Conveyor feeder house chain slat
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsRobert Lee Day, Ryan Patrick Mackin, Mark Edward Payne
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A new and improved conveyor feeder house chain slat having a unique shape and structure that provides sufficient structural rigidity to improve crop throughput while reducing clogging of crop material. The unique slat also provides additional support to the chain. Because the chain rides on the rear of the elongated section of the slat, the slat contacts the feed house, rather than the chain, reducing chain wear, overheating and lubricant evacuation. Because of the new slat configuration, the slats can be secured to the chain with removable securing means, enabling easier replacement of an individual slat if necessary.
Claims20
In a combine for harvesting a crop bearing grain, a mechanism for conveying grain from a harvesting platform to a separator mechanism, the conveying mechanism comprising:
- feeder house having a forward crop inlet for receiving crop from the harvesting platform, a feeder house bottom, a rear opening for transmitting crop to the separator mechanism;
- and
- a conveyor comprising
- a transverse drum at a front end of the feeder house;
- at least two sprocket drive means at a rear end of the feeder house;
- at least two continuous conveyor chains being entrained around the sprocket drive means and the transverse drum so as to move laterally in the feeder house, around the transverse drum and the sprocket-driven means;
- and
- a plurality of slats secured to the continuous conveyor chains, the slats formed from a first long U-shaped piece of sufficient length to span at least the width of adjacent conveyor chains,
- and a second shorter U-shaped piece of a length to fit between adjacent conveyor chains, the first U-shaped piece and the second U-shaped piece each have a base opposite an open top,
- the bases of the long and short U-shaped piece being joined together with the short U-shaped piece centered on the long U-shaped piece so the open tops of the long and short U-shaped pieces face in opposite directions, and
- the slats being secured to the conveyor chains by a securing means secured through the chains and a plurality of through-material holes in the long U-shaped piece such that the crop material is drawn upwardly and rearwardly into the conveyor between the slats on an underside of the chain and the feeder house bottom and moved toward the separator mechanism.
A slat for a chain and slat conveyor for a feeder house in a harvesting machine such as a combine, the slat comprising:
- a first U-shaped section having open ends and a base opposite an open top;
- a second U-shaped section having open ends and a base opposite an open top, the second U-shaped section being shorter than the first U-shaped section;
- the first and second U-shaped sections being joined together at the bases thereof such that the open top sides of the two U-shaped sections of a slat are oppositely directed, the second, shorter U-shaped section being centered in length of the first, longer U-shaped section;
- and the longer U-shaped section having a plurality of through-material holes at the outer ends of the base for securing the slats to chains using a securing means.
A method of processing of crop material through a combine feeder house having a transverse mounted drum mounted on a shaft at a front thereof and one or more drive sprockets at a rear thereof with one or more chains positioned around and rotating around the transverse mounted drum and one or more drive sprockets, with one or more chain slats formed of an upper U-shaped channel and a lower U-shaped channel, each channel having a base opposite an open top, joined at their bases being mounted between the chains, the slats positioned parallel to the transverse drum, the method comprising:
- providing crop material at an inlet of the feeder house,
- gripping the crop material between the open top of the lower U-shaped channel and a bottom floor of the feeder house,
- pulling the gripped crop material along the bottom floor and through the feeder house,
- during the gripping step or pulling step, engaging the upper U-shaped channel against the drum to prevent the slat from twisting under a crop load created by gripping or pulling crop material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.