US 4,557,276 AGranted

Four way leveling mechanism for combine cleaning apparatus

AssigneeSperry Corporation

InventorsMyles Hyman, Ronald T. Sheehan, E. William Rowland-Hill

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Abstract

A cleaning apparatus for a combine harvester is disclosed wherein the grain pan and chaffer sieve are mounted for pivotal leveling movement about both a transversely extending axis and a longitudinally extending axis. The grain pan and chaffer sieve are mounted in a subframe pivotally supported by a shaker shoe such that the subframe is pivotable about a longitudinally extending axis relative to the shaker shoe, which in turn is pivotally supported on the combine main frame for pivotal movement about a transversely extending axis. A pair of inclinometers disposed to sense the inclination of the combine are utilized to control the flow of hydraulic fluid to hydraulic actuators arranged to pivotally move the shaker shoe and the subframe in response to a sensing of a non-horizontal inclination by the inclinometers. A combination of the fore-and-aft and transverse pivotal movements permits the grain pan and chaffer sieve to be maintained in an overall horizontal orientation irrespective of the attitude of the combine main frame.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A combine harvester comprising:

a mobile main frame adapted for movement across a field;
threshing and separating means mounted on said main frame to thresh crop material fed thereto and to separate threshed grain from trash material, said threshing and separating means conveying threshed grain along a path of travel;
cleaning means supported by said main frame along said path of travel to receive threshed grain from said threshing and separating means and to clean debris from said threshed grain, said cleaning means being mounted for pivotal movement about a longitudinally extending axis and about a transversely extending axis to permit said cleaning means to be leveled relative to said main frame, said cleaning means including a subframe, in which is mounted a grain pan and a chaffer sieve, and a shaker shoe pivotally supporting said subframe for movement about said longitudinally extending axis relative to said shaker shoe, said shaker shoe being pivotally mounted on said frame for pivotal movement about said transversely extending axis relative to said main frame;
and
actuating means operatively associated with said cleaning means to pivotally move said cleaning means about said longitudinally and transversely extending axes.

2 more elements

A cleaning mechanism, supported on a main frame of a combine harvester to clean debris from threshed grain comprising:

a shaker shoe pivotally suspended from said main frame for oscillatory movement in a generally fore-and-aft extending direction, said shaker shoe being pivotally supported by said main frame along a first pivot axis and a longitudinally spaced second pivot axis to permit said oscillatory movement;
a subframe pivotally mounted in said shaker shoe for movement about a longitudinally extending axis, said subframe mounting a grain pan and a chaffer sieve;
a first actuator interconnecting said main frame and said second pivot axis to effect a pivotal movement of said shaker shoe about said first pivot axis;
a second actuator interconnecting said shaker shoe and said subframe to effect a pivotal movement of said subframe about said longitudinally extending axis relative to said shaker shoe;
and
control means operatively associated with said first and second actuators to sense the transverse inclination and the longitudinal inclination of said main frame relative to a horizontal orientation and manipulate said first and second actuators to pivotally move said shaker shoe and said subframe to keep said subframe in a horizontal orientation to evenly distribute the load of threshed grain on said grain pan and said chaffer sieve.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.