US 5,624,315 AGranted

Cleaning means for an agricultural harvesting machine

AssigneeNew Holland North America, Inc.

InventorMarc R. M. Jonckheere

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Abstract

A combine harvester (1) is provided with a grain cleaning mechanism (12), comprising a fan (33) installed in a generally volute-shaped fan housing (72), having primary air inlets (73) in its side walls and a secondary air inlet (74) in its top wall. The housing (72) further has a main outlet duct (80) directed to a chaffer sieve (31) and a lower grain sieve (32) and an additional outlet duct (81) directed to a pre-cleaning sieve (29) and an associated grain pan (30). The secondary air inlet (74) is covered with a plurality of juxtaposed plates (75), comprising sets of louvres (76) which are opened rearwardly. Grain kernels which unwantedly fall off the leading edges of the sieves (29, 31, 32) or the grain pan (30) and into the outlet duct (80, 81), may be engaged and thrown upwardly by the blades (95) of the fan (33), but will be returned into the fan housing (72) by the louvres (76), which nevertheless do not obstruct an efficient air intake by the fan (33) .

Claims12

Dependent claims

An agricultural harvesting machine (1), comprising

a threshing and separating mechanism (11) for threshing and separating crop material, and
a cleaning device (12) for cleaning the threshed and separated crop material,
said cleaning device (12) including fan means (71),
said fan means comprising a generally volute-shaped fan housing (72) having a primary air inlet (73) in at least one side wall, a secondary air inlet (74) in its circumference wall and a generally rearwardly directed air outlet (80, 81), and a fan rotor (33), installed for rotation within said housing (72) and operable to draw in air through said primary air inlet (73) and said secondary air inlet (74) and to propel it through said air outlet (80, 81),
said cleaning device (12) further including sieve means (29, 32) and/or grain pan means (30), installed for oscillation near said air outlet (80, 81) and operable to move the threshed and separated crop material therethrough and/or therealong, the improvement comprising
said secondary air inlet (74) having a set of louvres (76) operable to return crop particles, falling from said sieve means (29, 32) or falling from said grain pan means (30), and being engaged by said fan rotor (33), into said fan housing (72),
said secondary air inlet (74) also having a substantially flat portion wherein the angle (.alpha.) between said louvres (76) and said flat portion falls in the range of 20 to 40 degrees.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.