DEVICE FOR MEASURING AND/OR CHECKING THE DISTANCE BETWEEN A SHEARBAR AND A CHOPPING KNIFE

A crop chopping arrangement for a forage harvester includes a shearbar mounted adjacent a path swept by chopping knives of a chopper drum and being selectively adjustable toward and away from said path so as to adjust the distance between the shearbar and knives as they pass by the shearbar. An arrangement for measuring and/or checking the distance between the shearbar and the knives includes a vibration sensor located to measure the mechanical vibrations in the shearbar produced by the moving knives, and an electronic evaluation circuit . The evaluation circuit is operable for performing a frequency analysis of the signal provided by the vibration sensor so as to derive information indicative of t he distance between the shearbar and knives.