GB155023A - Improvements in and relating to machines for harvesting sugar-cane and the like - Google Patents

Abstract

155,023. Woodland, P. T. Sept. 9, 1919. Sugar-cane cutting machines.-A machine for harvesting canes &c. comprises conveyer mechanism combined with means for stripping off the leaves or trash and cutting off the tops and then cutting the canes close to the ground. Fig. 2 shows a motor-driven machine mounted on two rear wheels 2 and a front steering-wheel 3 which is steered by means of a hand-wheel 4, row 5, and gearing 6. The stripping and topping mechanism is mounted on an inclined frame 7. The canes are collected together, arranged in a thin line, and then drawn between rotary stripping- brushes 11 by endless chains 8 provided with projecting fingers and by a rotary jointed rod 10 which is helically grooved. The stalks are bent over by the jointed rod 10 and the tops are cut off by toothed cutters 12. The lower cutter is fixed and the upper one is reciprocated by means of crank disks 16 and connecting-rods 17. The cutter teeth are rectangular in plan and sharpened on both sides. The apparatus for cutting the canes near the ground comprises two rotary circular cutters 19, Fig. 5, and two projecting fixed cutters 20. The cut canes are conveyed between two rotary brushes 21 which complete the stripping operation. They are subsequently collected and bound into bundles by mechanism on the machine. The fixed cutters 20 may be dispensed with. According to the Provisional Specification, the canes are cut between a rotary circular cutter and a fixed blade curved round it.