Spring assisted translating draper belt drive rollers for an agricultural harvesting machine

摘要

An agricultural harvesting machine including a flexible cutterbar and associated draper belts for carrying cut agricultural material to a center location. The belts are guided by a drive rollers and idler rollers. The idler roller for each belt is pivotable about an axis generally at 90 degrees to the axis of the belt and the drive roller for each belt is translatable axially to minimize diagonal stresses caused by flexing of the elongated endless belt. A spring assembly is positioned on a frame for the machine and acts to yieldably urge the drive rollers in an aft condition to alleviate stresses for an extended period of operation.