Combine Harvester - Combine Heads

Combine Heads

Combines are equipped with removable heads that are designed for particular crops. The standard header, sometimes called a grain platform, is equipped with a reciprocating knife cutter bar, and features a revolving reel with metal or plastic teeth to cause the cut crop to fall into the auger once it is cut. A variation of the platform, a "flex" platform is similar but has a cutter bar that can flex over contours and ridges to cut soybeans that have pods close to the ground. A flex head can cut soybeans as well as cereal crops, while a rigid platform is generally used only in cereal grains.

Some wheat headers, called "draper" headers, use a fabric or rubber apron instead of a cross auger. Draper headers allow faster feeding than cross augers, leading to higher throughputs due to lower power requirements. 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 or tires with tread measuring almost 10in deep to assist in harvesting rice. Some combines, particularly pull type, have tires with a diamond tread which prevents sinking in mud. These tracks can fit other combines by having adapter plates made.