Windrower Crop Conditioner Gap Control via Hydraulic Pressure
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Solution Overview
Problem
The windrower implement's crop conditioning system often experiences plugging due to increased crop volumes, leading to significant downtime as operators must manually clear blockages.
Innovation Solution
A controller with a plug prevention algorithm adjusts the processing gap in the crop conditioning system based on hydraulic fluid pressure thresholds, increasing the gap when pressure exceeds a threshold to prevent plugging and decreasing it when pressure returns to normal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the processing gap is reduced to process higher volumes of crop material, then productivity increases, but the crop conditioning system becomes more prone to plugging
Solution Approach 1:
The processing gap is made dynamically adjustable through an actuation system that automatically modifies the gap between the rotating element and stationary component based on real-time crop material volume detection, allowing the system to optimize between productivity and plugging prevention
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the physical parameter of the processing gap width in response to varying crop material volumes, increasing the gap when high volumes are detected to prevent plugging while maintaining smaller gaps during normal operation for optimal processing
2Reliability
If the processing gap is increased to prevent plugging, then reliability improves, but productivity decreases due to reduced crop material throughput
Solution Approach 1:
The processing gap is dynamically adjusted based on detected crop material volume, being increased only when high volumes are detected and returning to optimal processing dimensions when normal volumes are detected, thus maintaining both reliability and productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from crop material volume detection to automatically control the actuation system, creating a closed-loop control mechanism that adjusts the processing gap in response to actual operating conditions to prevent plugging while maintaining productivity
3Reliability
If manual clearing of blockages is performed, then the crop conditioning system reliability is restored, but significant downtime is incurred
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by detecting increased crop material volumes before plugging occurs and proactively adjusting the processing gap to prevent blockage formation, eliminating the need for manual clearing and associated downtime
Solution Approach 2:
The crop conditioning system performs self-service by automatically detecting and responding to conditions that would cause plugging, adjusting its own processing gap through the actuation system without requiring operator intervention to clear blockages
Data Source
AI summary
A windrower implement includes an actuation system coupled to a rotating element of a crop conditioning system for controlling a position of the rotating element to define a processing gap. A first hydraulic motor is coupled to the rotating element. A merger attachment includes a driven roller rotatably supporting a conveyor. A second hydraulic motor is coupled to the driven roller. A controller is configured to determine a current value of a first fluid pressure of the first hydraulic motor and a current value of a second fluid pressure of the second hydraulic motor, and compare the respective fluid pressures to respective thresholds. When the current value of the either the first or second fluid pressure is greater than their respective threshold, the controller controls the actuation system to increase the processing gap to prevent plugging of the crop conditioning system.