Abstract: A separator for a crop harvester configured to harvest sugarcane. The separator includes an extractor body that defines a chamber, the chamber extending through the extractor body and is in fluid communication with a cavity of a fan housing. The extractor body can generally define an inlet opening of the chamber, the inlet opening positioned to allow chopped billets and crop residue that are outputted from a chopper assembly to enter into the chamber. The inlet opening has a non-round, or non-circular configuration and/or cross sectional shape. Further, the inlet opening can have a width similar to a material flow width of the chopped billets and crop residue being outputted from the chopper assembly. Such a configuration can eliminate dead zones with respect to air flow that is to pull the chopped crop materials into the chamber and/or to separate crop residue from the chopped billets.

Abstract: An extractor is disclosed for a sugarcane harvester that chops stalks of sugarcane into billets. The extractor comprises a fan and a leaf shredder. The fan comprises fan blades mounted for rotation about an axis of rotation to induce a flow of air to extract leaf material from billets produced by the sugarcane harvester. The leaf shredder comprises shredding knives mounted for rotation about the axis of rotation to shred leaf material prior to its ejection from the extractor. The leaf shredder is positioned below the fan or upstream from the fan relative to the flow of air.

Abstract: An extractor is disclosed for a sugarcane harvester that chops stalks of sugarcane into billets. The extractor comprises a housing, a fan positioned within the housing and comprising fan blades mounted for rotation in a rotational path about an axis of rotation to induce a flow of air to extract leaf material from billets produced by the sugarcane harvester, and a leaf shredder positioned within the housing and comprising shredding knives fixed against rotation about the axis of rotation, the shredding knives offset axially from the fan blades relative to the axis of rotation in proximity to the rotational path of the fan blades such that the fan blades and the shredding knives cooperate to shred leaf material by shearing action as the fan blades rotate past the shredding knives about the axis of rotation.