GB2146288A

GB2146288A - Big bale baler for agricultural crop material

Info

Publication number: GB2146288A
Application number: GB08416835A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Gustav Ackermann; Gerhard Clostermeyer; Werner Muller
Original assignee: Claas KGaA mbH
Current assignee: Claas KGaA mbH
Priority date: 1983-07-28
Filing date: 1984-07-02
Publication date: 1985-04-17
Also published as: GB2146288B; GB8416835D0; FR2549691A1; FR2549691B1

Abstract

A big bale baler 1 with driven winding rollers 3 which define the baling chamber at the periphery thereof includes a storage container 6 for a roll 7 of web material from which, after a bale has been formed, the leading end of the web can be passed by means of feed rollers 8, 9 into the baling chamber through a feed-in gap defined by two winding rollers. It is then gripped by the winding rollers and the finished bale itself so that the bale, in conjunction with the winding rollers, draws from the supply roll the length of web material necessary for winding around the bale, the feed rollers being in a non-driven mode in that operation. The revolutions of the feed rollers are detected by a counter (47, Fig. 6) which can be preset and, when a given number of revolutions of the feed rollers is reached, the operations of automatically severing the web by means of a blade and automatically ejecting the bale from the baler are initiated. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Big bale baler for agricultural crop material The invention concerns a big bale baler for agricultural crop material, which includes a storage device accommodating a roll of web material which substantially corresponds to the width of a bale and from which a length of web material is drawn off to be wound around a finished bale, and severed by means of a blade.

In known big bale balers, the swath of straw or other agricultural crop material is picked up from the surface of the field and rolled together and compacted to form a bale, thus resulting in a wound bale. So that for example web material can be passed around such bales, the leading end of the web of material may be fed from a storage roll by means of driven feed rollers into the gap formed by the swath picked up from the ground and the swath mat which has already been wound in the baler. While the swath continues to be rolled up, the leading end of the web of material is gripped and rolled therewith. However, there is always the risk that the inserted leading end of the web may not be further entrained with the bale so that the feed of material is broken off.

Another disadvantage is that the portion of the web material which is rolled in between the outer layers of the crop material gives rise to a very high level of consumption of binding material. In addition, the operation of opening up the bale when it is to be used is made more difficult.

The present invention was based on the problem of so designing a big bale baler that bales of high density can be formed and bound in a simple manner, with a saving in respect of material and time.

According to the invention, there is provided a big bale baler for agricultural crop material with spaced driven winding rollers around the periphery of the baling chamber, which includes a storage device for accommodating a roll of web material which substantially corresponds to the width of a bale and from which a length of web material is drawn off to be wound around a finished bale, and severed by means of a blade, the arrangement being such that, after a bale has been formed, the web material is introduced into the baling chamber by a pair of feed rollers having at least one drivable roller, through a feed-in gap formed by two adjacent winding rollers, and is entrained by the winding rollers and the bale itself, for the purposes of being wound completely around the bale.

In such an arrangement, one of the feed rollers may have a drive wheel which is connected to the feed roller by way of a free wheel device. Desirably the driven feed roller has a surface with a high coefficient of friction; this contributes to reliable performance of the operation of binding a finished bale of crop material. In an important embodiment of the invention the drive wheel for the feed roller has an elongate flexible drive member (such as a roller chain) extending partially therearound, the drive member being secured at both ends to the wide wall of the baler and, besides the drive wheel, also passing around two direction-changing rollers which are mounted rotatably on a pivotable lever.The pivotal lever may be mounted pivotably in its central region and have a respective directionchanging roller at each of its two ends, the pivotal lever itself being actuable by means of a hydraulic piston cylinder unit. It has been found advantageous for the blade for severing the web to be secured to a blade holder which is pivotable with a carrier shaft, the cutting edge of the blade to be of a continuously smooth configuration and the blade holder and thus also the blade itself to be arrestable in its operative rest position in which it does not affect the course of the web material. The arresting action may be produced in a manner that is simple from the design point of view, in that a locking bar is connected to the blade holder, the locking bar having a latch or catch member which can be retained behind an abutment, by the pushrod of a solenoid.Preferably, the rod of a compression spring unit is applied to the blade holder, the compression spring unit being prestressed by the blade holder when the latter is held in its rest position. In such a unit, a disc may be connected to the rod and a support member may be connected to the housing of the machine, with a compression spring mounted between the disc and the support member.

It is desirable for the pivotal lever to be of such a design that, after the web has been cut through, the blade can be returned to its rest position by the pivotal lever. For that purpose, a lever which moves with the blade can be returned to its rest position by a projection, which carries a roller, on the pivotal lever, after the web has been severed. From the point of view of the tractor driver, a substantial simplification is involved if a counter is connected to at least one of the feed rollers, the counter releasing the blocking action on the blade after a preselectable number of revolutions of the feed rollers and the blade then cutting through the web material under the force of the prestressed spring.In order to initiate that operation and to provide even more extensive simplification in the work involved, it is proposed that, after a bale has been formed, the operations of feeding the web forward, wrapping the bale with the web, severing the web and ejecting the wrapped bale are effected automatically in succession by manual actuation of a hydraulic control device e.g. using a control and counting means.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a side view of a big bale baler; Figure 2 shows a view on an enlarged scale of the web feed means of the big bale baler shown in Fig. 1, in the basic position; Figure 3 shows the web feed means illustrated in Fig. 2, in the operating position; Figure 4 shows the blade locking means shown in broken lines in Fig. 3, in the locking position; Figure 5 shows the blade locking means of Fig. 4, in the unlocked position; and Figure 6 is a circuit diagram to illustrate the sequence of operations of the baler.

Structure Reference numeral 1 denotes a big bale baler which comprises two divided housing halves 2 in which driven winding rollers 3 are mounted. The side walls 2 and the winding rollers 3 form the actual baling chamber 3'.

The two rear side wall portions are connected to the front side wall portions by way of bars 4 and, for the purposes of ejecting a finished big bale 4', can be pivoted away, jointly with the winding rollers associated therewith by way of pivoting cylinders 5 which are arranged at the side and of which only one is illustrated. Disposed in the upper region of the baler is a box 6 which is carried by the two side wall portions that are fixed with respect to the machine. A roll 7 of web material, which substantially corresponds to the width of the finished bale, is mounted in the box 6. The leading end 7' of the roll 7 of web material is held by the feed roller 8 and the pinch roller 9 which co-operates therewith (see Fig. 2). A carrier shaft 10 is rotatably mounted between the two side walls 2, underneath the feed roller 8.The carrier shaft 10 carries a blade holder 11 to which a blade 1 2 is connected, the cutting edge of the blade 1 2 being longer than the width of the roll 7 of the web material. Welded to one end of the carrier shaft 10 is a lever 1 3 which, in the position shown in Fig. 2, rests on the roller 14 of a projection 1 5 from a pivotal lever 1 6.

The pivotal lever is pivotably mounted substantially centrally on a pin or trunnion 1 7 which is connected to one side wall 2. For the purposes of pivotal movement of the lever, the piston rod 1 8 of a piston cylinder unit 1 9 engages the lever 16, with the cylinder 20 of the piston cylinder unit 1 9 being secured to a side wall 2. The pivotal lever 1 6 carries direction-changing rollers 21 and 22 at its ends, with a roller chain 23 passing around the rollers 21 and 22. One end of the roller chain 23 is secured to the bracket 24 that is connected to a side wall 2, while the other end of the roller chain 23 is secured to the further bracket 25 which is also connected to the side wall.Starting from the bracket 24, the roller chain 23 first passes around the direction-changing roller 22, then a chain wheel 8' which is fitted on the feed roller 8, and from there passes around the directionchanging roller 21 and goes to the bracket 25. In the condition shown in Fig. 2, the blade 1 2 is additionally also secured in position. Fig. 4 shows how that is achieved. It will be seen from Fig. 4 that a locking bar 26 which carries a latch member 27 is pivotally connected to the blade holder 11. The pushrod 28 of a solenoid 29 pushes against the locking bar 26 and thereby retains the latch member 27 behind the abutment 30. Besides the locking bar 26, the rod 31 of a compression spring unit 32 also engages the blade holder 11.In unit 32, the compression spring 36 is compressed between the disc 33 which is fixed to the rod 31, and the support member 34 which is fixed to the wall 2 of the housing .

The lever 1 6 can now be pivoted from the position shown in Fig. 2 into the position shown in Fig. 3, by retraction of the piston rod 1 8. The pivotal movement causes the direction-changing rollers 21 and 22 to be displaced in such a way that the feed roller 8, driven by the roller chain 23 in the clockwise direction, peforms a given number of revolutions whereby the leading end 7' of the web material is passed between the bale 4' and the winding roller denoted by reference numberal 38. The feed roller 8 is also provided with a freewheel which permits a rotary movement of the roller 8 only in the clockwise direction. The solenoid 29 still locks the blade 1 2 by preventing the bevelled leading face of latch member 27 riding up abutment 30.It is only after the bale 4' has been rotated by the winding rollers 3, 38 to such an extent that the web material 7 has been completeiy passed therearound that the solenoid 29 releases the blade 1 2 which, under the force of the compression spring 36, moves rapidly into the web material 7 and cuts through it (see Fig. 5). The bale 4' which is wrapped by the web material can then be ejected from the pressing chamber 3' and the pivotal lever 1 6 can be pivoted back into the position shown in Fig. 2. During that movement, the roller 14 bears against the lever 1 3 and pivots the blade holder 11 in the clockwise direction about the carrier shaft 10 until the spring 36 is restressed and the latch member 27 has dropped behind the abutment 30. The cutting arrangement is then again locked in position by the solenoid 29.

Mode of operation Reference will now be made to Fig. 6 to describe the mode oi operation in greater detail: As soon as a bale 4' has been wound in sufficiently firm and large form in the baling chamber 3', the bale presses against the winding rollers 3 which are connected to the pivotal wall portions, whereby the cylinders 5 are put under pressure which is in the lines 40 and 41 are displayed on the pressure gauge 42. That pressure is displayed to the tractor driver by way of a warning light.The tractor driver then stops forward travel and manually switches over the control valve 43 so that pressure oil passes into the cylinder 20 by way of-the line 44 and thus extends the piston rod 1 8. The valve 45 is still in a current-less condition and is therefore closed off, the solenoid 29 has voltage applied thereto and is extended, and the pressure switch 46 is closed (the oil pressure is above the switching point). While now the web material 7 is fed forward by the retraction movement of the piston rod 18, and drawn in bythe bale 4' which is still rotating, the revolutions of the feed roller are counted by an adjustable central control device 47.After the preset number of revolutions has been reached, which depends on the crop material and the desired degree of bale wrapping, the central control device 47 switches off the solenoid 29 whereby the blade is released and cuts through the web 7. At that moment, voltage is also applied to the valve 45 which is thus released so that the pressure oil can flow by way of the lines 48, 49 and 50 to the cylinders 5 which then open the baling chamber 3' for the purposes of bale ejection. The bale rolls onto the field over the resiliently mounted support rack 51 (see Fig. 1). After the bale has rolled out, the support rack 51 takes up the position shown in Fig. 1 and indicates by way of a signal to the tractor driver that the bale has been ejected. The driver then actuates the control valve 43 again, whereby the cylinders are retracted and the baling chamber 3' is closed again. At the same time, the piston cylinder unit 1 9 is extended whereby the blade 1 2 is withdrawn.

During that period of time, the pressure switch 46 is open because the oil pressure was below the switching point. When however the pressing chamber 3' is closed and the piston cylinder unit 1 9 retracted, the pressure supplied by the tractor hydraulics builds up in the entire system and the pressure gauge 42 indicates to the driver that he can continue his travel motion. The pressure switch 46 operateds and causes the solenoid 29 to be switched on and the blade 1 2 locked. The control device 47 is set to the zero condition and the valve 45 is closed again.

Claims

1. A big bale baler for agricultural crop material with spaced driven winding rollers around the periphery of the baling chambers which includes a storage device for accommodating a roll of web material which substantially corresponds to the width of a bale and from which a length of web material is drawn off to be wound around a finished bale, and severed by means of a blade, the arrangement being such that, after a bale has been formed, the web material is introduced into the baling chamber by a pair of feed rollers having at least one drivable roller, through a feed-in gap formed by two adjacent winding rollers, and is entrained by the winding rollers and the bale itself, for the purposes of being wound completely around the bale.

2. A big bale baler according to claim 1 wherein the drivable feed roller has a drive wheel which is connected to the feed roller by way of a freewheel device.

3. A big bale baler according to claim 2 wherein the drivable feed roller has a surface with a high coefficient of friction.

4. A big bale baler according to claim 3 wherein the drive wheel has an elongate flexible drive member extending partially therearound, the elongate drive member being secured at both ends to a side wall of the baler and, besides the drive wheel, also passing around two direction-changing roller which are rotatably mounted on a pivotal lever.

5. A big bale baler according to claim 4 wherein the pivotal lever is pivotably mounted in its central region and has a respective direction-changing roller at each of its two ends.

6. A big bale baler according to claim 5 wherein the pivotal lever is actuable by means of a hydraulic piston cylinder unit.

7. A big bale baler according to any one of claims 4-6 wherein after the web has been severed, the blade can be returned to its rest position by the pivotal lever.

8. A big bale baler according to claim 4, 5, 6 or 7 wherein a lever which moves with the blade can be returned to its rest position by a projection, which carries a roller, on the pivotal lever, after the web has been severed.

9. A big bale baler according to any preceding claim wherein the blade for severing the web is secured to a blade holder which is pivotable with a carrier shaft.

10. A big bale baler according to claim 9 wherein the cutting edge of the blade is of a continuously smooth configuration.

11. A big bale baler according to claim 9 or 10 wherein the blade holder and thus also the blade itself can be arrested in its inoperative rest position in which it does not affect the course of the web.

1 2. A big bale baler according to claim 11 wherein a locking bar is connected to the blade holder, the locking bar having a latch member which can be retained behind an abutment.

1 3. A big bale baler according to claim 1 2 wherein the latch member of the locking lever can be retained behind the abutment in front of a push rod of a solenoid.

14. A big bale baler according to claim 1 3 wherein, applied to the blade holder, is the rod of a compression spring unit which is compressed by the blade holder when the latter is held in its rest position.

1 5. A big bale baler according to claim 1 4 wherein, connected to at least one of the feed rollers is a counter which, after a preselectable number of revolutions of the feed rollers, releases the blade and the blade then severs the web under the effect of the spring unit.

1 6. A big bale baler according to any preceding claim wherein, after a bale has been formed, the feed motion of the web, the operation of winding the web around the bale, the operation of severing the web, and the operation of ejecting the wound bale are automatically effected in succession, by manual actuation of a hydraulic control device.

1 7. A big bale baler substantially as herebefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.