MAEHWERKHASPEL MIT ZINKENSTEUERUNG

In a mower-conditioner having a header with a sickle bar transversely mounted therein for cutting a swath of crop material of given width, a pair of transversely disposed conditioning rolls spaced rearwardly of said sickle bar and of less width than said sickle bar, a converging reel assembly mounted transversely above said sickle bar and adapted to engage a swath of crop material corresponding to the width of said sickle bar and converge that crop material into a narrower swath where the crop material may be readily received by said conditioning rolls. The converging reel assembly of the present invention generally comprises a pair of reel sections, each reel section rotatively mounted about one side of a transverse axis within said header and including outer and inner laterally spaced spiders with each spider having a plurality of radially extending spider arms. Each spider arm is pivotally mounted for movement in the direction of said transverse reel assembly axis. Corresponding spider arms of each reel section are interconnected by a tine bar with the tine bar being rotatively mounted therebetween and including a series of tines extending therefrom. A cam structure is fixedly disposed adjacent each outer spider and includes a cam track curved inwardly about the rear portion thereof adjacent said conditioning rolls. Each outer spider arm includes a cam following mechanism fixed thereto and confined within said cam track for moving the spider arms thereof back and forth in the direction of the transverse reel assembly axis as the reel assembly is rotated. A linkage structure responsive to the back and forth movement of the spider arms is connected to said tine bars and is operative to rotate the tine bars and consequently vary the attitude of the tines extending therefrom in response to the back and forth movement of selected spider arms.