One piece tall feed drum

A crop conveying drum for a crop harvesting cutterbar, the cutterbar having a drive shaft mechanism for providing motive power to the cutterbar, the drive shaft mechanism including a central shaft with a rotational axis, the crop conveying drum for urging severed crop toward a central location on the cutterbar and comprising:

• first and second generally identical elongate drum segments for connection to the central shaft for rotation therewith, each said segment is formed from a single piece of plate material each said drum segment further comprising:
• a central axis;
• generally opposing first and second end portions, each end portion having a first curvilinear cross-sectional profile defining a first length measured along the entire said first cross-sectional profile, each said first cross-sectional profile extending in a direction generally parallel to said central axis for a distance;
• first and second openings through the segment, each opening being disposed adjacent to a respective end portion;
• and
• a central section disposed between said first and second openings, said central section having at least one aperture for receiving a connector apparatus to connect said segment to the shaft, and a second curvilinear cross-sectional profile defining a second length measured along the entire said second cross-sectional profile, said first and second lengths being substantially equal whereby stresses in said segment are minimized.

In a crop harvesting machine having a frame, a disc cutterbar supported on said frame to sever standing crop material and discharge the severed crop material toward a central discharge, the disc cutterbar including a plurality of disc cutters, at least one of the plurality of disc cutters being a drive disc cutter;

• a drive mechanism connected to the drive disc cutter, the drive mechanism including a central shaft having a rotational axis and connected to said at least one drive disc cutter to direct drive power to said disc cutterbar for operation of all of said disc cutters, and a crop conveying drum mounted on the central shaft for rotation therewith, rotation of the conveying drum for urging severed crop material toward the central discharge, the improvement comprising:
• first and second generally identical elongate drum segments, each said segment is formed from a single piece of plate material, each said drum segment further comprising:
• a central axis;
• generally opposing first and second end portions, each end portion having a first curvilinear cross-sectional profile defining a first length measured along the entire said first cross-sectional profile, each said first cross-sectional profile extending in a direction generally parallel to said central axis for a distance;
• first and second openings through the segment, each opening being disposed adjacent to a respective end portion;
• and
• a central section disposed between said first and second openings, said central section having at least one aperture for receiving a connector apparatus to connect said segment to the shaft, and a second curvilinear cross-sectional profile defining a second length measured along the entire said second cross-sectional profile, said first and second lengths being substantially equal whereby stresses in said segment are at minimized.