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US 11,154,013 B2Granted
Rail interrupter
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsTyler S. Brammeier, Michael T. Meschke
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A rotor assembly for harvesting a crop. The rotor assembly has a rotating portion defined along a rotation axis, a surrounding assembly at least partially surrounding the rotating portion, the surrounding assembly having at least one separation grate coupled to a support. The support defines an inner surface and has at least one interrupter receiver. The at least one interrupter receiver is selectively coupleable to an interrupter to position the interrupter radially inward of the inner surface towards the rotation axis.
Claims20
A rotor assembly for harvesting a crop, comprising:
- a rotating portion defined along a rotation axis;
- a surrounding assembly at least partially surrounding the rotating portion, the surrounding assembly having at least one separation grate coupled to a support, where the support defines an inner surface and has a plurality of interrupter receivers positioned longitudinally along the support;
- a first interrupter group comprising a base and at least one interrupter fixedly attached to the base, where the first interrupter group is configured to attach to any of the plurality of interrupter receivers;
- wherein, when the first interrupter group is attached to a first interrupter receiver of the plurality of interrupter receivers then the at least one interrupter is located in a first position longitudinally along the support, and when the first interrupter group is attached to a second interrupter receiver of the plurality of interrupter receivers then the at least one interrupter is located in a second position longitudinally along the support, where the second position is different than the first position;
- and
- further wherein, when the first interrupter group is attached to the first or second interrupter receiver in a first orientation then the at least one interrupter extends radially inward of the inner surface towards the rotation axis.
3 more elements
A harvested crop processing arrangement, comprising:
- a support rail defining an inner surface, where the support rail includes a plurality of interrupter receivers positioned longitudinally along the support rail;
- at least one grate coupled to the support rail at least partially about a rotation axis;
- and
- an interrupter coupled to the support rail, where the interrupter is configured to attach to any of the plurality of interrupter receivers;
- wherein, when the interrupter is coupled to a first interrupter receiver of the plurality of interrupter receivers then the at interrupter is located in a first position longitudinally along the support, and when the interrupter is coupled to a second interrupter receiver of the plurality of interrupter receivers then the interrupter is located in a second position longitudinally along the support, where the second position is different than the first position;
- and
- wherein, when the interrupter is coupled to the support rail in a first orientation then at least a portion of the interrupter extends radially inward towards the rotation axis and past the inner surface of the support rail.
4 more elements
A crop harvesting machine, comprising:
- at least one ground engaging mechanism coupled to a frame;
- a cutting head coupled to the frame and configured to cut crop from an underlying surface;
- a crop processing arrangement coupled to the frame through a plurality of support sections, the crop processing arrangement further comprising:
- a rail having a top side, bottom side, inner surface, and outer surface, the rail extending between two adjacent support sections, and the rail including a plurality of slots that extend between the inner and outer surfaces of the rail;
- a cover coupled to the rail along the top side of the rail;
- a grate coupled to the rail along the bottom side of the rail;
- a rotor rotationally coupled to the crop harvesting machine along a rotation axis and positioned at least partially between the cover and the grate;
- and
- a first interrupter group coupled to the rail between the top side and the bottom side, the first interrupter group comprising a first base and a first plurality of interrupters fixedly attached to the first base;
- wherein, when the first base of the first interrupter group is coupled to the rail in a first orientation then the first plurality of interrupters of the first interrupter group extend through the plurality of slots in the rail to extend radially inward towards the rotation axis past the inner surface.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.