Harvesters are used in the agricultural industry to harvest a variety of crops. Headers for harvesters generally use belts on rollers to move the harvested crops from lateral areas of the header to a central area for processing. As headers continue to get larger, the belts become longer. Longer belts can be expensive and can be difficult to change when a maintenance problem occurs with the belt. Because headers may need to be taken apart for shipping, adjacently positioned splits belts are generally used to break down the overall belt distance into two or more separate belt and roller assemblies. Such assemblies use rollers of the same diameter, resulting in a gap between the rollers through which crop can be lost during harvesting.
For example, FIG. 1 shows a front view of a traditional harvester 10. The harvester 10 includes a header 12. The header 12 can be in the form of a non-pivoting structure or can include a central section 14 with right and left wings 16, 18 capable of pivoting relative to the central section 14 to accommodate uneven terrain. A lateral plane 20 extends through the header 12 and can generally be substantially perpendicular to the ground 22 during normal use. The header 12 includes one or more augers 24 disposed behind the central section 14 and the right and left wings 16, 18 to assist in guiding crop from the header 12 into a processing system 26 within the harvester 10. The central section 14 and the right and left wings 16, 18 include reels 19.
FIGS. 2 and 3 show perspective and detailed views of the central section 14 and the left wing 18 of the header 12. Although discussed with respect to the left wing 18, it should be understood that the right wing 16 has a similar structure and function. The header 12 includes a draper belt system 28 for transferring harvested crop from the left wing 18 to the central section 14 such that the central section 14 can introduce the crop into the processing system 26. The draper belt system 28 includes a first draper belt assembly 30 at the left wing 18 and a second draper belt assembly 32 at the central section 14 disposed adjacent to the first draper belt assembly 30.
The first draper belt assembly 30 includes a first roller 34, a second roller 36, and a belt 38 looped around the first and second rollers 34, 36. The second draper belt assembly 32 includes a third roller 40, a fourth roller 42, and a belt 44 looped around the third and fourth rollers 40, 42. As the belt 38 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction, crop collected on the belt 38 is transferred from the left wing 18 to the belt 44 of the central section 14.
As shown in the detailed view of FIG. 3, the first roller 34 defines a diameter 46 dimensioned the same as a diameter 48 of the third roller 40. The first roller 34 spins about a central longitudinal axis 50 and the second roller 40 spins about a central longitudinal axis 52, both of which are aligned relative to each other along the same lateral plane 54. The first and third rollers 34, 40 are spaced from each other to form a gap 56 in order to provide clearance for pivoting the left wing 18 relative to the central section 14 at a hinge 58. The first and third rollers 34, 40 are also spaced from each other to provide clearance for cleats 60, 62 extending from the outer surfaces of the belts 38, 44 that assist in gripping and transferring the harvested crop along the belts 38, 44.
Due to the same diameters 46, 48 of the rollers 34, 40 and the alignment along the lateral plane 54, the size of the gap 56 results in loss of a portion of the harvested crop through the gap 56 during transfer of the crop from the left wing 18 to the central section 14. A similar loss in crop occurs during transfer of the crop from the right wing 16 to the central section 14. Therefore, a significant amount of crop that can be lost over time due to the large gaps 56 between the belts 38, 44.