US Patent 11622505 Agricultural header with constant reel to cutter relationship

A header for an agricultural vehicle includes: a header frame; a flexible cutter supported by the header frame and including a plurality of cutting edges; a reel including a plurality of reel sections movably supported by the header frame, each of the reel sections including a plurality of tines and being independently movable from the other reel sections; and at least one rigid link connecting the flexible cutter to one of the reel sections, the at least one rigid link being configured to transmit flexing forces acting on the flexible cutter to the connected one reel section such that a substantially constant separation is maintained between the flexible cutter and the connected one reel section.