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AssigneeNew Holland North America, Inc.
InventorsDirk J. Desnijder, Cyriel R. J. De Busscher, Adrianus Naaktgeboren, Sandor W. Van Vooren, Guy H. J. Osselaere
Estimating the term…
A forage harvester and a method of operating the same which comprises a crop processor unit located in a crop flow between a cutterhead and a blower rotor, the crop processor unit being for handling crop material including kernels, the crop processor comprising a pair of counter-rotating processor rolls arranged to crack kernels between the rolls when the rolls are in a first position, both processor rolls being movable away from each other to move each roll substantially out of the crop flow into a second position. A cover plate is preferably arranged to move and cover the lower roll when the rolls are in a second position and to isolate the lower roll from the crop flow. The processor rolls are preferably driven by independent drives. One of the drives can be a hydraulic motor supplied with pressure from a hydraulic pump which can also work as a motor. When used as a motor the cutterhead may be driven in the reverse direction for maintenance purposes.
A forage harvester comprising:
A method of operating a forage harvester, the harvester having a crop processor unit located in a crop flow between a cutterhead and a blower and for handling crop material including kernels, the crop processor comprising a pair of counter-rotating processor rolls arranged to crack kernels between the rolls when the rolls are in a first position, the method comprising the step of:
A forage harvester having a crop processor unit located in a crop flow between a cutterhead and a blower, the crop processor unit being for handling crop material including kernels, the crop processor unit comprising a pair of counter-rotating processor rolls arranged to crack kernels between the rolls when the rolls are in a first position, the one roll being driven by a first power drive and the second roll being driven by a second power drive, the first and second drives being independently controllable.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.