US 5,488,820 A · Cane harvesters

Abstract

A billet severing apparatus for sugar cane harvesters comprises a conveyor (1) to feed cane longitudinally into a three bladed cutter (5) having cutter blades (7) axially mounted on a hub rotatable about an axis (6) transverse to the direction of feed of the cane stalks. The cutter blades (7) coact with a rotary anvil (11) which counter-rotates relative to the cutter (5). In addition to severing the cane stalks into billets, the rotary anvil (11) serves as a conveyor by throwing the severed billets vertically into a discharge chute (27). The rotary anvil (11) is located in a housing (25) with a close fitting peripheral wall surface extending about part of the swept volume of the anvil whereby a region of reduced air pressure created by rotation of the anvil (11) causes separation and discharge of cane trash through a port (26) in the lower part of the housing (25).

Claims15

Dependent claims

A billet severing apparatus for cane harvesting machines, said apparatus comprising:

feed conveyor means to feed harvested cane stalks longitudinally at a predetermined rate to a severing region;
rotary cutter located in the severing region, said rotary cutter including a central cutter hub rotatable about its longitudinal axis, and a plurality of cutting blades extending radially from and longitudinally of the hub and spaced equally about the hub;
a rotatable thrower means adapted to counter-rotate relative to said rotary cutter about a substantially parallel rotational axis, said thrower means including a central thrower hub with at least two thrower blades extending radially from and longitudinally thereof and spaced equally about said thrower hub, said thrower blades including anvil means extending along radially outer edges of said of said thrower blades, said cutting blades and said anvil means cooperating in use to sever cane stalks into billets of predetermined length, characterised in that the cutter hub has at least three cutting blades.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Cane harvesters

Life of this patent

Cane harvesters

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15