Work Vehicle Crop Redistribution System for Wide Swath Harvesting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional agricultural vehicles often leave wide areas of open field between windrows, leading to inefficient crop processing, potential damage to cut crop, and uneven drying, as they are designed to avoid contact with the crop, resulting in narrow windrows that do not utilize the full field width effectively.
Innovation Solution
A crop swath wheel/track avoidance system that uses redistribution devices to clear a narrow tread path ahead of the vehicle's wheels or tracks and converging devices to spread the cut crop behind, allowing the vehicle to work a wider swath without damaging the crop, enabling uniform drying and higher yield.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If the vehicle uses a wide wheel base to avoid contacting cut crop, then crop damage is reduced, but field utilization efficiency decreases due to wide areas of open field between windrows
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the crop processing function into multiple independent devices: a cutting device, a first redistribution device (parting device), and a second redistribution device (converging device). These segmented devices work together to process a wide swath of crop while the vehicle's wheels follow a narrow tread path, avoiding contact with the cut crop. This segmentation allows the vehicle to process more than 100% of its width without compromising crop integrity or field utilization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces redistribution devices as intermediary elements between the cutting device and the vehicle wheels. These intermediaries (parting and converging devices) move and redistribute the cut crop to create a clear path for the wheels, allowing the vehicle to maintain a narrow tread path while processing a wide swath. This intermediary mechanism resolves the conflict between wide swath processing and wheel-crop contact avoidance.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the vehicle processes a narrow swath to avoid wheel contact with crop, then wheel-crop contact is minimized, but processing efficiency decreases due to multiple passes required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extends the cutting device laterally beyond the vehicle's wheel base, allowing the vehicle to process a swath width greater than its own width. The cutting device spans more than 100% of the vehicle width, enabling single-pass processing of wide swaths. The redistribution devices then manage the cut crop to ensure wheels follow a narrow tread path, effectively adding a spatial dimension solution to the width-efficiency problem.
3Temperature
If the vehicle uses large diameter wheels for high ground clearance, then tall crop can be cleared, but the wheel base width increases reducing field utilization
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by having the redistribution devices operate specifically in the regions where crop redistribution is needed (ahead of and behind the tread path), while the wheels maintain their large diameter for ground clearance only where necessary for tall crop. The parting and converging devices are positioned to locally manage crop flow without requiring the entire vehicle structure to be widened, thus maintaining high ground clearance while improving field utilization.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3A~3B
Figure 3C~3D
AI summary
A work vehicle (10) for working a swath of crop is disclosed. The work vehicle (10) comprising: at least one ground-engaging wheel (14, 16) or track mounted to the work vehicle (10) and movable in a travel direction (T) along a tread path (40); a first redistribution device mounted to the work vehicle (10) to move crop that is ahead of the at least one ground-engaging wheel (14, 16) or track relative to the travel direction (T); and a second redistribution device mounted to the work vehicle (10) to move crop that is behind the at least one ground-engaging wheel (14, 16) or track relative to the travel direction (T); wherein the first redistribution device is configured to open the swath of crop along substantially only the tread path (40) ahead of the at least one ground-engaging wheel (14, 16) or track relative to the travel direction (T) and the second redistribution device is configured to close the swath of crop along the tread path (40) behind the at least one ground-engaging wheel (14, 16) or track relative to the travel direction (T). Further, a work vehicle train with a lead vehicle (10) and a follower vehicle (62) is disclosed.