Cutterbar for a crop harvesting machine

In a crop harvesting machine having a flexible cutterbar supported for travel over uneven ground and conforming to the contour thereof, wherein said cutterbar includes a bar back, guard means secured to the bar back having a plurality of the juxtaposed multi-prong guard sections, and a knife assembly coacting with said guard means and having a knife back and a plurality of juxtaposed knife sections secured to the knife back, the improvement in a drive assembly for reciprocating said knife assembly, said drive assembly including a drive plate secured to the knife assembly between the ends thereof, support and guide means mounted on said bar back on opposite sides of said drive plate and slidably guiding said drive plate for reciprocal movement therebetween, and pitman means connected to said drive plate.

In a crop harvesting machine having a flexible cutterbar supported for travel over uneven ground and conforming to the contour thereof, wherein said cutterbar includes a bar back, guard means secured to the bar back having a plurality of juxtaposed multi-prong guard sections, and a knife assembly coacting with said guard means and having a knife back and a plurality of juxtaposed knife sections secured to the knife back, the improvement in a feeder shield assembly comprising a plurality of shields along the cutterbar in edge overlapping relation, hinge means at the front edges of the shields hingedly connecting the shields to the cutterbar, said hinge means including rectangular slots along the leading edges of the shields and forwardly facing clips secured to the cutterbar, wherein said clips and slots coact to define a loose hinge connection and place the leading edges of the shields ahead of mounting hardware for the cutterbar and at the base of the knife sections.

A cutterbar for a crop harvesting machine or the like comprising, a bar back, guard means in the form of a plurality of juxtaposed guard sections having an even number of prongs, symmetrically located fastener mounting holes in the guard sections in alignment with the junctions between adjacent prongs, fastener mounting holes in the bar back, fasteners coacting with the holes in the guard sections and the bar back for securing the guard sections to the bar back, a sickle bar reciprocably supported by the bar back and guard means and including a knife back and a plurality of multi-point juxtaposed knife sections secured to said knife back, the knife points coacting with the guard prongs for cutting crop, and each knife section having the points thereof spaced apart the same distance as the prongs of the guards on a narrow pitch such that movement of crop stems harvested is minimized, said knife sections being positioned and reciprocally mounted with respect to the guard sections such that the tips of the knife points extend ahead of the tips of the guard prongs in the direction of cutterbar movement and the roots of the knife sections extend behind the roots of the guard sections.