Agricultural combines (or “combines”) are large self-propelled machines that harvest and process crop material. Combines separate the crop material into cleaned grain (or other product), and other portions, and store the cleaned grain in a grain tank. In known configurations, an elevator may be used to move grain that has been cleaned by a cleaning shoe upward to the grain tank. The other portions of the crop material may be stored separately, or they may be spread across the ground.
Typically, agricultural combines are driven by internal combustion engines that propel the agricultural combine over the ground and drive a variety of crop processing devices. The internal combustion engine may be connected to these crop processing devices by belts and chains that connect pulleys and sprockets, respectively. For example, known elevators may be driven by a belt or chain that engages a pulley or sprocket of the elevators.
Improving the rate or efficiency of the grain-cleaning operations may be desirable, in order to generally improve the rate and efficiency of harvesting operations. Such improvement in cleaning rate or efficiency, however, may result in large volumes of grain that must be moved between different locations on the combine. For at least this reason, therefore, it may be useful to provide an improved arrangement for moving grain in a combine.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds