US Patent 7861505 Reduced-weight plant-cutting assembly for a header

A cutting assembly for a header of a plant-cutting machine has an elongate blade support bar including a first elongate segment that can engage a second elongate segment by interlocking. Overlying the elongate blade support bar is a plurality of blade sections, including first sub-plurality of blade sections overlying a first lengthwise portion of the first elongate segment, and a second sub-plurality of blade sections overlying a second lengthwise portion of the first elongate segment and a third lengthwise portion of the second elongate segment. An elongate attach bar overlies the first sub-plurality of blade sections, and a spanning bar overlies the second sub-plurality of blade sections.