Peanut Digger Patents (Class 171/DIG1)
  • Patent number: 5980382
    Abstract: A crop harvesting combine having a body with a feeder house at its front end. The feeder house carries a detachable header which may be wider than the body and can thus be detached when moving the combine. The feeder house is vertically moveable in an arcuate path from a header ground contacting position to an elevated position. A first thrashing cylinder is in the header and a second thrashing cylinder is at the front of the combine body. The arcuate path of the feeder house has its center approximately at the rotational axis of the second thrashing cylinder so the distance between the axes of the first and second cylinders remains approximately constant as the feeder house is moved vertically. Downstream of the thrashing cylinder are a plurality of separation cylinders, at least some of which have concaves thereunder for reorienting elongate trash before being discharged.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 9, 1999
    Assignee: Amadas Industries
    Inventors: Stanley A. Brantley, Mearl J. Jennings, K. Michael Williams, Shawn T. Lane, Michael R. Sayre, David E. Stables
  • Patent number: 5934054
    Abstract: A row crop header for cutting row crops beneath the ground surface thereby increasing the percentage of brittle and bent over row crop harvested. The inventive device includes a pair of frames defining a slot therebetween, a hydraulic motor, a pair of corrugated belts, a pair of cutting discs overlapping one another, the cutting discs include a plurality of arcuate notches, a pair of capturing discs having a plurality of resilient tines and a pair of hubs. The arcuate notches in the cutting discs prevent debris such as rocks from becoming lodged in between the cutting discs while allowing the cutting discs to cut thick stalks of the row crop. The hubs rotate near a front portion of the respective pair of frames thereby elevating the pair of frames at the desired elevation for maintaining the desired penetration into the ground of the cutting discs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 10, 1999
    Inventor: Marvin J. Landeis
  • Patent number: 5816912
    Abstract: This invention is a separator-conveyor that uses a scissors action to cut stems, roots, vines and other debris from a crop being harvested and processed. This is accomplished by providing a plurality of multi-sided rollers having sharp edges disposed alternately at an angle to adjacent rollers causing a scissors type cutting action that starts at one end of such rollers and continues to the other end. A plurality of the scissors action separator-conveyors can be used in conjunction with drying systems on a crop harvester-processor. This harvester-processor allows root crops such as peanuts to be harvested, cleaned, dried and graded in one continuous operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 1996
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1998
    Inventors: George W. Clark, Leland Hodge Kitchen, III
  • Patent number: 5468187
    Abstract: A peanut cleaner for cleaning freshly harvested peanuts in the field includes structure for initially vibrating the peanuts to loosen moist field soil, trash, fines and clinging vine segments therefrom, structure for thereafter subjecting the loosened soil, field trash, fines, vine segments and peanuts to a free fall downwardly along a substantially vertical flow path while subjecting the vertical flow path to a lateral and slightly upwardly inclined flow of at least slightly dehumidified air to thereby blow at least the lighter loosened soil, field trash, fines and vine segments laterally from the vertical flow path of peanuts and still further structure for repeatedly elevating the peanuts from a reticulated support surface therefor and allowing the peanuts to free fall, by gravity, back downwardly onto the reticulated surface to thereby loosen and remove therefrom any remaining clinging soil, field trash, fines and vine segments from the peanuts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 1994
    Date of Patent: November 21, 1995
    Inventor: Charles L. Edwards, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4934461
    Abstract: A peanut vine digging and vine inverting apparatus is disclosed consisting of a plurality of diggers in the form of modified discs; a tap root cutter for each row of diggers and means for positioning the vines on the ground with the peanuts upwardly to be sun dried.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 1989
    Date of Patent: June 19, 1990
    Inventors: Cecil J. Spears, Sr., Larry Spears, Cecil J. Spears, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4607703
    Abstract: A peanuts harvester includes a truck body, plant row dividers, stalk straighteners, peanut diggers, a plant feeder, a tilted conveyer, a horizontal conveyer, a peanut stripper and a peanut collector such that the dug peanut plants are conveyed to the horizontal conveyer where the upper stalks are held by the conveyer and the lower peanuts on roots are stripped by the peanut stripper, whereby the stripped peanuts are screened, cleaned and collected into bags for efficient integrated harvesting of peanuts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 1985
    Date of Patent: August 26, 1986
    Inventor: Kuo-Ming Wang