Abstract: An agricultural combine having a transverse threshing cylinder and concave and an axial separator. The axial separator is provided with two side-by-side axial separator units, each unit having a rotor and a casing for housing the rotor. The casings are non-concentric housing having a semi-circular top, a semi-circular bottom and straight side walls joining the top and bottom. The rotor is provided with fixed teeth that extend radially outward from the rotor. The rotor is located at the bottom of the casing so the teeth can engage and penetrate the crop material at the bottom of the casing. The rotor throws the crop material upwardly against the top of the casing which is provided with downwardly projecting spiral vanes for directing the crop rearwardly. The rotor is rotated so that the tip speed of the teeth is greater than or equal to 11.8 m/sec and less than or equal to 20.9 m/sec.

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: In a combine harvester having a twin rotor axial flow rotary separator with side-by-side separator portions downstream of a conventional threshing cylinder and concave, crop material is guided by an overhead beater and guide plate into the overhead triangular receiving zone of a casing infeed portion disposed between the separator casings and the threshing cylinder. The triangular opening has, as its base, the transverse beater and for its isosceles sides, converging diagonal or helical edges of the upper semi-cylindrical truncated portion of an infeed casing. The rotors are contra-rotating in a direction such that incoming material is carried downwards into a bite between the rotors and then propelled around a semi-cylindrical lower half of the infeed casing to the outer walls of the casing where continued upward and inward motion is controlled by generally helical guide surfaces so that the material continues in a spiral path downstream within the infeed casing and then into the separator casing proper.

Abstract: A harvester strips seeds from a standing crop while essentially leaving the stems of the crop attached to the soil. The harvester comprises a mobile main frame and a vertically adjustable harvesting header carried thereby. A first axially transverse rotor is mounted on the header with its axis generally below the level of substantially all the seeds on the standing crop. The first rotor includes a hub and outwardly projecting stripper elements. The stripper elements define longitudinally spaced openings on the rotor periphery of a width greater than upper seed-bearing heads of the crop, permitting the introduction of the seed-bearing heads into the rotor interior as the machine advances so that the seeds are impacted by sides of the stripper elements interiorly of the outer end thereof. A second axially transverse rotor is disposed parallel to, above and forwardly of the first rotor and has a generally cylindrical outer periphery adjacent the periphery of the first rotor.

Abstract: A harvesting machine includes a mobile main frame adapted to advance over a field of standing crop and including a forward header having an axially transverse stripping rotor with stripping elements that impact the seeds on the standing crop and deliver them rearwardly to a crop converging auger, which discharges the separated crop material through a housing to a blower type elevator. The elevator delivers the material to a rotary type cleaner that separates the seeds from some of the other crop material, the partially clean seeds then being delivered to a conventional combine cleaning shoe that finishes the separation of the seeds from the rest of the crop material, the seeds then being delivered to a clean grain conveying system.

Abstract: A stripper type harvesting machine has a forward harvesting header that carries a plurality of modular independently vertically shiftable stripping units at the front end of the header for engaging the upper seed bearing portions of a standing crop as the machine advances over the field. Each stripping unit comprises an axially transverse rotor having a plurality of disk-like stripping elements mounted side-by-side on the rotor, each stripping element including a hub and a relatively thin annular web portion coaxially mounted on the hub. A plurality of ribs project laterally from the opposite sides of the web portion and extend outwardly from the hub to the periphery of the stripping element.

Abstract: A harvesting machine has a mobile main frame with a forwarding harvesting header that includes an axially transverse stripping rotor that is rotated with the front side moving upwardly to engage the grain bearing heads of a standing crop and separate the grain from the crop by impact while leaving the stem attached to the field. The impact with the stripping elements projects the grain rearwardly on the header to a crop collecting mechanism, which conveys it to a grain cleaning means in the body of the harvesting machine. An upper drum-type rotor is mounted on the header above and parallel to the stripping rotor and is provided with vanes and an arcuate hood, the upper rotor being rotated in the opposite direction from the lower rotor and generating an air flow between the drum and the hood that exits from the hood in a downward and rearward direction to assist in directing the grain heads into the stripping rotor and to convey the stripped grain rearwardly to the crop collecting mechanism.

Abstract: In an axial flow rotary separator, each radially extending finger-like crop-engaging element of the rotor is individually and obliquely journaled on a fixed eccentric shaft. Push bars spaced 90 degrees apart rotate about the axis of the separator to drive the fingers so that the finger tips describe a circular path eccentric to the separator casing and inclined to its axis. The plane of rotation of the fingers and the speed of rotation of the rotor are chosen so that the fingers maintain the crop material in an annular mat in contact with the inside wall of the casing and propel it spirally downstream. Finger element bearing housings are split for convenient assembly and repair.

Abstract: Material control elements carried by the rotor of an axial flow rotary combine separator include inclined blades as well as conventional rasp bars. The inclined blades take various forms but common features include their downstream inclination, (that is in the direction of the axial movement of crop material in the separator) and having a frontal working edge athwart the direction of rotation to engage crop material and deflect or urge it downstream. The orientation and configuration of the blades results in their working edges being their dominating material control feature while the inclined surfaces have a subordinate role in material control, the actual effect of the surfaces depending on the orientation of their line of slope with respect to the rotor axis.

Abstract: Material control elements carried by the rotor of an axial flow rotary combine separator include inclined blades as well as conventional rasp bars. The inclined blades take various forms but common features include their downstream inclination, (that is in the direction of the axial movement of crop material in the separator) and having a frontal working edge athwart the direction of rotation to engage crop material and deflect or urge it downstream. The orientation and configuration of the blades results in their working edges being their dominating material control feature while the inclined surfaces have a subordinate role in material control, the actual effect of the surfaces depending on the orientation of their line of slope with respect to the rotor axis.