the plurality of flutes of the second stalk roll as the first and second stalk rolls rotate;
- wherein at least some of the plurality of flutes of the first stalk roll are curved in a direction toward the first rotational direction and at least some of the plurality of flutes of the second stalk roll are curved in a direction away from the second rotational direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.