In our U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,849 (Pakosh) and our co-pending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 178,014 filed Aug. 13, 1980 (Pakosh), there is disclosed a combine harvester in which the threshing assembly receiving the crop is mounted substantially transversely to the longitudinal axis of the combine. In an embodiment there described, crop is introduced to the transversely located threshing assembly through a centrally located feed area where it is then split by helical guide vanes after reaching the upper portion of the cage. The guide vanes are located on the inside of the cage periphery. Thereafter, the crop is conveyed to respective ends of the assembly.
Such combines as described in the aforementioned patent and application are large capacity combines and are designed to process large volumes of crop at increased combine speeds. Accordingly, while prior combines did not require the crop to be split, such crop splitting allows an increase in processing speed particularly when the threshing assembly is itself designed for more capacity and when crop being cut is green or wet.
To accomplish crop splitting, the aforementioned helical guide vanes have been used. The use of the helical guide vanes by themselves, however, can be improved by also providing a cutting means. While previously, the crop may have been split solely by the action of the guide vanes, such splitting has resulted in some "bunching" of the crop at the central feed area under adverse crop conditions. This is so because the guide vanes on the left of the assembly act to urge the crop to the left and those on the right of the assembly act to urge the crop to the right.