Harvesting machine

Abstract

A harvesting machine includes a crop intake arrangement including either a reel or a crop hold down which operate to aid in the advancement of harvested crop into the machine for further processing. In the event of a jam or the presence of metal occurring, the crop intake arrangement may be operated in reverse so as to expel the jam and/or sensed metal. An actuator is provided for moving the reel or crop hold down between non-operating and operating positions and a first sensor for sensing a jam condition and/or the presence of metal is provided which sends a signal when such a condition exists, this signal being used to effect automatic operation of said actuator so as to move the reel or hold down to a non-operating position so as not to interfere with the expulsion of the jam and/or metal. Other controls are provided and other parameters are sensed for delaying and/or overriding the automatic positioning of the reel or crop hold down in their non-operating position. One such parameter is provided by a timing device which prevents automatic positioning of the reel or crop hold down when the signal indicating a jam or the presence of metal does not endure for a pre-selected time interval. Another parameter is provided by a sensing device which determines whether or not the machine is traveling in the forward direction. If it is, after a jam or the presence of metal is sensed, then a signal is issued which causes the reel and/or hold down to be returned to its operating position.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.