Deere & Company
Harvester cutterbar knife drive with cylindrical cam or self reversing lead screw mechanism

Abstract:

A cutting assembly for an agricultural harvesting head is provided. The cutting assembly includes a first cutterbar, a second cutterbar, and a knife drive gearbox configured to drive linear reciprocating motion of the first cutterbar and the second cutterbar. The gearbox includes a cam shaft extending along a rotational axis from a first end to a second end. The cam shaft includes a first cam follower groove located near the first end and a second cam follower groove located near the second end. The gearbox further includes a drive mechanism, a first output shaft coupled to a first cam follower that travels in the first cam follower groove, and a second output shaft coupled to a second cam follower that travels in the second cam follower groove. The first output shaft is coupled to the first cutterbar and the second output shaft is coupled to the second cutterbar.