Toothed plate for facilitating disintegration of crop material clumps by the hammermill mechanism of a tub grinder machine

In a tub grinder machine having a mobile frame, a crop material receiving tub mounted on said frame and a hammermill grinding mechanism mounted below said tub, said tub including a bottom wall stationarily mounted on said frame, with an opening formed therein, and a generally upright cylindrical side wall bounding the periphery of said bottom wall and being mounted for rotation about a generally vertical axis relative to said bottom wall, said hammermill mechanism being mounted below said bottom wall opening and including a rotatable shaft and a plurality of radially extending, axially spaced hammer elements operatively mounted thereon which move in generally circular paths projecting upwardly through said opening upon rotation of said shaft so as to engage and grind crop material being moved about said bottom wall and delivered to said opening therein as said side wall of said tub is rotated, said machine also having drive means operable to effect rotation of said side wall and of said hammermill shaft, the improvement which comprises:

• an elongated plate mounted to said bottom wall along a crop material receiving edge of said opening therein, a longitudinal marginal edge portion of said plate being bent downwardly at an acute angle relative to the plane of a mounting portion of said plate and extending into said opening, said bent marginal edge portion having a series of spaced apart notches formed therealong which gradually widen toward the edge of said plate so as to define a series of spaced apart, tapered and generally co-planar teeth which coact with said moving hammer elements to facilitate the ability of the latter to disintegrate crop material clumps passing through said opening over said teeth and strip disintegrated material residue from said teeth.