Forage chopping cylinder

A crop material flow-controlling director attachable to the knife of a crop material chopping cylinder wherein the knife extends generally longitudinally of the axis of rotation of the cylinder and is provided with an inner face, an outer face, and a leading cutting edge at the convergence of said faces, said director comprising:

• an elongated, non-severing body having a normally front, crop-engaging surface on one side thereof and extending between the opposite ends of the body,
• said body further having a normally back, mounting surface on the opposite side thereof and extending between said opposite ends of the body;
• and
• fastener means on said back surface of the body rendering the latter attachable to said knife against said inner face thereof,
• said fastener means including bracket means affixed to said back surface and threaded coupler means for joining the bracket means with the knife,
• said back surface of the body being outwardly bowed in a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the body, said bracket means including a body-abutting portion configured to complementally receive said outwardly bowed back surface of the body, said bracket means further including a generally flat knife-abutting portion configured to lie generally flatly against said inner face of the knife.

A crop material chopping cylinder comprising:

• a shaft defining the axis of rotation of the cylinder;
• a plurality of support members attached to the shaft at spaced locations along the latter and having respective radially outwardly disposed extremities;
• a plurality of elongated, continuous knives extending generally longitudinally of the shaft at said outer extremities of the members and securely attached thereto for rotation with the shaft and the members about said axis,
• each of said knives extending continuously substantially from one end to the opposite end of the cylinder, and having an inner face, an outer face, and a leading crop-cutting edge at the convergence of said faces,
• said cutting edge of each knife winding generally helically around the cylinder;
• a plurality of crop-flow controlling directors, each having an inwardly bowed crop-engaging front surface;
• and
• fastener means attaching at least one of said directors to said inner face of each of said knives between an adjacent pair of said members in disposition to encourage the flow of crop severed by the cylinder during rotation thereof to be carried peripherally of the cylinder during its movement around and with the latter.