Agricultural Harvester Cutting Device Self-Cleaning Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Agricultural harvesting machines face difficulties in maintaining and cleaning the cutting device, particularly due to the accumulation of crop particles in the knife slots, which requires manual intervention and is time-consuming, especially with increasing numbers of knives.
Innovation Solution
A crop clamping device is attached to the knife carrier, featuring clamping sections that correspond to the elongated recesses in the crop guide element, allowing crop particles to be held and easily removed during maintenance, eliminating the need for manual cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the number of knives is increased to achieve shorter cutting length, then the cutting performance is improved, but the cleaning time and complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The knife carrier is designed to automatically remove crop residues from the knife slots during its movement between operating positions. The backward movement of the knife carrier creates a scraping effect that clears residues, enabling the system to clean itself without manual intervention and reducing cleaning time regardless of the number of knives
Solution Approach 2:
The knife carrier performs preliminary cleaning action during its normal operational movements. Before manual cleaning is needed, the automated scraping action during knife carrier movement removes loose residues, preparing the surface for more thorough cleaning and reducing the overall cleaning time
2Reliability
If manual cleaning of knife slots is performed regularly to remove crop particles, then the cutting device maintains proper function, but maintenance complexity and time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The knife carrier automatically scrapes crop residues from the knife slots during its movement between engaged and disengaged positions. This self-cleaning function reduces reliance on manual cleaning operations and simplifies maintenance procedures while ensuring the cutting device remains functional
Solution Approach 2:
The knife carrier transitions between different positions (engaged and disengaged states), and this dynamic movement itself performs the cleaning function. The motion of the knife carrier creates relative movement between the knife slots and the crop residues, enabling automatic removal of particles without additional cleaning mechanisms
3Ease of operation
If the knife carrier is moved out of the crop channel for maintenance, then accessibility for cleaning is improved, but the operational time is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The knife carrier performs automated cleaning during its positional transitions, eliminating the need to move the entire knife carrier out of the crop channel for cleaning purposes. This maintains operational continuity while providing effective cleaning through the self-scraping mechanism during normal movement cycles
Data Source
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AI summary
The device (16) has blades arranged at a blade carrier (27) adjacent to each other in a row relative to a harvested goods channel, where harvested goods flow through the channel in a goods flow direction. The carrier is movable relative to a bent bottom plate (20) between an engaging condition and a maintenance condition. The bent bottom plate limits the channel. A goods clamping device is associated to the blade carrier, and includes clamping sections, which act against the goods flow direction and correspond with elongate openings (28) in the bottom plate.