CA1185866A - Straw chopper and spreader assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

"STRAW CHOPPER AND SPREADER ASSEMBLY"
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
A straw chopper and spreader assembly for receiv-ing straw from a threshing machine, has a casing enclosing a pair of contra-rotatable flail assemblies. The flails are mounted in different horizontal planes and have blades which overlap so as to shear and chop the straw. At the rear of the casing is a rear outlet defined between a rear skirt and a bottom extension of the casing. The rear skirt is adjustable so as to enlarge or reduce the size of the rear outlet. In addition to discharge through the rear outlet, chopped straw is also discharged laterally through side chutes which have removable end portions so that discharge selectively may be outwardly and upwardly or outwardly and downwardly. Chaff spreading discs are mounted below the assembly and rotates horizontally. These receive chaff from the threshing combine via a reciprocating feed tray secured to and extending rearwardly from the reciprocal sieves and extend rearwardly from the sieve thereby deposit-ing chaff onto the discs to be spread outwardly with chopped straw. A beater assembly rotates just above and behind the discharge of the straw walker which, together with a de-flector panel, forces the straw downwardly into the flail assemblies.

Description

`,:. i "STRAW CHOPPER AND SPREADER ASSEMBLY"
BACKGROUND OF TIE INVENTION
This invention relates to new and useful improve-mints in straw choppers and spreaders including means to collect and spread chaff, and is adapted to be secured under the rear, substantially horizontal, discharge area of a threshing machine such as a combine or the like.
An efficient chopper and spreader device should satisfy several criteria. Firstly, of course, it should chop the straw received from the straw walkers, readily and easily and distribute same behind and to the sides of tune machine with little chance of jamming or clogging occurring.
In other words the choppers or flails should chop and disk tribute the straw in such a way that encountering a tempo aridly heavy stand will not cause the straw to back up in the mischarge area.
Secondly, it is preferable that it should also collect and distribute the chaff rather than just dump it in the swath immediately behind the discharge.
I It is also desirable that some control be pro-voided for controlling tune area of distribution of the chop-pod straw both rearwardly and sideways.
A further desirable feature is the provision of means whereby, if desired, the straw chopper can be made inoperative and adjusted readily so that the straw can be dumped from the discharge of the combine into a window I-, immediately there behind in the usual manner without the straw being chopped.
Conventional straw chopping devices merely no-chive the straw which is then chopped and spread with little control being provided. An example is shown in United States patent 4,292,795.
The present device overcomes disadvantages in-hornet with conventional straw chopping and spreading de-vices and satisfies the above mentioned enumerated require-mints in a satisfactory manner.
In accordance with the invention there is pro-voided a straw chopper and spreader assembly for connection to a rear discharge area of a threshing machine of the type which moves forwardly across a field to be harvested and includes means for feeding harvested straw to said discharge area, the assembly comprising a casing, means for mounting the casing adjacent to the rear discharge area, a pair of contra-rotating flail assemblies each have in a plurality of blades, means mounting each flail asset-I by in said casing for rotation about a substantially Yen-local axis in a substantially horizontal plane, said flail mounting means being arranged such that the blades of one overlap and pass vertically above the other in an area between the axes and such that the blades pass a line joining the axes from the forward side thereof to a rear-ward side thereof in phase so as to provide a shearing action between the blades in the area without any inter-vexing stationary shearing surfaces, said casing mounting means being arranged such that straw from said discharge area enters the area between said flail assemblies for-warmly of said line and is discharged from said area rear-warmly of said line and means for directing the discharge owe chopped straw from said flail assemblies rearwardly and to each side of said assembly, force on said straw disk charge from said casing being provided solely by said flail assemblies.
In accordance with another aspect of the invent lion there is provided a straw chopper and spreader assume-lye for connection to a rear discharge area of a threshing machine of the type which moves forwardly across a field to be harvested and includes means for feeding harvested straw to the discharge area, the said assembly comprising a casing, means for mounting the casing adjacent the rear discharge area for receiving straw therefrom, first and second flail means in the casing for receiving straw and I for chopping same, each flail means being arranged for rotation about a substantially vertical axis in a sub Stan-tidally horizontal plane to discharge said chopped straw, and means for directing the discharge of chopped straw from said casing in a direction outwardly and downwardly of the rear discharge area of said threshing machine to the sides and rear of the machine and including adjustable -PA-chute means positioned only at the sides for redirecting the movement of the chopped straw at the sides from said downward and outward direction to an upwardly and outward-lye direction.
In accordance with a yet further aspect of the invention there is provided a chaff spreading apparatus for attachment to a combine harvester comprising support means arranged for attachment to the combine at a craft discharge outlet thereof, a pair of blade assemblies means mounting each assembly on the support means for no-station about a substantially vertical axis in a sub Stan-tidally horizontal plane such that the axes are in use spaced transversely of the combine with the blade asset-bites arranged side by side and such that the blade asset-bites receive chaff discharged from said outlet and a guide wall mounted on the support so as to lie transverse-lye of the combine at a position to receive and direct at least some of the chaff from said blade assemblies outward-lye to respective sides of the combine.
Another advantage of the invention is that it is designed to be secured by mounting brackets, to the disk charge area of varying makes of harvester combine machines.
A yet further advantage of the invention is to provide a device of the character here within described which, if desired, can readily be inactivated so that the straw and chaff can be deposited from the discharge area ~8~6~

of the combine harvester, in a swath, in the usual manner.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a device of the character here within described which is simple in construction, economical in operation and otherwise well suited to tune purpose for which it is de-signed.
With the foregoing in view, and other advantages as will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates as this specification proceeds, the invention is herein described by reference to the accompany-in drawings forming a part hereof, which includes a de-ascription of the best mode known to the applicant and of the preferred typical embodiment of the principles ox the present invention, in which:
DESCRIPTION OF THE RINKS
Figure 1 is an isometric view, partially broken away, of the straw chopper secured to the rear end of a harvester combine.
Figure 2 is an isometric view of the beater asset-by per so.
Figure 3 is a side elevation of Figure 1 but with the beater assembly removed.
Figure is a fragmentary end elevation showing one method of attachment of the straw chopper and spreader to the side of the discharge area of a harvester combine.
Figure 5 is a top plan view of Figure 1, par-tidally broken away, and with the beater assembly removed for clarity.
Figure 6 is a fragmentary rear elevation sub Stan-j --~lB~Ç;6 tidally along the line 6-6 of Figure 5.
Figure 7 is an isometric view of part of the straw chopper assembly showing the winch assembly for the front pan.
Figure 8 is an enlarged fragmentary end view of the winch spindle showing one method of attaching tune dead end of the cable.
inure 9 is a front elevation of the skirt per so situated at the rear end of the assembly.
In the drawings like characters of reference in-dilate corresponding parts in the different figures.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
__ Proceeding therefore to describe the invention in detail, reference should first be made to Figures 1 and 3 in which 10 illustrates the lower side of the discharge area at the rear of the combine, the side of which is in-dilated by reference character if. Within the side if, is shown the rear end of the conventional sieve component 12 above which is situated the conventional straw walkers (not I illustrated) which deposits the straw over and downwardly in the direction of arrow 13, into the straw chopper and spreader assembly collectively designated 14 and which is secured adjacent the rear of the discharge area of the come brine.
The assembly 14 is enclosed within a casing got-electively designated 15 including side plates 16, front plate Lo, a rear casing area 18 and base 19 forming a box-in secured to tune side plates 20 of the discharge area by means of braclcets 21 secured by bolts 22 and having a con-figuration similar to that shown in Figure 4. This attach-mint construction may vary depending upon the combine to which it is attached.
Figures 1 and 5 show a pair of flail assemblies 23 in side by side relationship each consisting of four blade assemblies 24 having pivotal flails 25 secured to and extending radially therefrom and mounted upon vertical spindles 26 extending downwardly from gear boxes 27 which in turn are driven by cross shaft 28 from pulley 29 and con-netted to a source of power from the combine (not illustrate Ed via belt AYE (see Figure 1).
The outer ends of the cross shaft 28 are enclosed within guard and lifting handle assemblies 30 as clearly illustrated in Figures 3 and 5.
The gear boxes ensure that the flail assemblies rotate in the direction of arrows 31 thus ensuring that all I straw dumped downwardly through the open upper side of the spreader and chopper casing 15, pass through the areas be-tweet the overlapping flails, the ends of which overlap as clearly shown. In this connection, the horizontal planes of rotation of the two flails are slightly misaligned so that there is no chance of interception one by the other yet at the same time the overlapping relationship is such ~18~

that a shearing action is provided thus giving a good chop-ping action to the straw passing downwardly through the flails. The lower ends of the spindles 26 are supported within bearings 32 within the lower wall 15 of the casing (see Figure 3).
A vertically situated adjustable skirt 34 is situated at the rear of the casing, said skirt having horn-zontal outer portions 35 and inwardly and forwardly curved portions 36 which terminate in a common apex 37 when view-Ed in plan as shown in Figure 5 and the curvature of the portions 36 is similar to the swept curvature pain of the tips 38 of the flail assemblies as shown in dotted line in Figure 5 and these tips just clear this curved area once again ensuring that the straw is caught by the flails prior to being expelled outwardly after chopping. The skirt is adjustable vertically through means such as vertical slots AYE shown in Figure 9 and bolts (not illustrated) passing there through securing the skirt to the rear of the casing and it will be observed that the lower edges 39 of the I slcirt inclines upwardly and outwardly from the aforemention-Ed apex 37. Reference to Figure 3 will show that this skirt is adjLIstable so that the lower edges thereof are ad-just able from a position shown in phantom in Figure 3 to a position shown in full line thus varying the distance from the lower edge 39 and an extension lea of the base of the casing. This, together with the sloping configuration of ~51!~

tune edges 39, controls the volume of cropped straw being spread rearwardly and the volume of the remainder of the straw which is ejected sideways through the two side chutes collectively designated 40. These chutes 40 (shown in rear elevation in Figure 6) include downwardly and outwardly ox-tending upper plates or walls 41, lower plates 42 which ox-tend downwardly, then horizontally and then upwardly as shown at 43, with this outer portion 43 inclining upwardly beyond the outer edge 45 of the upper wall 41 thus directing the chopped straw being discharged there through, upwardly and outwardly to each side of the combine. The bottom or lower wall 42 can be removed, if so desired, so that the chopped straw being ejected is directed outwardly and down-warmly by the upper wall 41 end thus terminates closer to the sides of the combine so that the vertical positioning of the skirt together with the use of the lower wall 42 of the chutes give considerable control to the distribution of the chopped straw depending upon the desires of the opera-ion, together with the density of the straw passing through the combine.
The sieves 12 reciprocate in the direction of double headed arrow 44 (see Figure 3) and a transversely eon-rugated chaff conveying tray AYE is pivotal secured by the upper end thereof across the rear end of the sieves by means of pivot 46. This tray, which spans the discharge area, in-dines rearwardly and downwardly and is supported at the 1~3S866 g lower end thereof by means of a pivoted hanger bracket 46' at each side thereof pivoted by the lower end to the lower end of the tray by means of pivot pins 47 and by the upper end thereof to the rear 14 of the casing lo by means of pivot pins 48.
A pair of chaff spreading discs collectively de-signaled 49 are detachably secured to the lower ends of spindles 50 supported in bearings 51 and extending down-warmly below the casing 14 and just forwardly of the flails lo 23. These discs include a disc-like face 52 and vertical-lye situated spreader bars or blades 53 extending radially from the center thereof and the lower end 54 of the tray 45, dumps the chaff onto the discs just forwardly of the spindles 50. A pulley 55 is provided on the lower end of the shafts 26 and a corresponding pulley 56, of a slightly larger diameter, is secured to the shafts 50 in horizontal align-tent with pulleys 55 and a V-belt shown schematically by reference character 57 (see Figure 5) extends around t7nese pulleys and supplies rotational drive to the spreader disc I assemblies 49 so that the ctlaff is distributed by these discs as Lo is clumped from the reciprocating try, onto the upper surfaces of the discs.
Adjustable shrouds or deflectors 49B may be situate Ed rearwardly of these discs supported from the casing 15.
These angle rearwardly from the center and assist in deflect-in the chaff outwardly.

Occasionally, it may be desirable to lay the swath of straw (together with the chaff) in the conventional manner without chopping same so that it may be picked up and used for other purposes, same being picked up by conventional means at a later time.
Uncier these circumstances, the drive to the flails is disconnected, the chaff spreading discs are retnoved from the spindles 50 and the lower front side portion or pan of the casing shown in phantom and indicated by refer-once character 58, is unhitched from the main casing 14 and is hinged rearwardly around pivot point 59 to take up the position shown in phantom and to be detachably held in this position by means of a detachable link 60. The hinged port lion or pan includes the base lea, side portions AYE, and front wall portions AYE. This allows the straw to be dump-Ed straight through the casing 15 and onto the ground without being chopped by the flails.
While this hinging of the pan 58 may be undertaken manually, Figures 7 end 8 show the preferred embodiment which includes a winch assembly collectively designated 61.
The front pan portion 58, is hinged around the pivot point 59 herein before described and the winch asset-by 61 is secured to tune front wall AYE of tune pan portion 58, being mounted upon a pair of brackets 62 which extend forwardly from the front wall AYE adjacent the other side thereof. These brackets are aperture and receive a winch ~5~36~

shaft 63 and support same for rotation. However it will be noted that this shaft, together with a handle 64 on one end thereof, relay be end snifter in the direction of arrow 65 and against pressure of a spring 66 surrounding the shaft and reacting between one bracket 62 and an adjustable spring tension collar acquired to the shaft. A winch stop 67 extends from a boss or collar 68 secured to the shaft adja-cent the other bracket 62 and normally engages the front of the bracket and prevents rotation of the shaft by means of handle 64 as clearly shown in Figure 7.
However when it is desired to rotate the shaft 63 by means of the handle 64, the shaft is moved in the direct lion of arrow 65 against pressure of spring 66 thus clear-in the stop 67 from the brackets 62 and permitting rota-lion of the shaft. When the shaft is released, tune spring 66 returns the shaft to the position shown in Figure 7 so that the stop 67 engages the bracket 62.
A winch cable 69 engages around the portions of the shan't outboard of brackets 62 and this cable is secured I by the dead or inner end thereof to the snafu Figure 8 shows one method of such Sacramento in which the tail end or dead end portion engages through an aperture 70 drilled diametrically through the shaft, wraps around the snail as indicate by reference character AYE and then passes upward-lye through the shaft through the aperture 70 terminating in the end portion 69B. This anchors the cable to the shaft.

I

The cable is wound around the end portions of the shaft as clearly shown and the free end 69C is provided with a loop (not illustrated) which is detachably securable over a pin 71 extending upon each side of the side walls 16 of the fixed portion of the casing and adjacent the upper front corners thereof as clearly shown in Figure 7. Hairpin clips 72 detachably engaged within the ends of pins 71 to retain the loops on the pins and to permit removal of these loops as will hereinafter be described.
lo When in the position shown in Figure 7, the pan portion 58 is normally held in this position by nut and bolt assemblies 73 winch pass through the sides 16 of the fixed portion and through the sides AYE of the pan portion.
However when it is desired to move the pan portion from the position shown in Figure 7 to the rearwardly hinged position, shown port way in phantom in Figure 3, then these nut and bolt assemblies 73 are removed. The winch shalt 63 is end snifter in the direction of arrow 65 thus disengaging the catch or latch 67 from the adjacent brag-I kit 62. The winch shaft is then rotated by means of Handel against the weight of tune pan portion 58 thus unwinding tune cables which support the front of the pan trough the winch shaft. The weight of true pan moves it to the sub Stan-Shelley vertical position (not illustrated in these drawings) whereupon the looped ends of tune cable portions 69C are no-moved from the pins 71 and reattached to similar pins I

~L858~;6 (see Figure 3) extending upon each side of the rear of the fixed portion of the casing. Once again the shaft is end shifted to disengage the latch 67 and rotation of the shaft continues by means of handle 64 thus winding the cables upon the shaft and swinging the pan portion 58 rearwardly clear of the discharge area.
To reconvert the assembly, the procedure is no-versed bringing the pan up to the position shown in Figure 7 whereupon bolts 73 are reinserted and of course the drive reconnected to the flail assemblies together with the chaff spreading discs.
Reference to Figures l and 2 show a beater asset-by collectively designated 75 which assists in urging the straw from the discharge area, into the flail assemblies in conjunction with a deflector collectively designated 76.
The beater assembly is situated transversely across the discharge area below the discharge of the straw walkers and above the entrance to the casing above the front portions of the flail assemblies. It consists of a shaft 77 supported within bearings 78 which in turn are supported in brackets 79 secured to or forming part of the brackets 21 attaching the assembly to the discharge area.
A plurality of transversely situated, beater blades 80 extend radially from the shaft 77 and these blades or bats are angulated transversely as indicated by reference character 81 with the trailing edges 82 being angulated for stiffness.
A pulley 83 is secured to one end of shaft 77 and V belt 84 extends around this pulley and forwardly to the spreader drive (not illustrated) on the harvester or come brine.
The beater assembly is designed to rotate in the direction of arrow 85 as indicated in Figure 2, the deflector panel 76 extends transversely across the discharge area and is adapted to be bolted to the rear panel of the rear come brine hood defining the upper wall of the discharge area.
In this connection, an angulated upper edge 86 is aperture to receive the bolts (not illustrated) so that the deflector inclines downwardly and forwardly just clear of the beater blades and directs the straw downwardly to the beater blades whereupon it is forced into the flail assemblies.
It should be understood that the majority of the straw passes directly under the beater assembly to the flail as-sublease and the deflector deflects any of the discharging straw which is not first caught by the beater assembly.
Since various modifications can be made in my in-mention as hereinabove described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made within the spirit and scope of the claims without departing from such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter contained in the act companying specification shall be interpreted as illustra-live only and not in a limiting sense.

Claims

CLAIMS:
(1) An assembly for spreading material discharged from a rear discharge area of a combine harvester for the type that moves forwardly across the field to be harvested, the apparatus comprising a casing having a base plate, means for mounting the casing adjacent to the rear discharge area such that the base plate lies in a substantially hori-zontal plane, a pair of rotatable blade means each mounted on said casing for rotation about a respective one of two vertical axes spaced transversely of the plate such that the blades overlap between said axes to sweep material deposited on said plate in a direction rearwardly and out-wardly from said plate, said casing including a substan-tially vertical wall arranged such that it extends across said plate transversely to the direction of movement of the combine at a location rearwardly of said blade means and cooperates with said plate and said blade means to dis-charge the material outwardly to the sides of the combine.
(2) An assembly according to Claim 1 wherein the blade means each comprises a flail assembly having a plurality of blades, said mounting means being arranged such that the blades of one overlap and pass vertically above the other in an area between the axes and such that the blades pass a line joining the axes from the forward side thereof to a rearward side thereof in phrase so as to provide a shearing action between the blades in the area without any intervening stationary shearing surfaces, said casing mounting means being arranged such that straw from said discharge area enters the area between said flail as-semblies forwardly of said line and is discharged from said area rearwardly of said line and means for directing the discharge of chopped straw from said flail assemblies rear-wardly and to each side of said assembly, force on said straw discharge from said casing being provided solely by said flail assemblies.
(3) An assembly according to Claim 2 wherein said discharge directing means is arranged to direct said chopped straw from said casing in a direction outwardly and downwardly of the rear discharge area of said threshing machine to the sides and rear of the machine and including adjustable chute means positioned only at the sides of re-directing the movement of the chopped straw at the sides from said downward and outward direction to an upward and outward direction.
(4) An assembly according to Claim 2 wherein the first and second flail means comprise a pair of contra-rotatable flails each provided with a plurality of radial-ly projecting blades.
(5) An assembly according to Claim 2 wherein the adjustable means for controlling the discharge direct-ing of the chopped straw from the casing includes a rear skirt defining, together with a bottom wall of the casing, an outlet to the rear, the rear skirt being movable rela-tive to the bottom wall to enlarge or reduce the size of the rear outlet.
(6) An assembly according to Claim 1 comprising means for directing the discharge of chopped straw from said casing in a direction outwardly and downwardly of the rear discharge area of said threshing machine to the sides and rear of the machine and including adjustable chute means positioned only at the sides for redirecting the movement of the chopped straw at the sides from said down-ward and outward direction to an upwardly and outwardly direction.
(7) An assembly according to Claim 2 wherein the discharge directing means includes adjustable means for controlling the discharge of the chopped straw from the casing having a rear skirt defining, together with a bottom wall of the casing, an outlet to the rear, the rear skirt being movable relative to the bottom wall to vary the size of the rear outlet.
(8) An assembly according to Claim 3 wherein the discharge directing means includes adjustable means for controlling the discharge of the chopped straw from the casing having a rear skirt defining, together with a bottom wall of the casing, an outlet to the rear, the rear skirt being movable relative to the bottom wall to vary the size of the rear outlet.

(9) An assembly according to Claim 5 wherein the discharging directing means includes adjustable means for controlling the discharge of the chopped straw from the casing having a rear skirt defining, together with a bottom wall of the casing, an outlet to the rear, the rear skirt being movable relative to the bottom wall to vary the size of the rear outlet.
(10) An assembly according to Claim 6 wherein each of the chutes has an inner downwardly directed por-tion and an outer upwardly directed portion, the upwardly portion being movable whereby lateral discharge may be controlled selectively by retention or removal of said upwardly directed portion so as to cause discharge of the chopped straw either upwardly and outwardly away from the assembly or outwardly and downwardly adjacent the assembly respectively.
(11) An assembly according to Claim 1 in which said casing includes a pivotally mounted front pan portion and hinge means to selectively hinge said front pan por-tion from a front position, to a rearward position and vice versa whereby unchopped straw and chaff is deposited behind said threshing machine when said front pan portion is in the rearward position.
(12) An assembly according to Claim 2 in which said casing includes a pivotally mounted front pan portion and means to selectively hinge said front pan portion from a front position relative to said fixed portion, to a rearward position relative to said fixed portion and vice versa whereby unchopped straw and chaff is deposited behind said threshing machine when said front pan portion is in the rearward position.
(13) An assembly according to Claim 11 in which said hinge means includes a winch assembly mounted on the front of said pivotally mounted front pan portion, a winch cable operatively mounted upon said winch assembly, the free end of said cable being detachably secured to ad-jacent the front of said casing, latching means on said winch assembly detachably securing said pivotally mounted front pan portion to said fixed portion in the forward position, said winch lowering said front pan portion to a substantially vertical position when said latching means is detached, said free end of said cable being detachably secured to adjacent the rear of the fixed portion of said casing from said front pan portion is in the substantially vertical position, said winch then raising said front pan portion to the rearward hinged position relative to said fixed portion.
(14) An assembly according to Claim 12 in which said hinge means includes a winch assembly mounted on the front of said pivotally mounted front pan portion, a winch cable operatively mounted upon said winch assembly, the free end of said cable being detachably secured to adja-cent the front of said casing, latching means on said winch assembly detachably securing said pivotally mounted front pan portion to said fixed portion in the forward position, said winch lowering said front pan portion to a substan-tially vertical position when said latching means is de-tached, said free end of said cable being detachably secur-ed to adjacent the rear of the fixed portion of said cas-ing from said front pan portion is in the substantially vertical position, said winch then raising said front pan portion to the rearward hinged position relative to said fixed portion.
(15) An assembly according to Claim 2 which in-cludes a transversely situated beater assembly mounted across said rear discharge area of the threshing machine and means to connect same to a source of power, said beater assembly directing straw discharged from said threshing machine, rearwardly and downwardly onto the front of said flail assemblies.
(16) An assembly according to Claim 3 which in-cludes a transversely situated beater assembly mounted across said rear discharge area of the threshing machine and means to connect same to a source of power, said beater assembly directing straw discharged from said threshing machine, rearwardly and downwardly onto the front of said flail assemblies.
(17) An assembly according to Claim 13 which in-cludes a transversely situated beater assembly mounted across said rear discharge area of the threshing machine and means to connect same to a source of power, said beater assembly directing straw discharged from said threshing machine, rearwardly and downwardly onto the front of said flail assemblies.
(18) An assembly according to Claim 15, 16 or 17 which includes a transversely extending deflector panel secured to and extending downwardly from the upper rear wall of said discharge area of the threshing machine and combining with said beater assembly to direct straw rear-wardly and downwardly upon said flail assembly.
(19) An assembly according to Claim 1, 2 or 13 which includes means to receive and distribute chaff from said threshing machine, said threshing machine including at least one reciprocating sieve assembly, said last men-tioned means including a ribbed tray pivotally secured by the front edge thereof to the rear edge of said sieve as-sembly and inclining rearwardly and downwardly and recipro-cating therewith, means pivotally supporting the rear end of said tray to the sides of said discharge area, a pair of horizontally located chaff spreading discs, vertical drive shafts supporting said disc from the base of said casing with said discs being situated substantially below said flail assemblies, and distributing blades upon the upper surface of said discs, drive means operatively ex-tending between said flail assemblies and said discs for rotating means in the same direction as said flail assem-blies, the rear discharge end of said tray being situated above said discs and depositing chaff thereon.