GB2025843A - Device for Baling Crop - Google Patents

Abstract

A device for baling crop comprising a compression chamber 1 having an inlet opening 2 and a compressing member 5 adapted to reciprocate along said inlet opening as well as an auxiliary space 18 communicating with said inlet opening 2, wherein the inlet opening 19 of the auxiliary space 18 has a larger circumference than the inlet opening 2 of the compression chamber, whilst the auxiliary space comprises means 22 for compressing crop in a direction transverse of the passage of the auxiliary space, such that a slight preliminary densification can already be obtained on the outer side of the flow of crop on its way through the auxiliary space towards the compression chamber in order to ensure a homogeneous density throughout the resultant bale. The means 22 may comprise a worm conveyor. The crop may be fed through the opening 2 by a grid 28, rotated about a shaft 17 on retraction of the ram 5 which drives the grid via a toothed rack and wheel mechanism 15,16. The grid closes the opening 2 during a compression stroke of the ram. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Device for Baling Crop The invention relates to a device for baling crop comprising a compression chamber having an inlet opening and a compressing member adapted to reciprocate along said inlet opening as well as an auxiliary space communicating with said inlet opening.

The device set forth above is particularly intended for making bales having a comparatively high specific weight, which implies that the crop introduced into the device has to be densified to a high extent. However, crop does not behave like a fluid and therefore, the density of the compressed bale is not homogeneous at all places. Particularly the outer sides of a bale usually exhibit a lower density than the interior of the bale.

The invention has for its object to obviate this disadvantage and provided a device which is distinguished in that the inlet opening of the auxiliary space has a larger circumference than the inlet opening of the compression chamber, whilst the auxiliary space comprises means for compressing crop in a direction transverse of the passage of the auxiliary space.

Owing to these pressing means in the auxiliary space a slight preliminary densification can already be obtained on the outer side of the flow of crop through the auxiliary space towards the compression chamber so that a homogeneous density throughout the resultant bale is ensured.

In a preferred embodiment in which the auxiliary space is equipped with two parallel walls, between which one or more conveying members can operate said walls are flaring towards the inlet opening in a stepwise manner, each step having pressing means.

The invention furthermore relates to a device in which the conveying member is driven by the compressing member through a toothed rack/toothed wheel mechanism rotatable about an axis transverse of the direction of movement of said member, whilst the compression chamber has an outlet opening that can be closed. With such a device it is desirable to block the compressing member each time when the outlet port is opened in order to prevent the expulsion of crop located in the compression chamber when the outlet port of the compression chamber is open.

An object of the invention is to provide a simple method of blocking. The device is distinguished in that at least one blocking member can be inserted between the teeth of the toothed rack/toothed wheel mechanism in order to fix the mechanism in place and thus to block the compressing member.

A further object of the invention is a device comprising retainers to be periodically inserted into the compression chamber and withdrawn therefrom, said retainers being secured to a carrier adapted to pivot relatively to the compression chamber is to control said retainers by a pivotable wall portion of the compression chamber, by means of which the outlet port can be closed. For this purpose the pivotal movement of the wall portion is coupled with the pivotal movement of the carrier in a manner such that, when the wall portion is opened, the retainers are inserted into the compression chamber.

The invention will be described more fully with reference to an embodiment illustrated in the accompanying drawing. In the drawing: Fig. 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of the baling device in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the device shown in Fig.

1.

The baling device shown in the figures mainly comprises a horizontal compression chamber 1 of rectangular cross-section. The compression chamber is closed on all sides with the exception of an inlet port 2 in its bottom wall, of holes 3 in the upper wall for the retainers to be described hereinafter and of longitudinal slots 4 in the sidewall to allow driving of the ram 5 in a reciprocatory movement in the compression chamber.

The compression chamber 1 is supported by a mobile frame 6 to be drawn on ground wheels 7 in the direction of the arrow P1 (Fig. 1 ) across a field, the front side of the device being held by means of a drawbar 8 on a tractor.

The ram 5 has a substantially flat front side which is reinforced by means of stiffening plates 9, to which are welded plates 10 extending horizontally through the slots 4 of the compression chamber 1. The plates 10 on both sides of the compression chamber 1 are each driven by a pressing body 11 formed by two horizontal, parallel beams provided with a tie member with a pivotal joint at the end remote from the ram 5. Said pivotal joint is linked to the piston rod of a cylinder 12 arranged between the parallel beams of the pressing body, the other end of said rod being connected through a coupling piece 13 with the closed rear wall of the compression chamber 1. For this purpose the rear wall of the compression chamber is reinforced by means of a beam 14.

On the lower side of the lowermost beam of the pressing body 11 there is provided a toothed rack 15, which co-operates with a toothed wheel 1 6. The toothed wheel 1 6 is rotatable about an axis 1 7 extending transversely of the reciprocatory movement of the ram 5, said axis being located beneath the lower wall of the compression chamber 1.

Between the toothed wheel 1 6 and the shaft 1 7 an overrunning clutch (not shown) is arranged so that upon a left-hand movement of the ram 5 as seen in Fig, 1 a positive connection is established between the toothed wheel 1 6 and the shaft 17, whereas upon a right-hand movement of the ram 5 the toothed wheel 1 6 can rotate freely about the shaft 1 7.

On the bottom side of the compression chamber 1 the inlet port communicates with an auxiliary space 18, whose upper and bottom walls have the shape of segments of a circle (see Fig.

1), whereas the flat sidewalls are parallel to one another (see Fig. 2).

At the front of the auxiliary space 18 an inlet port 1 9 is provided, in front of which is arranged a pick-up apparatus 20 for picking up the crop from the field and passing it on to the auxiliary space 18. In the direction towards the inlet port 19 the upper and lower walls of the auxiliary space 1 8 are slightly diverging, whilst the parallel sidewalls are flaring in the direction towards the inlet port 19, which is indicated in Fig. 2 at 21. There is shown. a step-shaped widening of the sidewall, where a worm conveyor 22 is provided, which is driven about an axis 23 so that an inwardly directed conveying or pressing effect respectively is obtained.

Between the parallel sidewalls, inside the auxiliary space 18 conveying means are arranged consisting on the one hand of advancing members 24 formed by a plurality of parallel, curved tines disposed side by side, the ends of which trace a curved path (see arrow P2). This movement is obtained by actuating the curved tines by means of a lever 25 fastened thereto and pivoted to the free end of a swinging arm 26 and of a continuously rotating crank mechanism 27.

On the other hand the conveying means in the auxiliary space 18 comprise agnd-shape flap portion 28, fastened to the shaft 1 7 and turned in the direction of the arrow P3 about the shaft 1 7.

In order to allow both the curved tines 24 and the gridshaped flap portion 28 to pass across the upper wall of the auxiliary space 1 8, this upper wall is also formed by a grating.

The bottom wall of the auxiliary space 1 8 is provided with a threshold formed by standing plates 29 which serve to allow the grating 28 to take over without disturbance the crop advanced by the tines 24.

The pick-up apparatus 20, the conveying worms 22 and the crank 27 of the conveying fork 24 are driven by means of a chain transmission which is coupled through a rectangular gear wheel transmission 31 with the main driving casing 32.

On the rear side, that is to say, opposite the ram 5 the comprising chamber 1 is provided with an end portion 34 adapted to turn upwards about a line 33. In the closed state, that is to say, in the state indicated by solid lines in Fig. 1, the end portion is retained in the closed state by means of lock bolts 35, which snap around lugs 36 fastened to the end portion 34. By turning the lock bolts in clockwise direction with the aid of a lever 37 and an actuating mechanism (not shown) the end portion can be unlocked and turned up into the state indicated by broken lines in Fig. 1.

With said lever 37 is coupled a pushing rod 38 which actuates through a resiliently yielding element 39 a blocking member 40 so that this blocking member 40 formed by a pin is inserted in between the teeth of the toothed wheel 16. Thus the toothed wheel 1 6 is prevented to turn.

On the top side of the compression chamber 1 retainers 41 are provided which are formed by a plurality of parallel tines, each of which can be passed through a hole 3 in the top side of the compression chamber 1. The tines 41 are arranged on a pivotable carrier 42, which is freely pivotable about the line 33.

The carrier 42 has fastened to it on one or on both sides of the compression chamber a lever 43,. the stop surface 44 of which co-operates with a lug 45 on the side of the upwardly pivotable end portion 34.

At a distance from the axis33 and the retainers 41 a stop is provided on top of the compression chamber for limiting the pivotal movement of the carrier 42 in anticlockwise direction. A tensile spring 46 is arranged between said stop 50 and the carrier 42.

For completeness' sake it should be noted that on top of the frame 6, at the front, reels 47 are mounted for holding a string formed by a wire 48.

This wire is withdrawn from the reels by means of a transport mechanism 49, which advances the wire 48 around the bale formed, the wire being subsequently fastened by a knotting mechanism (not shown).

The device operates as follows. By means of a tractor of any kind the device is run in the direction of the arrow P1 across a field, from which mown crop is lifted by the pick-up apparatus 20 and fed to the inlet port 1 9 of the auxiliary space 18. The advancing forks 24 push the crop to the right into the auxiliary space 18 until the space 18 is sufficiently filled. During the flow of crop through the auxiliary space 18 the crop fed over a large width is compressed to a small width in the stepped portion of the sidewall of the auxiliary space 1 8 by means of the worm conveyors 22 (see Fig. 2). Thus the croup is compacted in the direction of width, which becomes manifest along the parallel sidewalls of the auxiliary space 18.

At the return movement of the ram 5 by means of the cylinder 12 the grid-shaped flap 28 is turned in anti-clockwise direction by way of the toothed rack-toothed wheel mechanism 1 5, 1 6 for pushing the crop from the auxiliary space 1 8 through the inlet port 2 into the compression chamber 1. The ram 5 thus moves to the left as seen in Fig. 1, whilst a positive coupling is established between the toothed wheel 1 6 and the shaft 17 and the flap portion 28 respectively.

The blocking member 40 occupies the retracted position, since the lock bolts retain the pivotable end portion 34.

During the movement of the ram 5 to the right the flap portion 28 remains in its position whilst the crop introduced into the compression chamber 1 is advanced by the ram 5 to the right up to the end portion of the compression chamber.

The above described compression run of the ram 5 can be repeated several times until a sufficient quantity of crop is compressed in the baling device into the desired bale.

Subsequently the bale can be tied up by means of the wires 48, after which the lock bolts 35 can be disengaged. As soon as the lock bolts 35 are loosened, the blocking member 40 becomes operative and penetrates between the teeth of the wheel 16. In this embodiment the ram 5 is blocked during the left-hand movement as seen in Fig. 1. Upon energization the cylinder 12 will turn upwards the pivotable end portion 34 through the coupling rod 13, upon which the bale formed will drop out of the compression chamber by its own weight.

Upon the downward swing of the end portion 34 the stop 45 is turned in anti-clockwise direction about the axis 33 so that the carrier 42 will turn in the same direction. The retainers 41 will protrude into the compression chamber so that any crop lying in front of the ram is retained and prevented from dropping out of the compression chamber 1 together with the bale formed.

Finally by inverse energization of the cylinder 12 the flap portion 34 is closed so that the retainers 41 are pushed out of the compression chamber, since the stop 45 urges the lever 44 so that the lock bolts 35 get home again and the blocking member 40 is lifted from between the teeth of the wheel 1 6.

Then the cycle described above can be repeated.

Within the scope of the invention other embodiments are possible. For example, the worm conveyors 22 may be replaced by any other suitable advancing means. It may be imagined to use sidewalls which as a whole can turn about a, for example, vertical axis so that an inward advance to the crop is ensured.

As an alternative, the blocking member 40 may be inserted in between the teeth of the tooth rack 15.

Finally the retainers 41 may be passed into and out of the compression chamber 1 by differently constructed coupling means between the carrier 42 and the pivotable end portion 34.

Claims (9)

Claims

1. A device for baling crop comprising a compression chamber having an inlet port and a compression member adapted to reciprocate therein along said inlet port as well as an auxiliary space communicating with said inlet port characterized in that the inlet port of the inlet port of the compression chamber, said auxiliary space comprising means for compressing crop in a direction transverse of the passage of the auxiliary space.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the auxiliary space has two parallel walls between which one or more conveying members are operative and in that said walls are flaring stepwise in a direction towards the inlet port, each step comprising pressing means.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1 and 2, characterized in that the pressing means are constructed in the form of worm conveyors.

4. A device as claimed in claims 1-3, in which the conveying member is driven through a toothed rack-toothed wheel mechanism by the ram about an axis transverse of the direction of movement of said ram and the compression chamber has an outlet port that can be closed, characterized in that at least one blocking member can be inserted in between the teeth of the toothed racktoothed wheel mechanism in order to block the ram.

5. A device as claimed in claims 1-4, characterized in that the port that can be closed is provided with lock bolts and in that the or each blocking member is coupled with the lock bolts.

6. A device as claimed in claims 1-4, characterized in that the or each blocking member is coupled with the lock bolts through a resiliently yielding element.

7. A device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims 1-6, comprising retainers to be periodically moved into and out of the compression chamber, said retainers being fastened to a carrier adapted to pivot relatively to the compression chamber, whilst the outlet port can be closed by a pivotable wall portion characterized in that the pivotal movement of the wall portion is coupled with the pivotal movement of the carrier so that, when the wall portion is opened, the retainers are inserted into the compression chamber.

8. A device as claimed in claim 7 in which the carrier is freely pivotable characterized in that between the pivotal point and the retainers the carrier is provided with a stop surface which cooperates with a stop fastened to the pivotable wall portion.

9. A device substantially as described hereinbefore with reference to the accompanying drawings.