Automatic tobacco harvester with improved leaf conveying system

摘要

The present invention relates to an automatic tobacco harvester having a longitudinal leaf conveyor system for receiving tobacco leaf material defoliated by a defoliator assembly carried by said harvester and generally conveying the received leaf material rearwardly and upwardly about said harvester where the longitudinal conveyor system discharges the leaf material therefrom about a rearward elevated area on said harvester. The longitudinal leaf conveyor system of a particular harvester includes a series of laterally spaced longitudinal conveyor assemblies, each conveyor assembly including a horizontal conveyor section for conveying the leaf material from the defoliator assembly towards the rear of said harvester, and an elevating section which acts to convey the leaves from the horizontal section upwardly therefrom to an elevated area on said harvester where the leaves are discharged therefrom. The elevated section of each longitudinal conveyor assembly includes a pair of adjacently disposed endless leaf elevating conveyors that cooperate to convey tobacco leaves therebetween to the elevated area of discharge. The endless leaf elevating conveyors include a lower disposed wire chain type conveyor and an upper slightly flexible belt conveyor, the belt conveyor being trained around a lower roller that is movably mounted relative to the adjacent wire chain conveyor for allowing a leaf entry area defined therebetween to be varied in accordance with various masses and volumes of tobacco leaf material entering between said wire chain and belt elevating conveyors.