GB2190405A - An unrolling distributor for roll bales - Google Patents

Abstract

Apparatus for unbaling wound bales 4 has a housing 3 with an open end, a bale supporting table 8 which is pivoted about a transverse axis 14 at the the housing end opposite the open end and which is spring towards the bale 4, and an elevator 16 with spikes 21 for opening fibres off the bales 4 and for carrying the fibres for subsequent discharge during a descending run 18 of the elevator 15. The apparatus is mounted on a carriage 1/2. The table 8 is a conveyor 5. A turntable 26 enables rotation of the housing 3 at desired positions to permit depositing the opened (loose) materials at desired locations. Pivoted prongs 29 load bales into the housing 3. The conveyor 5 comprises a plurality of spaced and parallel strips 9 extending transversely of the direction of transport. The elevator 15 has a transport surface formed by parallel, spaced apart strips 20 transversely of the transport direction. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION An unrolling distributor for roll bales The present invention relates to an unrolling distributor for roll bales.

In agriculture, use is being increasingly made of straw, roughage and the like brought into the form of roll bales. Various machines, called roll balers, are being marketed for forming such rolled bales. As a result of this development, there is now also a need for an apparatus for loosening, distributing and dispensing the material available in the form of a roll bale. Hitherto, this has been done manually by means of a pitch fork, whether or not after the bale has first been unrolled, which is highly labour-intensive.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an unrolling distributor for roll bales by means of which the material stored in a rolled bale can be loosened automatically from the bale in any desired quantity and be deposited at any desired place.

To this end, according to the present invention, there is provided an unrolling distributor for roll bales, characterized by a housing mounted on a carriage, said housing being open at least on one end; a bottom extending from adjacent the open end of the housing to adjacent the housing end opposite said end, forming a bearing area for a roll bale, said bottom being adapted to pivot upwardly about a transverse axis located near the end of the housing opposite the open end thereof; an elevator located opposite the open end of the housing and slanting steeply upwardly, said elevator having catch members which, in operation, convey material from a bale in upward direction and release it during a descending run of the elevator; and pivoting means which, when the apparatus is in operation, exert such a force on the bottom that said bottom constantly tends to pivot upwardly about said transverse axis.

One embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig.1 is a diagrammatic side view of an embodiment of an apparatus according to the present invention; and Fig.2 is a rear view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1.

The apparatus is shown in side view in Fig.

1, with the plating, preferably present in a practical embodiment, being omitted, at least at the side facing the viewer, while the required driving and operating members have also been omitted for the sake of clarity.

The apparatus shown in the figures is placed on a carriage comprising a pair of wheels 2 mounted under a frame 1. The frame is fitted conventionally at the one end (at the left in Fig. 1). With a drawbar eye or the like, not shown, so that the apparatus can be moved by a tractor in a simple manner. If desired, the frame may be fitted with a double pair of wheels, which, however, renders it more difficult to manoeuvre. If desired, the apparatus could also be designed as a stationary apparatus without wheels. Preferably, however, the carriage is designed as shown diagrammatically in the figures.

Near the rear side (at the right in Fig.1) of the frame and above the pair of wheels there is positioned on the frame a body or housing 3 open at least at the back and of such dimensions as to be capable of accomodating a roll bale lying with its longitudinal axis transverse to the plane of drawing, as shown by a broken line 4. In practice, the round bales have mostly a diameter of about 1.50 m and a length of about 1.15 m. However, the apparatus can be adjusted to any desired dimension of the bales. The body 3 may be open at the top.

The bottom of the body may slope slightly forwardly but is formed preferably by a bottom conveyor 5 having a width approximately corresponding to the length of the bales to be handled.

The conveyor comprises, as conventionally, two rollers 6,7 extending near the rear of the front of the body transversely to the body, and a belt 8, passed about the rollers. Instead of each roller, two pulleys or sprockets may be used.

Roller 7 (or the corresponding pulleys or sprockets) has a shaft 14 fixedly mounted in the apparatus, while roller 6 is a floating roller connected to shaft 7 by means of a subframe, not shown.

In a practical embodiment, the conveyor may include a plurality of strips e.g. of metal extending in parallel and spaced apart relationship crosswise of the body, said strips being attached to endless belts or chains extending longitudinally of the conveyor. Fig. 2 shows two of such strips at 9.

In operation, the conveyor is driven in such a manner that the upper run of the conveyor moves towards the front of the body 3, as indicated with an arrow 10. In the rest position, the conveyor 5 occupies an approximately horizontal position, as shown in Fig. 2.

In operation, however, the conveyor is adapted to pivot about a shaft disposed near the front of the body, e.g. shaft 14 or roller 7, so that the rear end of the conveyor moves upwardly. For this purpose, in the embodiment shown, use is made of at least one tension spring 11 mounted along a side wall of the body 3, one end of said spring being attached fixedly and the other end being connected to the subframe of the conveyor through a cable 12 shown diagrammatically.

The cable 12 is passed over a roller 13.

In case an inclined bottom is used, this can pivot in a similar manner and the cable 12 is fixed to the bottom.

Instead of a cable, use could also be made of a lever system or a combination of one or more cables and levers. Furthermore, the spring may be mounted in a different place and in a different position from those shown in the figure. It is also possible to mount a spring on opposite sides of the body. Instead of one or more tension spring's, it would, in principle be possible to use a spring system exerting a pressure force and which presses the conveyor upwards e.g. from the underside, so that this will pivot about the pivot 14. The only essential point is that, in operation, the conveyor is under spring tension, which pivots the conveyor upwards insofar as enable by the bale lying on the conveyor. A tilted position which the conveyor can occupy in operation is shown with broken lines at 5'.

Near the front of the body 3 there is positioned an elevator 15, which is mounted in a diagrammatically shown housing 25 open at the front and rear ends, and which comprises an elevation run 16 facing the body, and having substantially the same width as the bottom conveyor 5. Accordingly, the front wall of the body is in fact formed by the elevator. In addition to the upwardly extending run 16 facing the body, elevator 15 has a second run 17 linking up with the top and extending away from the body 3 slightly oblique forwardly and downwardly. The second run 17 is relatively short and preferably encloses an angle of about 90" with the first run.The second run is followed by a third run 18 extending downwardly and obliquely rearwardly down to the lower point of reversal 19, disposed approximately at the level of the rear point of reversal of the bottom conveyor, but located slightly more forwardly.

For that matter, in the same manner as the bottom conveyor the elevator can be designed with reversing rollers, sprockets or pulleys and transversely extending strips, such as the strips 20 shown in Fig. 2. A major difference, however, is that the elevator comprises catch members consisting in the present embodiment of projecting pins 21 spaced in side-byside relationship on each strip 20. Pins 21 extend preferably from the conveyor slightly obliquely in the direction of transport, as shown in Fig. 1.

The operation of the apparatus described above is as follows. First, a roll bale 4 is placed on the bottom conveyor 5. This presses the bale against the upwardly extending run of the elevator, which takes place both under the influence of the spring action exerted on the bottom conveyor and of the forwardly moving upper run of the bottom conveyor.

The catch members of the elevator now engage the bale, thereby taking along a layer of material from the bale in upward direction.

The layer of material is thus loosened from the bale and the bale is rotated simultaneously in the direction indicated with an arrow 22 as a result of the tangential forces exerted both by the bottom conveyor and the elevator on the circumference of the bale. The transport speed of the discharge conveyor exceeds that of the bottom conveyor.

The layer of material converged by the elevator shows in the first instance, especially in the case of a so-called hard bale of silage, a considerable degree of cohesion. This cohesion is reduced by the approximately rightangled transition of the elevation run 16 into the obliquely forwardly and downwardly oriented run 17 linking up therewith, as during this transition the material is slightly pulled apart, thereby becoming looser. This effect is repeated to a greater extent at the transition of the second run 17 to the third run 18, which extends obliquely rearwardly, so that the material falls in sufficiently loose form some distance beyond said transition approximately at the place indicated with an arrow 23.

It has been found experimentally that if the elevator is directly reversed from the upper point of reversal 24 to the lower point of reversal 19, the material does not fall off the elevator until at the lower end of the reversing run and has been loosened to a lesser extent at that.

According as more material has been taken off the roll bale and discharged by the elevator, the diameter and the weight of the bale are reduced. However, because the bottom conveyor pivots upwardly under the influence of the spring 11 or other means, the bale is nevertheless pressed against the elevator until the end and all of the material of the bale is uniformly discharged, loosened and deposited.

Naturally, it is not necessary to handle an entire bale at one go. This can take place at intervals and in different places by disengaging to drive mechanism of the conveyors and by moving the apparatus.

In the position shown in Fig. 1, the material falling off elevator 15 would fall on and through the frame 1, so that the apparatus or the tractor would have to be driven over this material, which is undesirable. This problem could be solved by placing a receptable on the frame 1.

According to the present invention, there is mounted between the frame 1 and the underside of body 3 and the housing 25 a turntable 26 enabling rotation of the body 3 and the interconnected parts about a vertical axis 27.

As a result, the loosened material can be deposited as desired beside or behind the frame, so that, in fact, the apparatus according to the invention permits depositing the loosened material in the desired quantity directly at the desired place, which is a substantial economy in labour.

To fix the apparatus in the desired position relative to the frame, means may be employed in the form of e.g. a friction brake, or an assembly of catches and cams, enabling a continuous or stepwise rotation of the apparatus relative to the frame. The construction of such means is obvious to one skilled in the art and, consequently, will not be further described herein.

The rotation about the axis 27 can take place manually or with an appropriate drive mechanism.

In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus according to the present invention further comprises means for depositing a roll bale on the bottom conveyor. These means include a shaft 28 provided at the rear of the body 3 adjacent the underside thereof, extending crosswise of the body, said shaft being fitted with a plurality of prongs 29 extending away from the body. Shaft 28 further includes means for rotating the shaft, so that the prongs pivot upwardly, as shown with an arrow 29'. By driving the apparatus in rearward direction, until the prongs engage with a ready bale, and subsequently pivoting the prongs upwards, the bale can be deposited on the bottom conveyor.

Shaft 28 may be fixedly mounted in the frame of the body 3 or in special frame portions provided on the frame 1. However, it is also possible to mount the shaft in such a manner, that it can also be moved upwardly and downwardly, so that higher positioned bales can be picked up and loaded into the apparatus.

The drive mechanism of the various parts of the apparatus to be driven is preferably hydraulic, but other driving methods are possible.

It is observed that after the foregoing, various modifications are obvious to one skilled in the art. For instance, it is possible to provide the bottom conveyor with similar catch members, to those of the elevator. Besides, the two conveyors are preferably fitted with a plate or the like disposed precisely under the active runs 10, 16 and 17, so that material falling through the strips 9, 20 is collected. If conveyors with closed surfaces are used, such plates are not necessary.

These and similar modifications are deemed to fall within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (16)

1. An unrolling distributor for roll bales, characterized by a housing mounted on a carriage, said housing being open at least on one end; a bottom forming a bearing area for a roll bale and extending from adjacent the open end of the housing to adjacent the housing end opposite said end, said bottom being adapted to pivot upwardly about a transverse axis located near the end of the housing opposite the open end thereof; an elevator located opposite the open end of the housing and slanting steeply upwardly, said elevator having catch members which, in operation, convey material from a bale upwardly and release it during a descending run of the elevator; and pivoting means which, when the apparatus is in operation, exert such a force on the bottom that said bottom constantly tends to pivot upwardly about said transverse axis.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the bottom is formed by a conveyor 5 having a direction of transpoart towards the elevator 15.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that the bottom conveyor 5 comprises a plurality of spaced apart, parallel, elongate strips 9 extending transversely to the direction of transport and forming at least partly the transport surface.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the pivoting means comprise at least one spring means.

5. An apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that the spring means is a tension spring 11, one end of which is fixed to the housing while the other end is connected to the bottom (conveyor) spaced apart from the transverse axis by means of a cable passed through one or more guide members 13.

6. An apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that, in addition to a slanting, steeply rising elevation run 16, the elevator 15 has a second run 17 linking up therewith in the direction of transport and sloping from the top end of the elevation run slightly downwardly, said second run linking up with a return run 18 extending obliquely rearwardly and downwardly.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that the second run encloses an angle of substantially 90" with the elevation run, and encloses a smaller angle with the return run.

8. An apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the elevator has a transport surface formed at least partly by parallel, spaced apart strips 20 extending transversely to the transport direction.

9. An apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that at least some of the strips include a plurality of spaced apart side-by-side fingers 21 forming catch members.

10. An apparatus according to claim 9, characterized in that the fingers point obliquely in the direction of transport

11. An apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that at least some of strips 9 o the bottom conveyor have catch fingers.

12. An apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the housing is mounted on a horizontal turntable 26 installed on the carriage.

13. An apparatus according to claim 12, characterized by means for securing the housing in a desired rotational position relative to the carriage.

14. An apparatus according to any one ofthe preceding claims, characterized by loading means mounted on the apparatus at the open end of the housing, said loading means including a plurality of prongs 29 pointing, in operation, away from said open end, said prongs being arranged to be pitched into a roll bale and to pivot their distal ends upwardly about a shaft 28 extending transversely to the housing for loading a bale into the housing.

15. An apparatus according to any one of claims 2,14, characterized in that, in operation, the elevator has a higher transport speed than the bottom conveyor.

CLAIMS Amendments to the claims have been filed, and have the following effect, New claims have been filed as follows:

16. An unrolling distributor for roll bales, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.