Abstract: An automated hemp field harvester can be driven by a tractor or attached to various types of self-propelled machines. The automated hemp field harvester has a set of two combing belts that rotate up vertically with a plurality of comb assemblies for stripping the buds and flowers from the hemp plant as the automated hemp field harvester is directed down the row of hemp plants. A set of winged plates in front of the combing belts gather the hemp plants and directs them into the drive assemblies. The comb assemblies are inclined in an upward direction and strip the buds and flowers from the stalks and stems. There is a deflecting plate at the top end of the combing belts to deflect the buds and flowers in a controlled manner to a product discharge conveyor belt to be loaded into a trailer or wagon for removal from the field.

Abstract: A cotton harvester row unit includes belt drive and a variable transmission to reduce noise and optimize spindle and doffer speeds of rotation while permitting spindle drum structure rotational speed to change with changes in harvester speed. In one embodiment, a variable speed motor drives the ring gear of a planetary gear set to vary the ratio of spindle and doffer speed to drum speed. The planetary gear set may be enclosed to also help reduce noise and to decrease grease consumption. Nearly constant spindle and doffer speeds may be maintained over a wide range drum rotational speeds, and the upper speeds may be limited to avoid operation above critical speeds of components. The transmission may be configured to reduce or completely eliminates gear meshing off of the drum centerline to thereby reduce row unit manufacture precision, and a relatively low power motor may be used to adjust the ratio of spindle and doffer speed to drum speed.

Abstract: An improved crop harvesting belt for swather belt and pick-up belt applications, which is both oil resistant and cold weather reliable, the belt made of a compound of styrene butadiene rubber and nitrile rubber, the nitrile rubber preferably at approximately 6% of the compound and having an acrylonitrile level of approximately 33% by weight.

Abstract: Improved cotton harvesting apparatus. The apparatus efficiently separates rocks, dirt and debris from down cotton while minimizing the damage and down time which can result when such debris passes through conventional cotton harvesting machines.Spaced apart rotating parallel coaxial resilient disks carried in the apparatus capture rocks and debris and throw the debris free of the apparatus while minimizing the damage caused by such debris to other working components of the apparatus.

Abstract: An apparatus for removing dirt and debris from clumps of down cotton that are released from slots of a group of retrieving belts as the belts pass around a rotating pulley that causes the slots to open includes a first group of approximately semi-circular, parallel tines disposed adjacent to the portions of the belts passing around the pulley. A plurality of fingers extending from the pulley and between the belts into the region bounded by the first group of tines and the belts urges the released clumps slidingly along the tines, and apply forces that loosen dirt and debris, which pass between the tines. The clumps ejected from the upper end of the region are received by pegs of a rotating peg drum and are moved against a second group of approximately semi-circular, parallel tines. The pegs tend to "thump" the cotton clumps as they slide along the second group of tines, further breaking up dried mud and debris therein and causing it to pass outward between the tines of the second group.

Abstract: An improved wheel assembly for a belt employed for harvesting cotton off the ground by means of a plurality of resilient cuts or notches in its outer surface which pick up the cotton from the ground comprising two identical wheel sections mounted on a non circular shaft coupler and held together by a bolt and self locking nut. The shaft coupler passes through a bearing assembly which is secured to a supporting arm of the harvesting equipment by a pair of flangettes with the assembly and disassembly for repair operation accomplished with a set of wrenches requiring no drilling or welding operations.