US 5,682,735 AGranted

Gear driven roller brush

AssigneeDeere & Company

InventorsPhillip Orland Swenson, Ronald Lee Reichen, Larry Neil Smith, Donald Emil Niosi

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Abstract

A drive mechanism for a shiftable reel mower brush, the mechanisms including a drive gear driven by the power source, a driven gear fixed with the brush, and an idler gear for transmitting rotational motion from the drive gear to the driven gear. The idler gear is shiftable to remain meshed with the drive gear and driven gear as the brush shifts. A first pivot member is pivotal about the drive gear's axis of rotation, and the idler gear is operatively coupled with the first pivot member for keeping the idler gear in mesh with the drive gear when the brush shifts. A second pivot member is pivotal about the driven gear's axis of rotation, and the idler gear is coupled with the second pivot member for keeping the idler gear in mesh with the driven gear when the driven gear shifts relative to the drive gear.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A mechanism for rotatively driving a roller brush which clears debris from a ground engaging roller of a reel mower cutting unit, said cutting unit including a frame and a cutting reel driven by a power source, said brush being linearly vertically shiftable with the roller as the roller is shifted linearly vertically for altering the cutting height of the cutting unit, said mechanism comprising:

a drive gear operatively driven by the power source to rotate about a drive gear axis of rotation,
a driven gear to which the brush is operatively fixed for rotation therewith, said driven gear being rotatable about a driven gear axis of rotation which is linearly vertically shiftable as the brush shifts with the roller, said driven gear being linearly shiftable relative to the drive gear as the brush and roller are shifted,
an idler gear meshed in driving engagement with the drive gear and driven gear for transmitting rotational motion from the drive gear to the driven gear, said idler gear being shiftable with respect to the drive gear and driven gear to remain meshed with the drive gear and driven gear as the roller is shifted,
a first pivot member adapted to pivot about the drive gear axis of rotation, said idler gear being operatively coupled with said first pivot member for maintaining the idler gear in mesh with the drive gear when the driven gear shifts relative to the drive gear, and
a second pivot member adapted to pivot about the driven gear axis of rotation, said idler gear being operatively coupled with said second pivot member for maintaining the idler gear in mesh with the driven gear when the driven gear shifts relative to the drive gear.

2 more elements

A mechanism for rotatively driving a roller brush which clears debris from a ground engaging roller of a reel mower cutting unit, said cutting unit including a frame, a power source and a cutting reel driven by the power source and having a reel shaft which defines a cutting reel axis about which the cutting reel rotates, said brush being vertically shiftable linearly with the roller as the roller is shifted linearly vertically for altering the cutting height of the cutting unit, said mechanism comprising:

a drive gear coupled for rotation with the reel shaft to rotate about the cutting reel axis,
a driven gear to which the brush is operatively fixed for rotation therewith, said driven gear being rotatable about a driven gear axis of rotation which is vertically shiftable as the brush shifts with the roller, said driven gear being shiftable relative to the drive gear as the brush and roller are shifted,
an idler gear meshed in driving engagement with the drive gear and driven gear for transmitting rotational motion from the drive gear to the driven gear, said idler gear being shiftable with respect to the drive gear and driven gear to remain meshed with the drive gear and driven gear as the roller is shifted,
a first pivot member adapted to pivot about the cutting reel axis, said idler gear being operatively coupled with said first pivot member being secured at a fixed distance from the cutting reel axis for maintaining the idler gear in mesh with the drive gear when the driven gear shifts relative to the drive gear,
a second pivot member adapted to pivot about the driven gear axis of rotation, said idler gear being operatively coupled with said second pivot member for being held at a fixed distance from the driven gear axis of rotation for maintaining the idler gear in mesh with the driven gear when the driven gear shifts relative to the drive gear, and
the second pivot member operatively fixes the distance of the idler gear from the driven gear axis of rotation for maintaining the idler gear in meshed engagement with the driven gear as the driven gear shifts relative to the drive gear.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.