AU564316B2 - Round bale forming machine - Google Patents

Description

ROUND BALE FORMING MACHINE

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to argicultural machinery and implements, such as harvesting equipment and more particularly concerns a roll baler or round bale forniag machine.

BACKGROUND ART

Roll balers or round bale forming machines are principally of two types designated Welger system or Vermeer system machines respectively. The former has fixed round moulding or forming chamber with a series of separate endless conveyor units or conveying chains with transverse bars across the width of the chamber and around the inner periphery. Material, such as haylage from loose windrows is picked up by a pick-up mechanism on the front of the baler and material is fed into the forming chamber through a draw-in gap and then turned over to form a roll which is spirally pressed together and the bale is rolled up from the outside in by external compression on the bale working within a fixed chamber. The rolled bale is then discharged from a bale discharge gate at the hinged rear end of the chamber. The latter type of machine has a moving chamber provided vith endless belts around the internal periphery and which basically comprises a forming cavity opposite a material feed draw-in gap, the cavity increasing as the bale forms by rolling from inside out. The endless belt is adjusted and taken up or let out by means of a roller shuttle arrangement at the top of the moving chamber usually comprising two take-up pulleys which are journalled on a joint hydraulically operated pair of lever arms whereby two long loops are drawn into the interior of the pressing cavity whilst still unfilled. Both of these types of balers and indeed all balers operate by travelling along the ground of paddocks over windrows of mown hay picking up loose hay and forming it into large bales of compressed hay. The baler has to stop its forward travelling while the bale is being tied and a significant "downtime" period of time elapses between tying the bale, ejecting it, and recommencing hay pick up and bale forming. If a conventional baler travels forward while bale tying is taking place the string becomes tangled and buried by incoming hay, so there is no alternative but to stop the baler while bale tying is carried out.

ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION

The advantages of the invention are that it is not necessary to stop the forward travel of the machine along the ground before and during tying of a formed round hay bale. Reduction of tying time achieved for a round bale forming machine can amount to 60% of the operational time of the machine during baling process for any crop with a large windrow where a large volume of crop material is being fed into the intake aperture by maintaining forward mobility of the machine production can be increased by up to 60%.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a partly diagrammatic side elevation of the dual chambered machine for forming round hay bales with divided chambers in front chamber pre-bale forming mode.

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the machine of the invention in crop feed entry mode with dual chambers connected passing pre-bale to rear chamber.

Figure 3 is a similar view to Figure 2, but with dual chambers partly divided, floor extended in full bale forming mode. Figure 4 is a similar view to Figures 1 and 2, but with dual chambers separated in the bale tying and bale ejection mode. BEST MODE OF CARRYINGS OUT THE INVENTION

AND PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The dual-chambered machine for forming round bales of crop material of the invention is specifically suitable or haylage for hay/and basically comprises a tractor drawn implement as a fixed, but dual chambered, bale forming system, wherein the front chamber is of smaller capacity than the rear chamber and both chambers are intermittently, mutually separated or divided by a common, retractable, internal dividing wall integrated with upper and lower forming rollers which can be raised and lowered respectively to or form an interconnected chamber/raised and lowered to form separate chambers.

In one form, the dual fixed chambered round bale forming machine for crop material such as silage, haylage, or hay is a tractor drawn implement with housing 10, ground wheel 11 , front hay pick-up mechanism 12 and crop material intake passage 13 leading into a smaller or front round ale forming chamber 14 of cylindrical configuration intermittently separated from a larger or rear round bale forming and bale tying and bale ejection chamber 15 by a chamber dividing roller wall comprising two parts or segments comprising an upper part 16 and a lower part 17 ( both indicated by straight single direction arrows) . The upper part is rectractable upwards and out of the chambers and lowered into the chambers. The lower part is retractable down from and raised up into the chambers. When in a lowered position, the chamber dividing roller wall form; dual fixed-chambered, round hay baler, the interior of each chamber has a plurality of hay tumbling and bale forming means around the internal periphery and which may be a plurality of belts or chains and slats, but is preferably a plurality of chain driven friction surface rollers, all rotating at uniform speed and direction, such as those typified by 18, 19 and 20, 21, 22, in front and rear chambers respectively. All of these rollers of each chamber are provided on one side thereof with drive sprockets, a common endless drive chain being provided for the sprockets of each chamber. The upper part 16 of chamber dividing wall comprises a tiltable roller unit having a large diameter upper roller 23 and a smaller diameter lower roller 24, both of said rollers having a diameter much greater than the bale forming rollers, exemplified by previously described rollers 18 to 21. The ends of the rollers 23, 24 have axles, typified by left hand axles 25, 26 which are mounted external to the chambers on a common support frame comprising carrier bars, typified by the left hand one 27, each, being lifted and lowered by pivotally connected hydraulic ram piston 28 by two divergent radial arms 28a, 29 mounted at the junction thereof on a common pivot 30 in an off-set arrangement on cam disc 31 with respect to the roller chain drive sprocket 32 which drives a chain 33 or sprockets 34, 55 mounted on rollers, 23, 24 respectively. The chain drives sprocket 32 at the centre of the pivot to the rollers 23, 24, so that uniform constant drive to the rollers is achieved throughout the total arc of the tilting movement. The whole chamber upper dividing roller unit 16 is thus constrained to tilt through an arc about the pivot point 30 to alternatively open up and join andclose off and divide front and rear. In addition to the upper chamber dividing roller unit segment ( endless belt unit as the case may be ) , the floor of each of the chambers can be joined into a continuous floor structure by dropping lower segment 17, of the chamber dividing roller units to form a continuous common floor platform with the path of rollers substantially an at the same operational level and below the upper chamber dividing roller wall segment. The lower tilting dividing wall segment unit 17 is synchronized with the upper unit and comprisesfour rollers 36, 37, 38, 39, the first or lowermost power drive roller 36 having a fixed position with its axis acting as a lower pivot point for the other three rollers 37, 38, 39, the axles of which are carried in fixed position on a radial arm 40. The axle of the upper or terminal roller 39 of unit 17 is attached to upper end of lowering chain 41 which passes down under a tensioning idle sprocket 42 and thence upwards, where the lower end of chain 41 is attached at point 43 to the lower tilt arm 29 of the tilting upper roller unit 17.

In this arrangement, the upper and lower tiltable chamber dividing roller units 16 and 17 are synchronized to elevate and lower in synchronization for the operational modes of Figures 1 , 2 and 4, with upper and lower roller units fully up or down, respectively. In the operational mode of Figure 3 with both the upper and lower roller units fully lowered, the lower roller unit is lowered and double-acting held down by the/hydraulic ram 44, the piston of which is pivotally connected to arm 40 for passage of crop material from front to rear chambers. Part of the floor includes uniform, diameter, fixed position, front rollers 45, 46,

47 of the rear chamber, all of which are driven at constant speed and in the same rotational direction. Since bale forming mainly takes place at the rear of chambers, it is not essential to have rear chamber front floor rollers in a curved path.

Bale tying can be performed in tne front chamber instead of or in addition to the rear chamber. Preferably, in addition to the upper roller unit lift chain and drive chain, the dual chamber, bale forming machine of the present invention utilizes four roller sprocket main drive units of standard components, chains, sprockets, tensioners, known in the art, used in a known manner, but in a novel arrangement and (not shown)as common drive chains for four respective roller units and comprises a drive chain for bale ejection gate roller sprockets which is operationally connected by a separate chain at the top or gate hinge point upon a double roller drive sprocket to a plurality of sprockets on rollers on fixed axis positions arranged around the rear chamber. A further roller sprocket common main drive chain is arranged around the sprockets of fixed axis position, bale forming rollers in the front chamber. A double drive sprocket can be used for any drive sprocket and roller , driving the ends of two superposed drive chains at a pivot point, such as in the lowermost or "floor unit" roller unit 17, u sed for alternately

Whilst the upper roller unit 16 has been described in tne preferred embodiment in terms of two rollers of different diameter with respect to eacn other and the other cnamber bale forming rollers and in a specific arrangement, it will be understood that the roller unit can comprise any number of roller components varying in number and diameter and spacial arrangement, Alternatively, the unit 16 can comprise belts, chains and slats in any suitable arrangement. dividing and joining front and rear chambers by raising and lowering of the floor chamber dividing and wall chamber dividing roller units. In this way all of the uniform diameter, uniform rotational direction bale forming rollers may be driven atconstant speed.

In operation, hay is inducted into the front chamber and a moulded pre-bale bundle is first formed in front chamber 14 with the upper segment chamber divider roller unit 16 set in the fully down retracted position and roller unit 17 in elevated position, closing the gap between chambers, when the chamber 14 is filled up with a formed pre-bale bundle, roller unit 17 drops down to lowered position, while the chamber dividing roller unit simultaneously tilts up ( with its chain drive unit stopped) in an arcuate path, up and out of chambers on pivot arm by means of hydraulic ram. Pre-bale then enters large or rear chamber from smaller front chamber and the upper roller unit segment 16 then retracts down, but lower roller unit 17 still remains down in lowered position, thus allowing crop to pass under upper roller unit 16 into large rear chamber 15 to complete the bale. When large rear chamber 15 has filled up to capacity, upper down; roller unit remains / a standard bale tying mechanism is automatically engaged; and lower roller unit 17 is then elevated by ram 44 to close off gap between floor and the lowered upper roller unit 17 overhead to retain crop in front chamber 14. The tied bale in the rear chamber is ejected, via the ejection gate 48 in conventional Welger type machines. When hay in the rear chamber has formed into a maximum bale size formation or volume, a tie needle lowers and ties the bale, a set of hay diverter fingers diverts incoming hay into the smaller front chamber 10.

Hay is then forming into a moulded pre-bale bundle in the front chamber, while the baled hay in the rear chamber 15 is being tied and ejected, whilst the implement is being continuously moved over the ground. When the hinged ejection gate 48 closes the chamber dividing roller unit and fingers if fitted retract upwards allowing hay in the front chamber 10 to pass into the rear chamber 15 and the cycle is repeated without stopping the implement at any stage.

Claims (12)

1. Claims: A round bale forming machine for crop material comprising a front hay pick up mechanism (12) and hay intake passage (13), leading into a front bale-forming chamber (14) and a rear bale-forming chamber (15) in a tandem arrangement, both chambers having a plurality of rotating or travelling bale-forming members (18, 19, 20, 21, 22) arranged in a circular path around the internal periphery of each chamber and chamber dividing means (16, 17), intermittently, alternatively connecting the said chambers and said bale forming members during bale forming and dividing off the said chambers (14, 15) from each other, whilst a formed round bale is being tied in and ejected from the rear chamber, via ejection gate (48) wherein bale forming, bale tying, and bale ejection takes place while the machine is in forward motion along the ground.
2. 2. A round bale forming machine for crop material according to claim 1 , wherein the chamber dividing means (16, 17), comprises upper and lower chamber dividing segments, tiltable towards and away from each other.
3. 3. A round bale forming machine according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the upper and lower chamber dividing segments comprise roller units (16, 17), chains and slats, or endless belt/s.
4. 4. A round bale forming machine according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the chamber dividing means comprises rollers.
5. 5. A round bale forming machine for crop material according to claim 2, wherein the upper segment of the chamber dividing means comprises a roller unit with individual bale forming rollers rotatably mounted on a common respective tilting frame which is intermittently and alternately raised and lowered for opening and closing off the said front and rear chambers.
6. 6. A round bale forming machine for crop material according to claim 5, wherein the roller unit of the upper chamber dividing segment comprises rollers (23, 24) of non-uniform diameter.
7. 7. A round bale forming machine for crop material according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the rollers comprise a large diameter roller (23), and a roller (24) of smaller diameter than the large roller, both of said rollers being of sufficient diameter to enable the peripheral surfaces to form a part of a bale forming surface in a common wall between front and rear chambers.
8. 8. A round bale forming machine according to claim 7 wherein the roller carrying tilting frame has radial arms (28a, 29) eccentrically mounted on a cam disc (31) for intermittent tilting movement of the frame and rollers through an arc between a lowered chamber-dividing roller position and a raised chamber opening elevated roller position above and out of both chambers (14, 15).
9. 9. A round bale forming machine according to claim a, wherein a roller chain drive (32) is rotatably mounted at the pivot point (30) of the convergent tilting frame arms (2aa, 29) on the cam disc and each roller has a chain drive sprocket (25, 26) on the end of an axle thereof, which are in geared relationship with drive sprocket (31), whereby each of the rollers (23, 24) are driven at a uniform baling speed throughout the entire tilting movement arc.
10. 10. A round bale forming machine for crop material according to claim 1 , wherein the chamber dividing wall includes a lower bale forming roller unit (17) movable between a raised position forming a chamber floor or platform and part of the lower curved side wall of the front chamber and a lowered position, retracting the dividing wall and forming part of a substantially continuous roller floor structure.
11. 11. A round bale forming machine for crop material according to claim 9 or 10 wherein the upper roller unit (16) and lower roller unit (1ϊ) are synchronized for simultaneous, respective, elevating and lowering movements for joining and dividing the two chambers during pre-bale forming in the smaller or front chamber, full bale forming in the rear chamber and tying and ejection in the rear or larger chamber.
12. 12. A round bale forming machine for crop material according to claim 11 , wherein the upper roller unit (16) is raised and lower roller unit (17) is lowered simultaneously by means of a common chain with an end connected to each roller unit and moving around a tensioned idle sprocket (43).