GB2144394A

GB2144394A - Bale transporter vehicle

Info

Publication number: GB2144394A
Application number: GB08419755A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Edward David Brown
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1983-08-05
Filing date: 1984-11-02
Publication date: 1985-03-06
Also published as: GB8419755D0; GB8321221D0; GB2144394B

Abstract

A transporter (11) for round bales (18) is characterised by a loading mechanism (14-17) which grips a round bale across its round surface, swings it upwards through an arc about an axis (5) parallel to the bale axis until its centre of gravity is beyond the top of the arc and then releases it on to a bale-carrying surface (19). The gripping may be effected by relatively movable gripper members (16, 17) which move towards each other by parallel action in another embodiment, the gripper members approach each other by pivoting of one of the members. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Transporter My invention is concerned with the transporting of bales, more particularly with the loading, transporting and unloading or round bales, for example of silage, straw or hay.

With the accelerated adoption of round-bale systems of farming in the last decade, as opposed to the rectangular-bale systems more common previously, a need has developed for machinery capable of handling such round bales. More particularly, when the bales have been formed in the fields, equipment is required for transferring the bales to storage or for speedy removal to the edge of the field or an adjoining field to permit access to the field for further cultivation.

When silage is to be collected and stored in bagged bales, it is important that the whole operation be carried out in a very short space of time, say within 48 hours, if damage to the silage is to be avoided. Thus conventional methods involving baling, stacking the bales, transporting the bales and unloading in several distinct operations may be too time-consuming and accordingly several attempts have been made to design alternative handling systems, for example a transporter which loads, transports and unloads the bales using a single vehicle operated from the tractor or driver's cab.

None of these attempts has been wholly successful and the handling methods tend to be rather crude, thereby imposing undue strain on the equipment and possibly on the operator also, or unduly complex, making maintenance time-consuming and/or expensive.

My invention is a transporter for round bales which employs a novel loading system and is a significant improvement over earlier round-bale transporters.

The transporter according to my invention is characterised by a loading system which grips a round bale across its round surface, swings it upwards through an arc about an axis parallel to the bale axis until its centre of gravity is beyond the top of the arc, and then releases it onto a bale-carrying surface.

By operating in the way described, my transporter exercises more control over the movement of the bales, handles them in general more gently and therefore is less likely to cause damage to the bales themselves, and less prone to damaging the equipment, than prior round-bale transporters.

The gripping ofthe bale across its round surface, that is in a generally diametrical or chordal direction, is an important feature of my invention. This may readily be achieved by the use of a pair of generally parallel gripper members, for example prongs, which by relative movement engage and grip a bale.

The relative movement of the gripper members may be one in which they remain parallel and approach each other or a swinging movement or one member towards the other.

When the bale has been gripped it is swung upwards in an arc about an axis parallel to the axis of the bale until its centre of gravity is beyond the top of the arc. In this position it is desirably above a bale-carrying surface of the transporter, such that release of the gripping action would deposit the bale on that surface. However, because of the positive gripping of the bale, it is possible to continue to swing the bale until it is close to the bale-carrying surface, so that the bale may, if desired, be deposited on that surface with minimum force and therefore minimum potential damage to the bale and to the transporter. Since bales are often up to six feet in diameter and silage in particular may be quite dense, this is an important consideration.

The loading of the bale in this way is preferably carried out hydraulically using the hydraulic system of the power vehicle, for example of a tractor pulling the transporter. Other optional handling operations described below may similarly be effected hydraulically. Thus, by the provision of appropriate controls on the tractor itself, the whole bale-handling sequence of operations may be carried outwithoutthe tractor driver leaving this vehicle.

While the loading as described may be carried out from the rear of the transporter, in practice it is much more convenient, and strongly preferred, to conduct it as a side-loading operation. The bale may then be deposited on the transporter with its axis parallel to the length of the transporter. Means may then be provided for moving the bale away from the loading point, for example towards the rear of the transporter, thereby leaving space for loading another bale.

By repeating the loading and moving sequence, a number of bales may be stacked, with their horizontal axes in alignment, down the length of the transporter. For example three, four, five or six bales may be collected together in this way.

The means for moving the bale(s) towards the rear of the transporter may take various forms and be operated, for example, hydraulically or by an appropriate mechanical method. For example, continuous chain or belt may extend rearwards from the loading position and may carry slats or spikes to assist engagement with the bales and convey them towards the rear of the transporter. In another, much preferred, form of my invention, a ram is provided, which may if desired be operated hydraulically from the tractor, for example by a hydraulic piston aligned with the transporter axis, and which pushes the bales away from the loading point towards the rear of the transporter.

I have described these two forms of the means for moving the bales on the basis that the individual bales are loaded at the front end of the transporter and this is indeed a preferred arrangement since the loading operation is then carried out close to the driving position, that is close to the operator when the operations are carried out from a towing tractor.

However, it will be understood that the loading could be carried out at a point towards the rear of the transporter, the bales, once loaded, being then moved forwards away from the loading point.

An alternative means for moving the bale(s) towards the rear may take the form of a pusher having an associated ground-engaging member.

Thus, when a bale has been loaded, the latter member may be operated so as to engage the ground below the transporter. Forward movement of the tractor and transporter may then cause the member and the pusher associated with it to "move" (in the relative sense) towards the rear of the transporter, in turn pushing the bale(s) rearwards. The pusher may then be returned, or return automatically under say a spring load, to the baleloading position.

The stability of the transporter may be enhanced when carrying the bales if the bale-carrying surface is curved so as to limit lateral movement of the bales. Thus the bale-carrying surface may be partcylindrical, the axis of the cylinder being parallel to the length of the transporter. Since most round bales have a diameter of the order of four feet to six feet the part-cylindrical bal-carrying surface may usefully have a diameter of the order of five to six feet, expecially about six feet. A further advantage of a bale-carrying surface which is curved and generally matches the dimensions of the bales to be loaded is that it helps to retain the shape of the bales. Silage bales in particular have a tendency to flatten to an oval cross-section in the absence of such support.

The unloading of the bales may if desired be effected individually but it is convenient to unload all the bales on the transporter in a single operation.

Thus although it would be possible to unload a single bale by a reverse of the loading operation, or to extend the ram action to enablethe unloading of individual bales from the rear of the transporter, it is much preferred to tip the bale-carrying surface and thereby unload all the bales therefrom. The surface may be tipped steeply towards the rear of the transporter to deposit bales in a vertical stack but I strongly prefer that the baie-carrying surface be tipped laterally so as to leave a line of bales lying on their round surfaces.

My invention will now be further described by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a schematic view, from the front, of one form of bale transporter according to my invention, in a position in which a bale is ready to be gripped for loading; Figures 2to 5are views corresponding to Figure 1, showing successive steps in the loading of a bale; Figure 6 is a further view corresponding to Figure 1, showing the unloading of bales from the transporter; Figure 7 is a plan view of the transporter, in the position shown in Figure 1; and Figure 8 is a plan view of a transporter having an alternative bale-gripping action.

Referring to the drawings, the transporter 11 illustrated is in the form of a trailer on a single axle 12 located towards the rear of the trailer. The transporter 11 is coupled at 13 (Figures 7 and 8) to a tractor (not shown) and all the bale-handling operations are powered from the tractor's hydraulic system.

Projecting from the side of the trailer, slightly more than one bale-length from the front end of the latter, is a side-arm 14, pivoted at 15 for arcuate movement in a vertical plane. The side-arm 14 carries two forward-facing prongs, namely a fixed prong 16 and a movable prong 17. The prong 17 is slidably mounted within a channel in the side-arm 14 and can thereby be moved away from or towards the prong 16.

When a bale 18, lying on its side on the ground, is to be loaded, the tractor is driven to position the transporter 11 such that, with the side-arm 14 lowered to or towards its lowest position and extended so as to space the prongs well apart, the prongs 16 and 17 lie on opposite sides of the bale 18.

The setting of the side-arm in the vertical plane is preferably such that the prongs 16 and 17 will embrace the bale 18 at or slightly below its notional diameter line. However the preferred setting may be left to the decision of the operator in the particular circumstances of operation.

The position at this point is as shown in Figure 1.

The prong 17 is now caused to move with a parallel action towards prong 16, until the bale 18 is gripped as illustrated in Figure 2. Pivotting now of the side-arm 14 about the pivot point 15 lifts the bale through an arc, via the intermediate position shown in Figure 3, until the centre of gravity of the bale has passed beyond the pivot 15 and the bale lies above the curved bale-carrying surface 19 as shown in Figure 4. At this point the prong 17 may be moved away from the prong 16 (Figure 5) to allow the bale 18 to drop gently on to the surface 19. How closely the bale has approached the surface 19 before it is released is a matter of preference and design but in general the distance dropped by the bale is preferably small. The distance may be varied to some extent in practice by the operator.

The side-arm 14 is now swung back from its most inward-lying position unitl it is clear of the bale sufficiently to allow the bale to be move towards the rear of the transporter. If desired by the operator, the arm may be stopped once it has cleared the bale or it may be swung right out into a position for loading the next bale. Either way, the load bale is now pushed towards the rear by a ram 20 (Figures 7 and 8), working in a channel 21, until it has been moved by about one bale length. The ram 20 may be mounted either directly on the bale-carrying surface 19 or on the chassis of the transporter.

Figure 7 shows a situation where a previously loaded bale 22 has already been moved rearwards and a new bale 18 is waiting, as in Figure 1,to be gripped and loaded. The loading and pushing cycle may be repeated until the transporter is fully loaded, which in the case of the illustrated embodiments means that four bales have been loaded.

The alternative embodiment shown in Figure 8, in which like numbers are used for like parts, differs only in the bale-gripping mechanism. In that embodiment, a side-arm 24, similarly pivotted at 15, carries a fixed prong 26 and, pivotally mounted at the outer end 25 of the side-arm 24, a movable prong 27. Pivotting of the prong 27 is achieved by operating a double-acting piston 28 mounted on the side-arm 24. Thus operation of the piston 28 causes the outer end of the prong 27 to approach or move away from the fixed prong 26 and thereby enable gripping of a bale 29 between the prongs. In Figure 8, three bales 30,31 and 32 are shown as having already been loaded (in numerical order), so that bale 29 will complete the load.

The spacing of the prongs 26 and 27 is incrementally adjustable by insertion of a spacer 33, which lengthens or shortens the side-arm 24 and allows the loading mechanism to be adapted to bales of different diameter.

The loading mechanism illustrated in Figure 7 has the advantage that it needs no adapting for bales of different diameter. The loading mechanism illustrated in Figure 8 has the advantage that the pivoted gripping may be designed to operate more quickly than the parallel-action gripping of Figure 7.

With the transporter fully loaded, the bales may be transported to the desired unloading point and there, by tipping of the bale-carrying surface 19 about the pivot point 34 as shown in Figure 6, the bales may be unloaded all at once to lie in line on the adjacent ground. Tipping of the surface 19 is effected by operation of two hydraulic pistons (not shown) adjacent to the ends of the surface 19.

The transporter according to my invention has proved to be very effective in practice, enabling removal of bales from the field where they were formed, far more efficiently and quickly than by conventional methods. Atotally inexperienced operator was able to load, transport and unload round straw bales using a transporter such as that illustrated in Figures 1 to 7, reliably and without difficulty on the day following his introduction to the machine.

Claims

1. A transporter for round bales, characterised by a loading mechanism which grips a bale across its round surface, swings it upwards through an arc about an axis parallel to the bale axis until its centre of gravity is beyond the top of the arc, and then releases it on to a bale-carrying surface.

2. A transporter as claimed in claim 1, having a pair of generally parallel gripper members able to grip a bale by relative movement of said members.

3. A transporter as claimed in claim 2, wherein said relative movement is a parallel movement of the gripper members towards each other.

4. A transporter as claimed in claim 2, wherein said relative movement is a pivotal movement of one member towards the other.

5. A transporter as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the loading mechanism is mounted to the side of an elongated bale-carrying surface and the bale is released from a position in which it is above said surface and with its axis parallel to that of the elongated surface.

6. A transporter as claimed in claim 5, wherein said elongated bale-carrying surface is a partcylindrical surface.

7. A transporter as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the gripping of the bale and/or the swinging upwards of the bale are effected hydraulically.

8. A transporter as claimed in any of the preceding claims having means for moving a bale down the length of the transporter away from the loading position.

9. A transporter as claimed in claim 8, wherein the means for moving a bale away from the loading position is a continuous chain or belt.

10. A transporter as claimed in claim 8, wherein the means for moving a bale away from the loading position is a ram.

11. A transporter as claimed in claim 10, wherein the ram is operated hydraulically by a piston aligned with the axis of the transporter.

12. A transporter as claimed in claim 8, wherein the means for moving a bale away from the loading position is a pusher having an associated groundengaging member.

13. A transporter as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the bale-carrying surface is capable of being tipped to unload the bales therefrom.

14. A transporter as claimed in claim 13, wherein the tipping of the bale-carrying surface is in a lateral direction relative to the length of the transporter.

15. A transporter for round bales comprising an elongated bale-carrying surface, a pair of relatively movable gripper means located generally parallel to and to the side of said bale-carrying surface in the region of one end thereof, a pivot for said gripper means to allow them to be swung upwards through an arc about an axis parallel to said bale-carrying surface until they lie above said surface, and means to cause said gripper means to move towards and away from each other.

16. A transporter for round bales, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, Figures 1 to 7 of the accompanying drawings.

17. A transporter for round bales, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, Figure 8 of the accompanying drawings.