摘要 |
The threshing, separating, and cleaning elements of the harvester are contained in a housing which has openings only in its front and rear walls. A threshing and separating rotor surrounded by a generally cylindrical, partially foraminous casing, extends fore-and-aft through an upper portion of the separator housing and penetrates the forward wall of the housing to permit feeding of crop material to the rotor. During separation straw is carried in a generally spiral path, rearwardly in the annular space between rotor and casing and fed into a transverse rotary straw discharge beater, which finally discharges straw through a rearward opening in the separator housing. An arcuate floor under the discharge beater is connected to the rearward end of the separator casing so that a continuous channel or conduit for the passage of straw extends through the separator housing. Beneath the straw discharge beater floor, an opening in the rear wall of the separator housing, serves as a second outlet from the housing. A blower connected to an inlet in a forward wall of the housing provides air flow to assist in the separation process. The blower and the second outlet are sized so that the second outlet effectively restricts or throttles the flow of air from the separator housing, so that a significant increase in pressure develops, the housing thus becoming a plenum in which the rotor and casing are contained. The resulting tendency for air to seek to pass radially inward through the openings in the separator casing and hence out through the first outlet of the separator housing with the straw, inhibits the passage of chaff radially outwards from the separator casing and out into the plenum and hence reduces the chaff load on the cleaning shoe situated below the separator casing. A single blower may provide the air for both the conventional cleaning shoe air function and the plenum pressurizing function or, alternatively, separate blowers may be provided for each of these needs.
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