Abstract: An agricultural harvesting machine having a feeder assembly, a conveyor arrangement and an output unit. In a combine, the feeder arrangement comprises a threshing cylinder and concave that direct threshed crop material to the conveyor arrangement. The conveyor arrangement directs crop material to the output unit which comprises a cleaning shoe. The conveyor arrangement comprises a conveyor chute having fixed converging guide vanes. The conveyor chute can be rotated about a bearing for directing crop material to the uphill side of the combine.

Abstract: In an axial flow rotary separator, the crop material engaging elements of the eccentrically mounted rotor include helically oriented deflecting surfaces of significant axial extent which in operation, sweep closely or "wipe" a separating grate of the separator casing while the helical surfaces contribute to axial indexing of the material.

Abstract: An agricultural combine has a generally horizontal grain pan for delivering threshed crop material to a grain cleaning mechanism. The grain pan includes a plurality of generally upright fore-and-aft extending vanes that are adjustable to deflect crop material toward either lateral side of the grain pan to compensate for the gravity influenced migration of grain toward the downhill side of the combine when operating on a side slope. The vanes are automatically controlled by an electrical system that includes sensors at opposite sides of the grain pan that detect the building of crop material on the downhill side of the combine and adjusts the vanes to compensate for the buildup.

Abstract: In an axial flow rotary separator for a combine harvester, a series of parallel guide vanes are mounted inside the upper portion of the separator housing. The guide vanes are each helically disposed and parallel to each other and they cooperate with the separator rotor so that as the rotor is rotated crop material which has been fed to an upstream end of the separator is propelled downstream as a mat in the annular space between rotor and housing, the guide vanes engaging the mat of material and deflecting it downstream as it is propelled circumferentially by the rotor so that any given portion of the mat is propelled downstream in an approximately helical path.

Abstract: In a cleaning shoe for a combine harvester, threshed grain from the threshing cylinder and separator is received onto the upper run of an endless mesh belt conveyor or sieve band. The sides of the upper run of the conveyor are guided in channels which may be oscillated in a vertical plane so as to agitate the upper run of the sieve band and promote the separation of grain from material other than grain as the material is conveyed rearwardly, the grain passing downwards through openings in the mesh belt. A second more conventional oscillating sieve element is mounted below the sieve band. Grain cleaning efficiency is augmented by a blower and duct system which provides a plurality of longitudinally spaced, laterally extending elongated air nozzles disposed below the lower sieve element and each directing an air blast rearwardly and upwardly through it.

Abstract: In an axial flow rotary separator for a combine harvester, a series of parallel guide vanes are mounted inside the upper portion of the separator housing. The guide vanes are each helically disposed and parallel to each other and they cooperate with the separator rotor so that as the rotor is rotated crop material which has been fed to an upstream end of the separator is propelled downstream as a mat in the annular space between rotor and housing, the guide vanes engaging the mat of material and deflecting it downstream as it is propelled circumferentially by the rotor so that any given portion of the mat is propelled downstream in an approximately helical path.