wheat combine?

Question

does anyone know how a wheat combine works? i checked on howstuffworks.com but there was no results at all, just a bunch of recipe stuff

Answer 1

Check under combine harvester, or grain header.

Basically, you have two rows of 'teeth' mounted horizontally on the front of the header. As the header moves through the crop the top and bottom rows move separately so you have many feet of separate 'scissors'. The wheat heads etc are chopped of, collected by the header, the wheat is thrashed out in the header and the trash caste out. The wheat is them stored in the header and off loaded when the machine is full.

Answer 2

I found it on wikipedia.com. Search for Combine.

Combines are equipped with removable heads (called headers) that are designed for particular crops. The standard head, sometimes called a grain platform (or platform header), is equipped with a sickle bar mower, and features a revolving reel with metal or plastic teeth to cause the cut crop to fall into the head. A cross auger then pulls the crop into the throat. The grain platform is used for many crops, including grain, legumes, and many seed crops.

Wheat heads are similar except that the reel is not equipped with teeth. Some wheat heads, called "draper" heads, use a fabric or rubber apron instead of a cross auger. Draper heads keep the crop orientation uniform, feeding grain headfirst into the throat, which allows slightly more efficient threshing. On many farms, platform headers are used to cut wheat, instead of separate wheat headers, so as to reduce overall costs.

Dummy heads or pick-up headers feature spring-tined pickups, usually attached to a heavy rubber belt. They are used for crops that have already been cut and placed in windrows or swaths. This is particularly useful in northern climates such as western Canada where swathing kills weeds resulting in a faster dry down.

While a grain platform can be used for corn, a specialized corn head is ordinarily used instead. The corn head is equipped with snap rolls that strip the stalk and leaf away from the ear, so that only the ear (and husk) enter the throat. This improves efficiency dramatically since so much less material must go through the cylinder. The corn head can be recognized by the presence of points between each row.

Occasionally rowcrop heads are seen that function like a grain platform, but have points between rows like a corn head. These are used to reduce the amount of weed seed picked up when harvesting small grains.

Self propelled Gleaner combines could be fitted with special tracks instead of tires to assist in harvesting rice. Some combines, particularly pull type, have tires with a diamond tread which prevents sinking in mud.