CA2246465C - Bale shredder - Google Patents

Bale shredder Download PDF

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Publication number
CA2246465C
CA2246465C CA 2246465 CA2246465A CA2246465C CA 2246465 C CA2246465 C CA 2246465C CA 2246465 CA2246465 CA 2246465 CA 2246465 A CA2246465 A CA 2246465A CA 2246465 C CA2246465 C CA 2246465C
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CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
bale
rotor
shredder
conveyor
back plate
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
CA 2246465
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Gordon Street
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Brandt Industries Ltd
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
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Priority to CA 2246465 priority Critical patent/CA2246465C/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA2246465C publication Critical patent/CA2246465C/en
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Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A01AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
    • A01FPROCESSING OF HARVESTED PRODUCE; HAY OR STRAW PRESSES; DEVICES FOR STORING AGRICULTURAL OR HORTICULTURAL PRODUCE
    • A01F29/00Cutting apparatus specially adapted for cutting hay, straw or the like
    • A01F29/005Cutting apparatus specially adapted for cutting hay, straw or the like for disintegrating and cutting up bales of hay, straw or fodder
    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A01AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
    • A01FPROCESSING OF HARVESTED PRODUCE; HAY OR STRAW PRESSES; DEVICES FOR STORING AGRICULTURAL OR HORTICULTURAL PRODUCE
    • A01F29/00Cutting apparatus specially adapted for cutting hay, straw or the like
    • A01F29/09Details
    • A01F29/10Feeding devices

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  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Environmental Sciences (AREA)
  • Crushing And Pulverization Processes (AREA)

Abstract

A bale shredder has a bale shredding chamber with a rotor at one side of the chamber. A conveyor extends from adjacent the rotor and slopes upwardly to a position adjacent the opposite side of the chamber. At the side of the chamber opposite the rotor, the shredder has a side gate with an upright position for round bale processing and a laterally extending position, aligned with the top rung of the conveyor for processing square bales. Above the rotor is a back plate that extends along the side of the bale chamber. The rotor is offset into the chamber from the back plate so that as a bale is processed, the material at a level above the rotor can pass over the rotor and be drawn down by the flails passing along its underside. The advance of the bale towards the rotor is controlled using an adjustable set of bale guards.

Description

BALE SHREDDER:
The present invention relates to a bale shredder and more particularly to a bale shredder of the type having a conveyor for feeding bales into a shredding rotor.
A known form of bale shredder has one or more bale shredding rotors at one end of a conveyor, which feeds the bales into the rotor or rotors.
Generally, a bale shredder of this type is useful for shredding either large round bales or large square bales, but not both. Attempts have been made to produce machines that will shred either type of bale beat with only limited success. Part of this is because of the structure of the bales themselves. In a large round bale, the grain of the bale extends around the circumference and the bale is generally opened by working on the side of the bale, often while rotating the bale. In a square bale, the grain of the baled material is across the bale so that different sides of the bale have different shredding properties. It is found that results are better if a square bale is shredded from the end.
This makes the physical layout of a shredder for both bale types a compromise that better suits one type or the other.
Other problerns that arise with bale shredders include jamming of the rotor by feeding a bale too quickly into the rotor and hanging up of an undercut bale, where the uncut portions of the bale engage fixed structure at the side of the shredder and do not permit the bale i:o advance further towards the rotor.
The present invention relates to certain aspects of an improved bale shredder that address one or more of the problems of the prior art.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a bale shredder of the type comprising a bale conveyor extending laterally across the shredder and a bale shredding rotor at a first side of the shredder, at one end of the conveyor, for shredding baled material delivered to the rotor by the conveyor, wherein the shredder comprises:

a side gate at a second side of the shredder opposite the first side; and means mounting the side gate for movement between an upright round bale position projecting upwardly from the conveyor and a lateral square bale position projecting laterally from and aligned with the bale conveyor.
With the side gate in the upright round bale position, a round bale may be loaded into the shredder, between the rotor and the side gate, with the bale axis aligned generally parallel to the rotor. The conveyor will advance the side of the bale against the rotor, as desired. To handle square bales, the gate is dropped and the square bale is placed on the gate and the conveyor so that it can be advanced by the conveyor end on against the rotor, as desired.
To deal with the potential for hang-ups, the shredder preferably includes a reversible conveyor drive. This allows the conveyor to be reversed, pulling the bale away from the rotor and allowing the bale to roll towards the rotor, eliminating the hang-up. It is also preferred that the shredder includes a back plate above the rotor and offset with respect to the rotor so that the rotor projects beyond the back plate towards the bale to be shredded. With this arrangement, the rotor will act on the bale material both above and beside the rotor and will draw the material above the rotor down to be processed.
With the back plate offset from the rotor, a set of bale guards may be positioned between the rotor and the bale to control the travel of the bale towards the rotor. These ensure that flails on the rotor can act effectively on the bale material. To accommodate bales of different consistencies, the bale guards are preferably adjustable towards and away from the rotor. If the bale guards are independently adjustable, then they can be set to accommodate bales of almost any consistency and condition.
It is preferred that the conveyor slopes downwardly to the rotor to assist in the proper feeding of thE~ bale into the rotor.
In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate an exemplary embodiment of the present invention:
Figure 1 is an isometric view of a bale shredder according to the present invention; and Figure 2 is a 'transverse cross-section of the shredder of Figure 1.
Referring to the accompanying drawings, there is illustrated a bale shredder 10. The shreddE~r has a bale chamber 12 with a front wall 14 and a back wall 16. At one side 18 of the chamber is a shredding rotor 20 extending along the side, inside the bale chamber. At the opposite side 22 of the chamber is a gate 24 that has an upright position shown in broken line for shredding round bales and a laterally projecting position shown in solid lines for the shredding of square bales.
The gate is pivotally mounted on the front and back walls. It is supported in the upright round bale position by a latch (not shown). The gate is supported in the square bale position by a chain 25 connected to the gate and to the front wall 14 of the bale chamber.
At the back of the shredder is a bale fork 26 that is used for picking up bales and loading them into the bale chamber. The fork may also be used for carrying a second bale while a bale is being processed by the shredder.
The shredder is supported on two wheels 28 below the bale chamber.
At the front of the shredder is a tongue 30 that connects to a tractor drawbar for towing the shredder. The rotor 20 is driven from the tractor power take-off through a PTO shaft 32 mounted on the tongue 30. The shaft drives a chain drive 34 enclosed in a chain housing 36 on the front of the shredder. The rotor is driven to travel downwardly on the inner side of the rotor. Outside of the rotor, the shredder side wall 18 includes a discharge opening 37 closed by a gate 38 that is pivotally mounted along its top edge to the shredder. The gate has an upper panel 40 and a lower panel 42 that are arranged at an angle to one another so that when the gate is pivoted up to an open position, a concave side of the gate confronts the discharge opening 37 in the chamber side 18 to deflect shredded bale material onto the ground. On the outer side of the discharge gatE~ 38 is an eye 44 connected to a cable 46 that is in turn wound on a winch 48. The: winch is mounted on the bale chamber at discharge side 18 so that reeling in the cable or paying it out will open or close the discharge gate 38 to the desired degree. The winch is driven by a reversible hydraulic motor 49.
At the top cf the chamber side 18 is a back plate 50 that slopes upwardly and outwardly from the bale chamber. The back plate is offset outwardly from the rotor 20. Material coming into contact with the sloping back plate will slide down the plate onto the rot~~r for processing.
Associated with the rotor is a set of bale guards 52. Each bale guard is a plate with an arcuate end 54 that wraps partway around the inner side of the rotor 20. The arcuate end 54 is connected to a straight plate section 56 engaged slidably between two support plate; 58. A slot 60 in the plate 56 receives a bolt 62 that also extends between the two support plates 58, so that the bale guard can slide in and out between the support plates. The outer portion of the bale guard is equipped with a series of holes 64 that will align with mating holes 65 in the support plates to receive a pin (not shown). This all~~ws adjustment of the bale guards into and out of the bale chamber. The outermost end of each bale guard is an upright handle portion 68.
The rotor 20 includes a rotor drum 69 and pairs of lugs 70 distributed uniformly over the surface of the drum. The lugs carry transverse pins on which flails 72 are pivotally mounted. The flails are freely pivotable so that they will swing out to extended positions under centrifugal force as the rotor is rotated.
The bed 74 of the bale chamber is a belt conveyor including two rollers 76 and 78 at opposite sides of the chamber and a belt 80 wrapped on the rollers. The roller 78 at the rotor end of the shredder is driven by a hydraulic unit 82 which includes a reversible hydraulic motor for driving the belt in opposite directions. As illustrated particularly in Figure 2, the conveyor slopes down towards the rotor to assist in the feeding of bales into the rotor.
A pan 84 extends from the top run of the belt below the rotor to the discharge opening in the side of the shredder chamber.
In use of the shredder, the bale fork 26 is used to pick up and load a bale into the bale chamber. It may also be used for picking up and carrying a second bale. The bale guards 52 ;ire adjusted to the proper distance from the rotor to control the feed of the bale again:;t the rotor so that the bale does not come too close to the rotor, preventing full action of the flails. The rotor is driven as discussed above, and the conveyor is activated to bring the bale towards the rotor. The flails remove material from the adjacent face of the bale and propel it through the discharge opening. The offset of the back plate allows the bale to advance over the rotor, as the bale material is undercut. The flails coming up from the outer side of the rotor and across the top of the rotor then rake material down from the overlying bale material.
A round bale in the chamber is aligned with its axis parallel to the rotor for shredding. If the bale becomes hung up as, for example, where the bale is undercut by the rotors and no further material can be reached by the flails as they pass by the bale, the conveyor is reversed, drawing the bale back away from the rotor, so that the undercut portion will fall down onto the conveyor beside the rotor.
The bale can then be fed into the rotor by reversing the conveyor once more.
To shred a large square bale, the side gate 24 is dropped and the bale is placed in the bale chamber with its end facing the rotor. As the conveyor feeds the bale into the rotor, the flails pull material from the bottom part of the end face of the bale. The material above the rotor then tends to fall off in layers onto the rotor as shredding proceeds. Because of the offset of the back plate, as noted above, the flails are able to work on the underside of the material above the rotor and draw it down for processing by thE~ rotor and discharge from the discharge opening.
While one particular embodiment of the present invention has been described in the foregoing, it is to be understood that other embodiments are possible within the scope of the invention and are intended to be included herein. The invention is to be considerE:d limited solely by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (14)

1. A bale shredder of the type comprising a bale conveyor extending laterally across the shredder and a bale shredding rotor at a first side of the shredder, at one end of the conveyor, for shredding baled material delivered to the rotor by the conveyor, wherein the shredder comprises:
a side gate at a second side of the shredder opposite the first side; and means mounting the side gate for movement between an upright round bale position projecting upwardly from adjacent a second end of the conveyor, opposite said one end and a lateral square bale position aligned with the bale conveyor and projecting laterally from adjacent the second end of the conveyor.
2. A shredder according to Claim 1 including means for selectively driving the conveyor in opposite directions.
3. A shredder according to Claim 1 or 2 wherein the rotor comprises a rotor drum rotatable about a rotor axis and a plurality of bale shredding flails mounted on the rotor, and including a plurality of bale guards between the rotor drum and the second side of the shredder for limiting movement of a bale towards the rotor.
4. A shredder according to Claim 3 including means for adjusting the position of each bale guard toward and away from the rotor drum.
5. A shredder according to Claim 3 or 4 wherein each bale guard has an arcuate end portion extending partway around the rotor drum.
6. A shredder according to any one of Claims 1 to 5 wherein the rotor is positioned above the conveyor at the first side of the shredder.
7. A shredder according to any one of Claims 1 to 6 including a back plate along the first side of the shredder, above the rotor, the rotor being positioned between the back plate and the second side of the shredder.
8. A bale shredder according to Claim 7 wherein the back plate slopes outwardly and upwardly from the rotor.
9. A shredder according to any one of Claims 1 to 8 wherein the conveyor slopes downwardly from the second side of the shredder to the rotor.
10. A bale shredder of the type comprising a bale conveyor extending laterally across the shredder and a bale shredding rotor at a first side of the shredder, at one end of the conveyor, for shredding baled material delivered to the rotor by the conveyor, and a plurality of bale guards between the rotor drum and the second side of the shredder for limiting movement of a bale towards the rotor.
11. A shredder according to Claim 10 including means for adjusting the position of each bale guard toward and away from the rotor drum.
12. A shredder according to Claim 10 or 11 wherein each bale guard has an arcuate end portion extending partway around the rotor drum.
13. A shredder according to Claim 10, 11 or 12 including a back plate along the first side of the shredder, above the rotor, the rotor being positioned between the back plate and the second side of the shredder.
14. A bale shredder according to Claim 13 wherein the back plate slopes outwardly and upwardly from the rotor.
CA 2246465 1998-09-03 1998-09-03 Bale shredder Expired - Lifetime CA2246465C (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA 2246465 CA2246465C (en) 1998-09-03 1998-09-03 Bale shredder

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA 2246465 CA2246465C (en) 1998-09-03 1998-09-03 Bale shredder

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA2246465C true CA2246465C (en) 2000-11-21

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Cited By (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6708911B2 (en) 2001-06-20 2004-03-23 Highline Mfg. Inc. Bale processor
RU2473391C1 (en) * 2011-07-11 2013-01-27 Рустам Сагитович Аипов Cormophyte fodder grinder
CN104093301A (en) * 2012-01-27 2014-10-08 维米尔制造公司 Bale processor for bales of all shapes
US20140374520A1 (en) * 2013-05-01 2014-12-25 Ethen D. WENTZ Bale shredder
CN108323336A (en) * 2018-04-20 2018-07-27 贵州月亮山九芗农业有限公司 A kind of rice straw crushing briquetting device

Cited By (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6708911B2 (en) 2001-06-20 2004-03-23 Highline Mfg. Inc. Bale processor
US6886763B2 (en) 2001-06-20 2005-05-03 Highline Mfg. Inc. Bale processor
US7066417B2 (en) 2001-06-20 2006-06-27 Highline Mfg. Inc. Bale processor
US7156333B2 (en) 2001-06-20 2007-01-02 Highline Manufacturing Ltd. Bale processor with fork lift
RU2473391C1 (en) * 2011-07-11 2013-01-27 Рустам Сагитович Аипов Cormophyte fodder grinder
CN104093301A (en) * 2012-01-27 2014-10-08 维米尔制造公司 Bale processor for bales of all shapes
CN104093301B (en) * 2012-01-27 2016-12-14 维米尔制造公司 Bale datatron for variously-shaped bale
US20140374520A1 (en) * 2013-05-01 2014-12-25 Ethen D. WENTZ Bale shredder
US9439360B2 (en) * 2013-05-01 2016-09-13 Ethen D. WENTZ Bale shredder
CN108323336A (en) * 2018-04-20 2018-07-27 贵州月亮山九芗农业有限公司 A kind of rice straw crushing briquetting device

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Effective date: 20180904