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.

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.

Abstract: A rotary disc cutter and a rotary impeller are disclosed as examples of devices which utilize a coupling arrangement forming a detent, for the cutter knives of the disc cutter and the impeller tines of the rotary impeller, which acts, in response to centrifugal force during operation, to retain the knives and tines in radially extended positions. In the rotary disc cutter and one variant of the rotary impeller, respective holes in ends of the knives and tines are shaped to cooperate with a square section of respective fasteners so as to accomplish the detent action, while in a second variant of the rotary impeller, the detent action is due to the cooperation between respective fasteners and complementary shaped tine mount sections.

Abstract: A rotary cutter disc includes shields for the nuts of the knife mounting bolts. Each shield includes a U-shaped well in which a respective one of the nuts is located, the well being oriented so that its open side is directed away from the center of the disc, whereby centrifugal force ejects crop particles and other matter from the well. In one embodiment, the shield is provided with inclined wear surfaces which also serve as crop guide vanes. In a second embodiment, the shield is integral with a crop guide vane. In each embodiment, the underside of the shield is provided with a locating lug which is adjacent the knife mount bolt hole in the bottom wall of the shield. The disc is provided with an elongated knife mounting bolt hole and the shield locating lug is positioned to enter the elongated hole alongside the knife mounting bolt so as to properly orient the shield and keep the shield from rotating when the mounting bolt nut is being screwed on or off.