US-12616095-B2 - Primary extractor of a sugarcane harvester including variable angle guide vanes

US12616095B2US 12616095 B2US12616095 B2US 12616095B2US-12616095-B2

Abstract

A sugarcane harvester configured to cut sugarcane into a sugarcane mat having crop debris and billets. The harvester includes an extractor configured to receive the sugarcane mat at an inlet and to discharge crop debris from the sugarcane mat at an outlet. An extractor located between the inlet and the outlet includes an extractor fan having fan blades and a vane assembly including a plurality of guide vanes, wherein the angle of the guide vanes is adjustable. A selector includes a manual position to enable adjustment of a rotational speed of the fan blades and an automatic position which automatically adjusts the rotational speed of the fan blades. A controller identifies the position of the selector, and in response to the position of the selector adjusts the angle of the guide vanes to optimize fan performance for cleaning and fuel savings.

Inventors

Blain J. Cazenave

Assignees

DEERE & COMPANY

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20230621

Claims (19)

1 . A crop separator configured to process sugarcane, the crop separator comprising: a housing including an inlet and an outlet, the inlet configured to receive a sugarcane mat, having crop debris and billets, and the outlet configured to receive crop debris; a fan assembly located in the housing, wherein the fan assembly includes a plurality of fan blades coupled to a spindle; a motor configured to rotate the plurality of fan blades about a rotational axis of the spindle; a vane assembly including an actuator system and a plurality of guide vanes operatively connected to the actuator system, wherein the actuator system is adapted to adjust an angle of each of the plurality of guide vanes; a controller operatively connected to the motor and to the vane assembly, the controller including a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store program instructions and the processor is configured to execute the stored program instructions to: identify a rotational speed of the plurality of fan blades; identify an angle of incidence of the plurality of fan blades; identify an angle of attack of the plurality of fan blades based on the identified rotational speed of plurality of fan blades and the identified angle of incidence of the plurality of fan blades; and adjust the angle of the each of the plurality of guide vanes to optimize fan performance for cleaning and fuel savings.
2 . The crop separator of claim 1 , wherein the motor rotates the plurality of blades to generate a rotational air flow in a first direction.
3 . The crop separator of claim 2 wherein the stored program instruction of adjust the angle of each of the plurality of guide vanes includes adjust the angle to a position generating an air flow in a direction the same as or opposite to the rotational air flow in the first direction.
4 . The crop separator of claim 1 further comprising a user actuator, wherein the user actuator includes manual position and an automatic position.
5 . The crop separator of claim 4 wherein the manual position enables an operator to manually select the fan speed.
6 . The crop separator of claim 5 wherein in response to the manually selected fan speed, the processor accesses a lookup table stored in memory that identifies a vane angle associated with the selected fan speed.
7 . The crop separator of claim 6 wherein when upon selection of the automatic position, the controller, based on the identified blade angle of incidence adjusts the vane angle to the identified vane angle.
8 . The crop separator of claim 4 wherein the processor, in response to selection of the manual position to select a fan speed, identifies a static fan blade speed and accesses a lookup table stored in memory that identifies a vane angle associated with the static fan blade speed.
9 . The crop separator of claim 4 wherein the automatic position enables the controller to engage an auto clean operation which provides automatically adjusted fan speed based on a cleanliness of billets.
10 . The crop separator of claim 9 wherein the processor is configured to execute the stored program instructions to: adjust the angle of incidence of one or more of the plurality of fan blades based on the automatically adjusted fan speed and a power consumption range.
11 . A sugarcane harvester for harvesting sugarcane, the harvester comprising: a cutter configured to cut sugarcane into a sugarcane mat having crop debris and billets; an extractor operatively connected to the cutter, the extractor including a fan housing having an inlet configured to receive the sugarcane mat and an outlet configured to discharge crop debris from the sugarcane mat, and a fan located in the fan housing to move the crop debris through the fan housing, the fan including a motor, fan blades rotatably coupled to the motor, and a vane assembly including an actuator system and a plurality of guide vanes operatively connected to the actuator system, wherein the actuator system is adapted to adjust an angle of each of the plurality of guide vanes; an elevator operatively connected to the extractor to discharge billets from the extractor; a user interface having user selectable controls, wherein the user selectable controls include a manual position to enable an operator to manually adjust a rotational speed of the fan blades and an automatic position for automatically adjusting rotational speed of the fan blades; a controller operatively connected to the user interface, the motor, and to a blade angle of incidence mechanism, the controller including a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store program instructions and the processor is configured to execute the stored program instructions to: identify a rotational speed of the fan blades; and adjust the angle of the each of the plurality of guide vanes to optimize fan performance for cleaning and fuel savings based on the identified rotational speed of the fan blades.
12 . The sugarcane harvester of claim 11 wherein the processor, in response to selection of the manual position of one of the blade angle of incidence or the fan blade speed, identifies the other of the blade angle of incidence or the a fan blade speed and accesses a lookup table stored in the memory that identifies a vane angle associated with the static fan blade speed.
13 . The sugarcane harvester of claim 11 wherein the manual position enables an operator to manually select the fan speed.
14 . The sugarcane harvester of claim 13 wherein in response to the manually selected fan speed, the processor accesses a lookup table stored in the memory that identifies a vane angle associated with the selected fan speed and the controller, based on the identified vane angle, adjusts the vane angle to the identified vane angle.
15 . The sugarcane harvester of claim 11 wherein the automatic position enables the controller to engage an auto clean operation which provides an automatically adjusted fan speed based on a cleanliness of billets.
16 . The sugar cane harvester of claim 15 wherein the processor is configured to execute the stored program instructions to: adjust the angle of incidence of one or more of the plurality of fan blades based on the automatically adjusted fan speed and a power consumption range.
17 . A method of harvesting sugarcane from a field with a sugarcane harvester, the method comprising: cutting sugarcane from the field to obtain a sugarcane mat of cut stalk and crop residue; delivering the cut stalk and the crop residue to a fan housing of the sugarcane harvester, the fan housing supporting an extractor fan having fan blades; identifying a position of a user actuator, wherein the user actuator includes a manual position and an automatic position; determining the rotational speed of fan blades of the extractor fan; if the user actuator is in the manual position, adjusting an angle of one or more of a plurality of adjustable guide vanes based on the rotational speed of the extractor fan or adjusting the rotational speed of the fan blades if the guide vanes are static guide vanes; and if the user actuator is in the automatic position, adjusting one of or both of an angle of incidence of the fan blades or a fan speed of the extractor fan, and based on the adjusted angle of incidence of the fan blades and the adjusted fan speed, adjusting an angle of a plurality of guide vanes.
18 . The method of claim 17 further wherein if the user actuator is in the automatic position, adjusting the rotational speed of the extractor fan based on a cleanliness of billets.
19 . The method of claim 18 further wherein if the user actuator is in the manual position, the manual position enables an operator to manually select the fan speed and upon selection of the fan speed, adjusting an angle of the guide vanes based on the selected fan speed and the adjusted angle of incidence of the fan blades.

Description

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention generally relates to a harvesting machine, and more particularly to a system and method for harvesting sugarcane with a sugarcane harvesting machine. BACKGROUND Agricultural equipment, such as a tractor or a self-propelled harvester, includes mechanical systems, electrical systems, hydraulic systems, and electro-hydraulic systems, configured to prepare fields for planting or to harvest crops. Harvesters of various configurations, including sugarcane harvesters, have harvesting systems of various types. Harvesting systems for a sugarcane harvester, for example, include assemblies or devices for cutting, chopping, sorting, transporting, etc., and otherwise gathering and processing sugarcane plants. Typical harvesting assemblies, in different implementations, include a base cutter assembly (or “base cutter”), feed rollers, cutting drums, stalk collectors, and extractor fans etc. To actively harvest crops, the sugarcane harvester gathers and processes material from rows of sugarcane plants. In the case of one type of sugarcane harvester, the gathered sugarcane stalks are cut into billets that move through a loading elevator to an elevator discharge, where the cut sugarcane billets are discharged to a collector, such as the sugarcane wagon. Leaves, trash, and other debris are separated from the billets and ejected onto the field. In various harvesters, harvesting assemblies are hydraulically powered by an engine-driven pump or electrically powered by a generator or other electrical power supply. The harvesting assemblies include rotating drums that move the cut stalks toward a chopper. The rotating drums are driven by a hydraulic motor or an electric motor that rotationally drives the roller to continuously move the billets to a fan for processing, and once processed, to the wagon or other container. The motors include splines that engage the roller to drive the roller about a rotational axis. The sugarcane, once cut, forms what is known as a “mat” of sugarcane. The sugarcane harvester feeds the mat to a chopping section where it is chopped, including the stalk which is cut into segments. The sugarcane harvester advances the billets along with crop residue (e.g., leafy material, such as leaves, roots, and field debris etc.) to a primary extractor that separates at least a portion of the crop residue from the billets. The primary extractor includes a fan assembly having a motor and blades to clean the sugarcane, that is, to remove the crop residue from the sugarcane billets. The removed crop residue is discharged to the ground or to a collection wagon. The primary extractor fan assembly is noted for consuming large amounts of power generated by the sugarcane harvester. For instance, currently known primary extractor fans include various inefficiencies that reduce the fans ability to efficiently use supplied power. Such inefficiencies can prevent the fan from operating efficiently under all field operating conditions. Cleaning of the sugarcane mat is highly load dependent, and is heavily affected by field conditions, such as crop density, crop moisture, and harvesting speeds, etc. These and other field conditions can affect throughput of billets through the cleaning chamber where the primary extractor fan assembly is located. Consequently, the amount of billets, as determined by the number of tons per hour, can change dramatically from field to field as well as within a field itself. Depending on the load being experienced by the primary extractor fan, the efficiency of the fan, which is dependent on fan speed and/or air flow, changes during cleaning of the incoming mat and therefore, so does the power consumption of the fan. Depending on the efficiency of the primary extractor fan assembly, some billets are discharged at the output of the primary extractor instead of being moved to an elevator for discharge into a wagon or other container to be hauled away. In different implementations, the sugarcane harvester includes a secondary extractor that separates crop residue from the billets and discharges the separated crop residue from the sugarcane harvester. The secondary extractor includes a fan assembly having a motor and blades to discharge the crop residue from the harvester to the ground or to a collection wagon. The discharged billets are typically lost and are known as “field losses.” These losses add up over the harvesting season and the amount of losses, if weighed, can be in the tons. Such losses are basically money that is left in the field. Some primary extractor fan assemblies include fixed position inlet vanes that adjust the inlet airflow directed to the fan blades of the primary extractor. The adjusted inlet airflow is intended to enhance the efficiency of billet extraction. The fixed positions of the inlet vanes, however, can produce additional inefficiencies under certain circumstances, including affecting cane mat loads, crop tonnage, and field conditi