Reversing transfer drive for sickle cutting knives on a header of an agricultural combine
AssigneeCNH America LLC
InventorsGary C. Polk, Bin Lou
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A drive for transferring sideward motion from a first or driving elongate sickle knife to a second or driven elongate sickle knife longitudinally aligned with the first sickle knife. A double rack and pinion arrangement is used including at least one pinion mounted at a fixed location, a first sidewardly extending rack is connected to the first sickle knife for sideward movement therewith and a second sidewardly extending rack is connected to the second sickle knife for sideward movement therewith, the racks both being enmeshed with the pinion such that sideward movement of the driving knife causes corresponding opposite sideward movement of the longitudinally aligned driven knife.
Claims18
A drive for transferring sideward motion from a first elongate sickle cutting knife on a header of an agricultural combine to a second elongate sickle knife on the header, the sickle knives being mounted in substantially longitudinally aligned relation along a sidewardly extending forward portion of the header for sideward motion relative thereto, the drive comprising:
- a double rack and pinion arrangement including at least one pinion mounted at a fixed location on the forward portion of the header, a first sidewardly extending rack connected to the first sickle knife for sideward movement therewith enmeshed with the pinion, and a second sidewardly extending rack connected to the second sickle knife for sideward movement therewith enmeshed with the pinion opposite the first rack, such that when the first sickle knife is moved reciprocally sidewardly relative to the header, the first rack will move correspondingly reciprocally sidewardly to reciprocally rotate the pinion so as to reciprocally sidewardly move the second rack and the second sickle knife oppositely to the reciprocal sideward movement of the first rack and the first sickle knife.
A reversing transfer drive for an elongate driven sickle knife extending in end-to-end relation to an elongate driving sickle knife for reciprocally driving the driven sickle knife transversely along a forward end of a header of an agricultural combine as the driving sickle knife is reciprocally driven by a power source connected thereto transversely along the forward end of the header, for severing crops to be inducted by the header as the combine is moved forwardly over a field, the reversing transfer drive comprising:
- a double rack and pinion arrangement including spaced transversely extending driving and driven racks enmeshed with at least one pinion gear supported for rotation in the space between the racks such that movement in a first transverse direction of the driving rack will rotate the pinion gear so as to move the driven rack in a second transverse direction opposite the first transverse direction, and elements connecting the driving and the driven racks to the driving and driven sickle knives, respectively.
Sickle apparatus for a forward end of a header for an agricultural combine, comprising:
- an elongate first sickle knife extending sidewardly along a first portion of the forward end of the header for reciprocal sideward movement therealong;
- an elongate second sickle knife extending sidewardly along a second portion of the forward end of the header for reciprocal sideward movement therealong in substantially longitudinally aligned end-to-end relation to the first knife;
- and
- a reversing transfer drive including a double rack and pinion arrangement including spaced sidewardly extending first and second racks and at least one pinion supported for rotation between the racks and enmeshed therewith such that movement in a first sideward direction of the first rack will rotate the pinion so as to move the second rack in a second sideward direction opposite the first sideward direction, and elements connecting the first and second racks to the first and second sickle knives, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.