Combine innards and how do they work?

[megotatractor]

Hi,
We are ignorant non -farmers watching corn harvesters in the field and wondering how in the world does it work? Does anyone know of a good animation or educational video of the inner workings of a modern combine somewhere on the internet? My search efforts have been frustrating. I did find some diagrams on the John Deere site but it was unsatisfying.

 

[Tim D]

Google "how a combine works" and you will find lots of stuff there.

 

[Sackett2]

I stand bythe "Magic Theory"

 

[Duffster]

Hi,
We are ignorant non -farmers watching corn harvesters in the field and wondering how in the world does it work? Does anyone know of a good animation or educational video of the inner workings of a modern combine somewhere on the internet? My search efforts have been frustrating. I did find some diagrams on the John Deere site but it was unsatisfying.

Swing on by my house and I will give you a first hand tour and let you drive one.

 

[Donny2stroke]

not too sure about modern combines, but im pretty sure the principle is the same. its actually quite simple, the head cuts the crop by means of the cutter bar at the front, it then gets collected by by an auger behind the cutter bar to a conveyor, the conveyor moves the crop into a thresher or threshing drum, (its just a drum that looks like a grid walk has been wrapped round end to end), as this rotates it separates the crop with its stalks, the actual crop is small enough to fall through the threshing drum into a collector bin. the stalks are then moved onto a walker bed. (this is just a bunch of channels which oscilate on a crank effectively "walking the crop" along, this process is intended to shake off any remaining crop that the threshing drum didnt get. once it reaches the end of the walkers it simply thrown out the back of the combine. once the bin is full another auger is activated to empty the tanks (thats why you have the tractors with trailers driving up beside them so they dont wast time unloading all the time) this is basically what happens.

 

[art]

Most is right but the stalks don't go through the combine other then on oats and wheat or small grains.

With corn the ear is removed from the stalk and it goes through the combine to remove the kernals and the ear get's blown out the back.

 

[Donny2stroke]

good point art, on the corn harvesters you have a different head. since corn is planted in rows the special head takes advantage of this and pulls the stock through grooves which are large enough for the stalk but too small for the ear, this effectively separates the two so that the combine needs only to process the ear

 

[JasG]

I don't think a rotor combine has walker beds. A rotor combine uses a rotor that is similar to an auger to pull the crop through and rub the grain off against a screen/concave. The grain falls through the screen and the waste, be it straw or cobs and husks keep going through and are dropped out the back.

If you go to Deere.com and look up combines they have interactive pictuure you can click on and it will show you the inside and tell what it does. The rotor combine is the STS, and they still have the older style with the walker beds called the T series.


T Series


STS Series