US1614921A - Corn sheller - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 18 1927. 1,614,921

A. E. GILMAN coRN SHELLER Filed Jan. 19, 1924 '2 snazia-shui 1 Patented Jan. 18, 1927.

UNITED STATES PAT'ENT OFFICE` ALBERT E. G'ILMAN, OF OTTAWA, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO KING & HAM'ILTON COM PANY, or OTTAWA, ILLINoIs,

A CORPORATION .OF ILLINOIS.

CORJN SHELLER.

Application led January Is, 1924. serial Na. 687,193.

My inVention is concerned with corn shellers, and I have shown my improvements as applied to the Ottawa77 sheller, which ls shown in the patent to Hall, Reissue No; 13,418, dated May 14, 1912. In the operation of said sheller I have found that the husks were not sufl'iciently separated from the cobs, a large proporton thereof being discharged With the cobs, and in order to get a more perfect separation, I have made the changes in the device which changes constitute this invention.

I anneX hereto two sheets of drawings, in which the same reference characters are used to desgnate identical parts in all the figures, of which,--

Fig. l is a side elevation of the machine, but with a portion thereof in section on the line 1 1 of Fig. 2, and With-some of the casing removed;

Fig. 2 is a Vertical section on an enlarged scale, on the line 2- 2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a central, Vertical section through the discharging end of the shelling cylinder and the husk pipe; and

Fig. 4 is a Vertical section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

I have, for convenience, shown my invention as applied to the well known `Ottawa sheller, although it will be apparent thatv it might be applied to other differently arranged shellers. As shown, the main elements of this sheller are the concave 10, into which the ears of corn are delivered to be f operated upon by the shelling cylinder 11,

which is rigidly secured on the central shaft 12 extending lengthwise of the machine and 'journaled in suita'ble bearings, and to which power may be applied in any suitable manner, as by a belt wheel (not shown) on it adjacentthe belt pulley 13. A blast or winnower fan 14 driven by aV suitablebelt land pulley connections (not shown) from the wheel 13 is secured upon the rear ofv the sheller and mounted in a suitable casing 15 so as to direct a blast of air through the exit aperture lragainst the under side of the screen 17, Which is slidably mount'ed by means of ears 18 on bearing rod 19, and which is reciprocated by means of the arm 20 mounted upon the Vertical crank-shaft 21 `iournaled in suitable bearing's and driven by means of the bevel gear 22 from the miter gear 23 secured on the end of the shaft 12. r1`he fan 14 is,-of course, rotated in the proper direction by the above-mentioned connections from the driVing shaft 12. In additionto the supporting ears 18, the screen 17 is also supported by the Spring arms 25 in the customary manner. A suction or eX- haust fan 26 is mounted in the suction fan casing 27 upon the shaft`28, which is rotated at the proper rate'ofV speed bymeansof the beltz pulley 29, belt 30 and belt wheel 31 secured upon the shaft 32 driven by means of suitable bevel gearing (not shown) from theupper end of the crank-shaft 21. i

The main screen 17 and the associated auxiliary screens may be of any desred construction so that they separate the silks and chaif from the grains of corn falling through the screen as the same is reciprocated. EX- tending from the side of the casing and below the outer edges of the screen 17 is a hood 48a which is provided to insure the updraft indicated by the arrows. As the silks and fine husks pass'off of the wires 43, shown as forming a part of the auXiliary screen mechanism, they are met by the strong current of air, being drawn up through the apertures in the sieves by means of the sucton fan 26 so vthat they are carried up ovel the concave, which is covered by the semicylindrical shell 45, so that the silks and fine husks pass freely thereoVer and through the large central aperture 46 leading to the fan casing 27, from which they are discharged through the eXit-'aperture 47 to Whatever pipe 'or' Other means is usedfor carrying thein off. It will of course be understood that between the top of the shell and the upper portion of the casing, Which includes what I call-the wind Chest 48, is formed a wind passage leading fromthe winnower fan and screen to the exhaust fan, so that the air currents through the machine are concentrated and controlled. This upper portion 48, constituting' the wind chest, is mperforate except for the opening 46 to thefan casing and for the opening thereinto at 49 .(see Fig. 2) of the custolnary suction trunk 50 eXtending to and opening over thereceiving end of the customary cob conveyor (not shown) so that the suction fan will tend to draw to it through the trunk 50 any loose husks, silks, etc., which may be discharged with the cobs from the shelling eylnder.

The shelling cylinder has at its upper rear endV an opening 51 through Which the cobs are ejccted from the concave, their passage being facilitated by the pair of disks 52, which have ribs 53 on their adjacent faces and are shaped 'so as to carry the cobs between the disks, which are secured on the shaft 21, and pass them to the aperture 54 in the bot-tom of the trunk or pipe 50.

The structure thus far described constitutes the prior art, and in the use of this machine, it has been found that far too much of the air sucked in by the fan 26 is drawn up over the top 45 of the concave, and much too little is drawn through the suction trunk or pipe 50. In order to remedy this difiiculty, I have placed in the wind chest 48 a Vertical partition 55, eX- tending down to the horizontal partition 56, eXtending across the wind chest 4:8, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1, so that the partitions 55 and 56 form a continuation, as it were, of the trunk or pipe 50, and the partition 56, passing entirely across the inlet 46, determines what portion of the suction of the fall 4:6 shall be applied to the passage of the air through the trunk 50, and what portion shall be applied to the drawing -up of the air through the shaking screen. As illustrated, nearly one half of the suction is applied to the trunk 50, and as its cross-sectional area is so much smaller than that of the passage through which the rest of the air reaching the fan is drawn, the draft through the t-runk is relatively much lnore powerful, with the result that a relatively powerful draft enters through the aperture 24, lifting the lighter husks from the cobs with which they are mixed, and insuring their practically colnplete separation.

Another feature of my invention consists in the changing of the structure of the lower end of the suction trunk or pipe 50, and, as will be seen in the aforesaid Hall reissue Patent No. 13,418, the lower end of the trunk 50 against which the husks are drawn by suction is Vertical, so that there eXists a tendency for the husks to be stopped by the cobs passing out therewith and to drop down through the aperture 54 with the cobs. In my improved construction, it will be noted that the trunk 50 is extended farther beyond the wheel 31, and the end portion 57, which was Vertical in the old construction, has now been inclined at an acute angle to the horizontal, so that the husks passing horizontally to said end strike, not a Vertical wall, as before, but an inclined surface up which they readily slide wit-ll practically Ilo friction as they are drawn upward by the more powerful suction, instead of being held by the cobs against the Vertical wall by the pressure of the cobs against them so that they fall with the cobs, as in the old construction.

lVhile I have shown and described my invention as embodied in the form which I at present consider best adapted to carry Out its purposes, it will be understood that it is capable of modiications, and that I do not desire to be limited in the interpretation of the following clailns except as may be necessitated by the state of the prior art.

WVhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. In a corn sheller, the combination with a shelling concave, and a cylinder co-operat ing therewith, of a screen beneath said concave, an outlet for the cobs and husks froln the discharge end of the concave, a suction fan and a fan casing adapted to draw air up through the screen into the fan casing and to eXpel it therefrom, a husk pipe eX- tending from the cob outlet to the inlet of the fan casing, and means for dividing in a desired ratio the suction of the fan that is applied to the husk pipe and to the screen.

2. In a corn sheller, the combination with a shelling concare, and a cylinder co-operating therewith, of a screen beneath said concave, an outlet for the cobs and husks from the discharge end of the concave, a suction fan and a fan casing adapted to draw air up through the screen into the fan casing and to eXpel it therefrom, a husl; pipe eX- tending froln the cob outlet to the inlet of the fan casing, and means for dividing in a desired ratio the suction of the fan that is applied to the husk pipe and to the screen, said means consisting of an extension of said pipe over the inlet of the fan casing so that a definite proportion of the air entering the fan casing must be drawn from the husk pipe.

3. In a corn sheller, the combination With a shelling concave and a cylinder cO-operating therewith, of a screen beneath said collcave, an outlet for the cobs and husks froln the discharge end of the concave, a suction fan and a fall casing adapted to draw air up through the screen into the fan casing and to expel it therefrom, a Wind chest above the concave having at one side thereof an inlet to the fan casing, a husk pipe extending from the outlet to the Wind chest adjacent the fan-casing inlet, an extension of said pipe within the wind chest being open over the inlet of the fan casing and serving to divide said Opening so that a. definite propol't-ion of the air entering the casing must be drawn from the husk pipe.

4. In a corn sheller, the combination with a shelling concave and a cylinder co-operating therewith, of a screen beneath said con- Cave, an outlet for the cobs and husks from the discharge end of the concave, a suction fan and a fan casing adapted to draw air into the fan casing and to eXpel it therefrom, a husk pipe extending from the outlet to the inlet of the fan casing, said husk pipe being provided near its'substantially horizontal receiving end With a doWnWardly opening` cob outlet and having its bottom beyond said cob outlet inclined upWardly at an acute angle, for the purpose described.

5. In a corn sheller, the combination With a shelling concave and a cylinder co-operating thereWith, of a screen beneath said concave, an outlet for the cobs and husks from the discharge end of the concave, a suction fan and a fan casing adapted to draw air into the fan casing` and to eXpel it therefrom, a husk pipe extending from the outlet to the inlet of the fan casing, said husk pipe being; provided near its substantially horizontal receiving end With a doWnWardly opening cob outlet and having its bottoln beyond said cob outlet inclined upWardly at an acute angle, and means for dividing` in a desired ratio the suction of the fan that is applied to the husk pipe and to 'the screen so that the draft through the husk pipe is relatively more powerful than that through the screen.

6. In a corn sheller, the combination With a shelling concave and a cylinder co-Operating thereWith, of a screen beneath said concave, an outlet for the cobs and husks from the discharge end of the concave, a suction fan and a fan casing adapted to VdraW air into the fan casing and to eXpel it 'therefrom, a huek pipe extending:Y from the outlet to the inlet of the fan casing, Said husk pipe being:` provided near its substantially hori- Zontal receiving` end With a doWnWardly opening cob outlet and having its bottom beyond said cob outlet inclined upWardly at an acute angle, and means for dividing in a desired ratio the suction of the fan that is applied to the husk pipe and to the Screen so that the draft through the husk pipe is relativeltY more powerful than that through the screen, said means consisting of an eX- tension of said pipe over the inlet of the fan casing so that a definite proportion of theair entering' the fan casing must be drawn from the husk pipe.

'7. In a corn sheller, the combination With a shelling concave and a cylinder co-operating thereWith, of a screen beneath said concave, an Outlet for the cobs and husks from the discharge end of the concave, a suction fan and a fan casinT adapted to draWv air into the fan casing and eXpel it therefrom, a Wind chest above the concave having at one side thereof an inlet to the fan casing, a husk pipe extending from the outlet to the Wind chest adjacent the fan-casing inlet, an extension of said pipe Within the Wind chestbeing open Over the inlet of the fan casing and serving` to divide said opening so that a definite proportion of the air entering the casing may be drawn from the husk pipe making` the .draft through the husk pipe relatively more powerful than that through the screen, said husk pipe also being provided near its substantially horizontal receiving end With a doWnWardly opening cob outlet and having` its bottom beyond said cob outlet inclined upwardiy at an acute angle, for the purpose described.

8. In a corn sheller, the combination With a suction fan casing and a suction fan therein, of a cob discharge chute, a housing` adjacent the entrance to the suction fan casing, a husk pipe leading from the outlet of the cob discharge chute to the housing, and a passage formed in the casing and connected at one end to the husk pipe and having its other end opening into a fractional portion onlyV of the entrance to the suction fan casing'.

9. In a corn Sheller, the combination With a suction fan casing and a suction fan therein, of a cob discllarge chute, a housing adjacent 'the entrance to the suction fan casing, a shaft for the suction fan eXtending through the housing, a husk pipe leading from the outlet of the cob discharge chute to the housing, and a passage fornled in the casing and connected at one end to the husk pipe and having its other end opening into a fractional portion only of the entrance to the suction fan casing, said passage having its bottom adjacent said shaft.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 16th day of January, 1924.

ALBERT E. GILMAN.

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