Pivoting Cutter Bar Joint for Wide Mowers Within Transport Limits
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing mowing machines face challenges in achieving increased working widths while maintaining transport dimensions within legal limits, as they require complex drive shaft arrangements that are cumbersome and prone to tool interference when pivoted for transport.
Innovation Solution
A mowing machine design featuring rotatably mounted cutting elements on a mowing bar with a joint and drive arrangement that allows for pivoting of additional lateral cutter bar sections, enabling an increase in working width during operation and a reduction in transport width by positioning these sections behind the outer cutting elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If additional lateral cutter bar sections are added to increase working width, then the working width is improved, but the transport width exceeds legal limits
Solution Approach 1:
The cutter bar is divided into multiple independent sections (inner cutter bar and outer cutter bars) that can be pivoted relative to each other. This segmentation allows the cutter bar to change its configuration between working position (maximum width for productivity) and transport position (reduced width to meet legal limits), resolving the contradiction between working width and transport width requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The cutter bar employs dynamic pivoting joints that enable the outer cutter bars to rotate relative to the inner cutter bar. This dynamic mechanism allows the system to adapt its width dimensionally - extending to maximum width during operation for high productivity and retracting to minimum width during transport to comply with legal dimension limits, thus resolving the static contradiction between working and transport width requirements.
2Power
If drive shafts extend between carrier bars to provide drive energy, then the drive function is achieved, but the drive shafts lack functionality and user-friendliness when cutter bars are pivoted for transport
Solution Approach 1:
The drive shafts are designed with telescopic or pivoting capabilities that allow them to dynamically adjust their length and angle as the cutter bars pivot between working and transport positions. This ensures continuous drive energy transmission functionality while accommodating the changing geometric relationships during pivoting operations, maintaining ease of operation throughout the full range of motion.
Solution Approach 2:
The drive shaft assembly is designed to perform multiple functions: transmitting drive energy during operation, accommodating pivoting motion during transport, and maintaining functionality across both configurations. This multi-functional design eliminates the limitation where drive shafts would be non-functional or cumbersome during transport pivoting, resolving the contradiction between power transmission and operational ease.
3Length of moving object
If adjacent cutter bars are pivoted for transport, then the transport width is reduced, but the cutting tools may hit each other
Solution Approach 1:
The pivoting mechanism is designed to rotate the outer cutter bars in a vertical plane rather than simply folding them horizontally. This dimensional change in the pivoting motion allows the cutter bars to be positioned above or below each other during transport, reducing horizontal width while maintaining sufficient vertical clearance to prevent cutting tools from contacting each other, thus resolving the contradiction between transport width reduction and tool interference prevention.
Data Source
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AI summary
Mowing machine with cutting elements (1) mounted on a cutter bar (2) and driven to rotate about a vertical axis, which are rotatably mounted on the upper side of the cutter bar (2) which is oriented transversely to the direction of travel and working (F) of the mowing machine in its longitudinal extension and can be driven to rotate by a drive arrangement which is housed within the cutter bar (2), wherein the cutter bar (2) has at least one of its two ends, which are spaced apart from each other transversely to the direction of travel and working (F), a joint and drive arrangement (5) for holding a further, lateral cutter bar section (4) and for driving the at least one cutting element (1) attached to the further lateral cutter bar section (4), and wherein the joint and drive arrangement (5) is formed from two mounting elements (6, 7, 6a, 7a) which are arranged relative to each other in such a manner.that a pivoting movement of the further lateral cutterbar section (4) within the plane of the cutterbar (2) of the mower is possible, wherein the mounting elements (6, 7, 6a, 7a) of the joint and drive assembly (5) are arranged in planes that are close together.