US 6,170,244 B2Granted

Cam path for orientating fingers of a harvesting reel

AssigneeDeere & Company

InventorsBruce Alan Coers, Roderick James Jensen

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Abstract

A pickup reel for a harvesting platform including a reel support structure with a reel shaft rotatably supported thereon. A plurality of radially extending arms are mounted to the reel shaft and a plurality of transverse rockshafts are mounted to the radially extending arms and are axially offset and parallel to the reel shaft and span the width of the platform. Radial fingers are mounted on each rockshaft. A cam is mounted to the support structure adjacent one or both ends of the rockshafts and defines an endless cam path about the reel shaft. A crank arm attached to each rockshaft carries a cam follower that engages the cam path for following along the path. The cam path is configured to cause the crank arms, and thus the rockshafts, to rotate about the respective rockshaft axis to vary the attitude of the fingers relative to the ground as the cam followers move along the cam path. The cam is segmented, having two or more cam segments joined together to form the endless cam path. The cam segments are joined together by removable fasteners to enable one segment to be removed and replaced to either vary the cam path or to replace a worn cam segment.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A pickup reel for a transversely elongated harvesting platform having a cutterbar along a front edge and opposite sides comprising:

a reel support structure mounted on the platform;
a transverse reel shaft rotatably supported on the reel support structure;
a plurality of radially extending arms mounted on the reel shaft;
a plurality of transverse rockshafts on the radially extending arms equally offset and parallel to the reel shaft and substantially spanning the width of the platform, each rockshaft having opposite ends and a transversely extending rockshaft axis;
a plurality of radial fingers mounted on each rockshaft and having outer fingertips;
a cam mounted to the reel support structure generally adjacent one end of the rockshafts, the cam defining an endless cam path about the reel shaft;
a crank arm attached to each rockshaft at the one end thereof;
and
a cam follower on each crank arm and engaging the cam for following along the cam path, the cam path being configured to provide a finger path having an approach zone in which the fingers extend outward from the reel and the fingertips move in a generally horizontal path to sweep the ground forward of the cutterbar and a lift zone during which the rockshafts rotate in one direction relative to the ground to lift the fingertips over the cutterbar and above the platform.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.