Rotary cutterbar gear housing having support for pinion gear
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsMichael Joseph Verhulst, John Gregory Petersen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The pinion gears of a rotary cutterbar equipped with a parallel-series arrangement of idler gears and pinion gears includes a pinion gear support pad formed integrally with the bottom wall of the gear housing and located in close relationship to a bottom surface of the pinion gear so as to prevent the latter from moving, once bearing wear or loosening of mounting hardware has occurred, to the extent that rolling elements of a bearing arrangement supporting the pinion drive shaft are permitted to fall out into the gear housing and cause additional damage to the gearing located in the housing.
Claims8
In a rotary cutterbar including a gear housing having top and bottom walls and containing a pinion gear joined to a drive shaft received in a bearing assembly contained in a bearing housing mounted to said top wall and normally held in an operating position holding a pinion assembly defined by said pinion gear and drive shaft spaced above said bottom wall and for rotating about an upright axis, the improvement comprising:
- a pinion assembly support fixed beneath, and in close spatial relationship to a central region of a bottom surface of said pinion assembly and being sized and located so as to serve as a sole support for said bottom surface of said pinion assembly and so as to maintain said pinion assembly in spaced relationship to said bottom wall in the event wear of said bearing assembly occurs and/or said drive shaft mounting loosens so as to permit said drive shaft to wobble and/or drop from its normal operating position, whereby said pinion assembly can continue to operate without disastrous consequences once it engages said pinion assembly support.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.