Hydraulic arrangement for a lifting unit
AssigneeAGCO International GmbH
InventorAndreas Brockmann
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A hydraulic arrangement for lifting and/or lowering at least one implement carrying arm on an agricultural machine. The arrangement comprises an inlet hydraulic line and an outlet hydraulic line connecting a fluid pump and a fluid reservoir respectively to a first valve means, said arrangement comprising at least one dual acting hydraulic cylinder for lifting/and or lowering the implement carrying arm. The at least one cylinder is connected to the first valve means allowing the cylinder to be switched between a single acting mode wherein the arm can be lifted and a double acting mode wherein the arm can be lifted and lowered.
Claims20
A combine harvester, comprising:
- a chassis;
- a feeder house mounted to the chassis;
- a header mounted to the feeder house;
- and
- a control system, comprising:
- a pump;
- a well;
- a hydraulic cylinder comprising a first port, a second port, and a piston and rod assembly that is bi-directionally moveable between the first and second ports, the hydraulic cylinder affixed to the feeder house and arranged to cause a raising and lowering of the feeder house and the header;
- and
- a cylinder circuit coupled to the first and second ports and switchably configurable between a first mode and a second mode of header raising operations, the cylinder circuit comprising:
- a first multi-position valve coupled between an outlet of the pump and the first port;
- and
- a second multi-position valve coupled to the second port,
- wherein in the first mode, a first fluidic circuit is established in series between the pump, the multi-position valve in a first position, the first port, the second port, the second multi-position valve in a first position, and the well,
- wherein in the second mode, a second fluidic circuit is established in series between the pump, the multi-position valve in the first position, the first port, the second port, the second multi-position valve in a second position, and the first port.
A method of controlling a hydraulic header that is coupled to a feeder house of a combine harvester, the method comprising:
- providing, by a pump, a flow of hydraulic fluid through a first plurality of components fluidly coupled together, wherein in a first mode, the first plurality of components comprises a pump, a first-multi-position valve, a first port of a hydraulic cylinder, a second port of the hydraulic cylinder, a second-multi-position valve in a first position, and a well, wherein the hydraulic cylinder is affixed to the feeder house;
- providing, by the pump, a flow of hydraulic fluid through a second plurality of components fluidly coupled together, wherein in a second mode, the second plurality of components comprises the pump, the first-multi-position valve, the first port of the hydraulic cylinder, the second port of the hydraulic cylinder, the second-multi-position valve in a second position, and back to the first port of the hydraulic cylinder, bypassing the well and combining with the flow from a discharge of the pump;
- and
- switching between the first position and the second position to enable the switching between the first and second modes, wherein the header is raised by operation of the hydraulic cylinder according to the flow of the hydraulic fluid through the first plurality of components in the first mode and according to the flow of the hydraulic fluid through the second plurality of components in the second mode.
A system, comprising:
- a combine harvester comprising a feeder house coupled to a header, and plural hydraulic cylinders affixed to the feeder house to operably raise and lower the header;
- and
- a control circuit comprising a pump and regenerative valve system coupled to the plural hydraulic cylinders, wherein the regenerative valve system is configured to selectively pass hydraulic fluid flow from a respective discharge port of the plural hydraulic cylinders to a respective inlet port of the plural hydraulic cylinders to raise the header in a speed mode, wherein the regenerative valve system is further configured to selectively pass hydraulic fluid flow from the respective discharge port of the plural hydraulic cylinders to a well of the control circuit to raise the header in a power mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.