Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

An apparatus and method is disclosed for threshing seed crop, such as wheat, barley, rice, corn, beans and many others, by moving the seed crop circumferentially through a trough-shaped screen with openings through which the kernels can pass. A rotatable hub and a multiplicity of tines which project generally radially therefrom are coaxially rotatable relative to the screen. The hub and the tines are rotated so that the free tine ends, which are spaced from the screen, move past the screen at a speed approximately equal to the speed of the apparatus through the seed crop field. The hub and tines are vibrated to superimpose on their rotational movement a multiplicity of cyclical accelerations and decelerations as the seed crop moves from one side of the screen to the other to thereby separate the kernels from the plant growth. A shaker downstream of the screen receives plant growth and loose kernels discharged from the latter and subjects them to further cyclical accelerations and decelerations so that the loose kernels can gravitationally work their way through the plant growth for subsequent collection. The plant growth is biased towards the screen to prevent it from wrapping about the rotating hub.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim