Combines Conical Rotor

[R_O_M]

Quite a bit of experimental work was done by a small group on this idea in Australia in the 1980's. I think the thresher and seperator were mounted vertically. The thresher was rubber covered. Some good claims were made for the idea but it dissappeared with out trace so I guess there was a major problem with the concept. We developed a similar cone shaped separating system, with an internal rotor and wire mesh cage, to remove dirt from a seeds harvester that used suction to suck pasture seed up from the ground. The suction fan took 200hp to drive! The rate of flow of material through the cone separator proved impossible to control accurately and we finally used a straight cage and rotor paddles to move and control the material flow. Cheers!

 

[7720future]

I would believe that the John Deere STS is the solution to your problem. It is cone like shaped.

 

[tbran]

Yes, Deere uses it, have run beside it , the new gleaner rotor 6 bar, smaller diameter with the modifications listed such as steep helicals, disrupters, helical extention etc is the way to go for tough condiditons. Better crop control. One has to remember most owners want a long life easily repairible machine. The ability to pull the cyl - (I have pulled my cyl for some mod testing , in the field, with forks on a skid steer in less than an hour) (takes two to put back in in about same time ) for rework or repair is just one item vs competition. I once had a customer tell me he passed two competitive dealers to get to parts for his Gleaner, but he had rather ride twice as long in the AC comfort listening to the radio and half the time repairing as vice versa.

 

[oddy]

Here is a story that was related to me several years ago. There was a unique prototype threshing device built some 80-90 years ago by S baldwin. The rotor was enclosed, conical (I have seen the patents that were filed). Anyway, this prototype sat in the "back 40" on some farm in Kansas. It was tracked down a few years ago by an inventor in Manitoba (guy who did a lot of work on self propelled sprayers). I don't know if the device is still sitting in Kansas or was moved. It had more ingenuity in it than the NH TR advancement. Anyone hear of this things whereabouts. Second hand, but I was told the prototype was located.

 

[FarmBuddy]

Back around 1960s John Deere had test machines with conventional cross ways threshing cylinders feeding into a conical rotary separation system. The cone was smaller at the front and got larger in diameter towards the rear. On the surface, the increasing diameter seems to make sense, but you have to have a very minimal cone angle. As crop spins around, it seeks the largest diameter, which in that case and your proposal is out the rear of the machine. Oooops, sure don't want the grain to spin out to there. Conversely, we feed the very large front diameter, ie 42" of the Bi-Rotor then began to converge the cone cage down to a smaller diameter. lighter MOG would go on out the back of the rotating cage, but denser grain did not want to be forced "down the funnel" and escaped through the grates to the cleaning shoe below. If you are going to spend time modifying a Natural Flow Gleaner, I'd recommend just making the cage to the left of the feederchain rotate in a top forward direction at 50 RPM. You should see a good improvement in crop flow, more seperation force and a self cleaning cage with this enhancement. Good luck

 

[80stech]

Thanks for the reply, I was sure that someone must have tried the cone shaped idea before.