Sickle guard having adjustable knife section hold-down structure
AssigneeHesston Corporation
InventorHoward R. Lohrentz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The upper and lower finger portions of the sickle guard comprises two separate components which are disconnected at their tips so that the knife sections of the sickle can project forwardly beyond at least one of the fingers during operation and thereby provide a self-cleaning action for the gap defined between the two fingers and through which the sickle reciprocates. The size of the gap can be precisely adjusted for maximum cutting efficiency through the use of an adjusting set screw adjacent the rear of each upper finger which incrementally forces the two fingers apart in a fulcruming action to the extent permitted by mounting bolts of the guard when the screw is operated.
Claims6
A cutter assembly for crop harvesting apparatus comprising:
- support bar means having a plurality of forwardly extending, laterally spaced apart lower guard fingers secured thereto;
- a sickle shiftably carried by said fingers for transverse reciprocation relative thereto;
- a plurality of forwardly extending, laterally spaced apart upper guard fingers secured to said bar means above said sickle in overlying relation ship to respective ones of said lower finger whereby to define a sickle-receiving gap between the upper and lower fingers;
- elongated fastener means attaching said fingers to said bar means and tending to hold the same against relative movement increasing the size of said gap;
- and means for adjustably relatively shifting said upper and lower fingers toward and away from each other to vary the size of said gap,
- said adjustment means comprising a downwardly extending projection on each of said upper fingers disposed rearwardly of said fastener means and bearing against said bar means, said adjustment means further comprising a set screw projecting downwardly from each of said upper fingers forwardly of said fastener means and bearing against said bar means for separating the fingers and enlarging the gap therebetween when the set screws are adjustably extended downwardly from the upper fingers.
A sickle guard comprising:
- at least one elongated, normally forwardly projecting lower guard finger;
- at least one elongated, normally forwardly projecting upper guard finger overlying said lower finger and disconnected from the latter adjacent the normally leading end thereof;
- means for fastening said fingers onto a common support adjacent the normally rear ends thereof for reciprocation of a cooperating sickle through a gap defined between opposed, forwardly disposed portions of said fingers;
- and
- structure operably associated with said fingers and separate from said fastening means for adjustably separating said opposed finger portions to the extent permitted by said fastening means whereby to vary the size of said gap,
- said structure including a pair of fore-and-aft spaced apart, support-engaging projections depending from said upper finger on opposite fore-and-aft sides of said fastening means, one of said projections being extensible relative to the other whereby to effect said separating movement of the fingers by rocking the upper finger relative to the lower about said other projection,
- said one projection comprising the forwardly disposed projection of the pair whereby to separate said finger portions and increase the size of said gap therebetween when said one projection is adjustably extended below the upper finger.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.