This invention is directed generally to harvester reels and specifically to a cam operated rotating reel with improved means thereon for selective lateral adjustment of the tine bars relative to their support bearings.
Certain types of crop harvesters employ a rotating reel at the forward end of the header to feed material into a mower and to rake the severed material rearwardly into conditioning rolls, or other crop manipulating mechanisms. The reel generally includes crop engaging fingers, or tines, affixed to elongate circumferentially spaced tine bars which are journalled in two or more laterally spaced support members fixed to the reel axis. Usually, though not necessarily always, the support members are spiders, with the tine bars journalled in each leg thereof. The attitude of the tines is controlled by a cam means which rocks the tine bars through a predetermined angle as the reel rotates.
The type of reel to which the instant invention is most applicable is well known in the prior art as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,008. Though intermediate supports may be used as required, the drawings of this patent show two laterally spaced spiders fixed to a common axis. Each leg of each spider terminates radially with a horizontally disposed bearing held in position by a bearing housing. Horizontal elongate tine bars extend through the aligned bearings in the spiders and are freely rotatable therein. Each tine bar carries a multiplicity of horizontally spaced tines fixed thereto for engagement with the crop material. An arm and cam follower is fixed to one end of each tine bar to be engaged with a channel-shaped closed loop cam on the interior surface of the reel housing.
As is common in reels of the type under consideration, the cam is constructed such that the tine bars, and thus the tines, rotate less than 360.degree. relative to the support bearings as the reel rotates 360.degree.. This relative rotation is advantageous in that it pulls the crops across the cutter bar in a continuous manner and provides improved feeding characteristics into the auger, or the nip of the conditioning rollers.
The cam structure, as readily seen in above-mentioned patent, comprises horizontal opposing camming surfaces forming a side opening into which the cam follower, or roller, is inserted. It should be readily apparent that integration of the reel structure into the housing is facilitated by some means for lateral adjustment of the tine bars relative to the support bearings. More specifically, during assembly lateral adjustment of the tine bars is necessary to ensure proper alignment between the cam follower and the cam surfaces. The means employed to make this adjustment must not interfere with the rotational characteristics of the tine bar relative to the bearings, but yet must be capable of selectively rigidly fixing its lateral location.
The prior art has employed various devices to accomplish the above-described adjustability. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,641,750 shows a pair of washer-like collars located on the tine bar and fixed thereto by set screws. Furthermore, each collar has one surface thereof engaged with a support bearing housing, thus maintaining a fixed distance between spiders. Besides the multiplicity of elements and the increased likelihood of misadjustment inherent therewith, such an arrangement adds an undesirable degree of complexity to the assembly operation.
Another prior art method of making the adjustment is to use a clamp which straddles the tine bar support bearing and the end of the spider and grips the bar on both sides thereof. The tine bar is laterally adjusted by loosening the clamp and sliding the bar endwise to its desired position and then retightening the clamp. Though effective, the adjustment clamp is exposed to crop materials and debris, and is thus potentially easily jammed. If the clamp cannot rotate about the end of the spider, the tine bar will also not be able to rotate and function properly.
Other methods employed in the prior art use various combinations of washers and cotter pins to, at best, provide inconvenient and awkward adjustment of the tine bar. The invention to be described in detail below is to a unique adjusting device which exhibits none of the shortcomings of the known prior art.