Sensor arrangement for combine harvester
AssigneeCNH Industrial America LLC
InventorBart Moutton
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Abstract
A sensor for measuring a thickness of a layer of a grain/residue mixture as the layer is transported through a cleaning arrangement of a combine harvester. The sensor is mounted on a support surface of a grain pan or a sieve of the cleaning arrangement and comprises a tower-shaped support structure with sensor elements attached to the structure and forming a vertical stack of sensor elements, so that a number of sensor elements is submerged in the layer and a number of sensor elements extends above the layer. The sensor elements are configured to measure an electrical property that changes as a function of immediate surroundings of the sensor elements. The sensor elements are configured to be read out independently from each other.
Claims15
A sensor for measuring a thickness of a layer of a grain/residue mixture in a cleaning arrangement of a combine harvester, the sensor comprising:
- a support structure;
- and
- a plurality of sensor elements mounted as a stack of sensor elements on the support structure,
- wherein the sensor is configured to be mounted in the cleaning arrangement so that, during use, at least a portion of the stack of sensor elements is buried in or in close proximity to the layer of the grain/residue mixture,
- wherein the sensor elements are configured to measure an electrical property that changes as a function of immediate surroundings of the sensor elements, and
- wherein the sensor elements are further configured to be read out independently from each other.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.