IE48903B1 - Improvements to forage feeders - Google Patents

Abstract

A forage feeder 2 fitted with the usual up and over beater 6 has an auger 10 for conveying the material from the feeder 2 to the outlet. In order to prevent waste of material between the beater 6 and the auger 10 there is a concave shield 14 under the lower beater the upper edge 18 of which is scraped by the flights 22 of the auger 10. The lower edge 24 of the shield 14 bears on the floor 4 of the feeder 2 and in order to ensure that the edge 24 is always in contact with the floor 4 the end portion is provided with saw-cuts to provide individual plates 30, each spring-pressed into contact with the floor 4.

Description

Improvements to Forage Feeders Vehicles designed for the mechanical feeding of animals are well known and come in a number of different varieties and with at any rate one exception suffer from the defect that the height of discharge of the forage is too low so that the farmer either has to have a very lowsided manger or none at all, in which case the forage is simply discharged on to an area of floor reachable by the animals. Very many farmers, however, prefer a high discharge height such as 3 ft. or even 4 ft. above the ground so that higher sided mangers, in many cases already existing before the machine arrives on the farm, can be used.

In my Patent No.l 375 031 I described how this extra height of discharge can be achieved by having a fairly large diameter beater drum fitted with teeth or tines arranged in such a way as to lift the forage material up and over and discharge it at fairly high level on to a transverse conveyor belt which in operation discharges the fodder sideways into the manger, and I have described how a problem of blockage can arise and give a successful method of overcoming this, namely by the use of a feed roller turning in the same direction of rotation and on a parallel axis to that of the beater drum.

One object of this invention is to provide an alternative and possibly cheaper method of producing a side delivery feeder.

According to this invention there is provided a forage feeder comprising a wagon, a horizontally mounted rotatable beater for breaking up the material in the wagon and urging it towards the discharge end of the wagon, a concave member or shield beneath the beater extending from the floor of the feeder forwards and upwards, the lower end portion of the said concave member having individual plates bearing on the said floor and means are provided for urging the plates into contact with the floor, the means being connected to each plate individually, in such a manner as to be able to bias individual plates towards the floor relative to the remainder of the plates.

One form of feeder made according to the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:Fig. 1 is a side view of the feeder; Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic side sectional view of the front part of the feeder; and Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view of the shield under the lower beater.

Referring to the drawings, the wagon 2 is provided with the conventional floor conveyor belt 4 and at the front horizontally mounted beater-drums 6 having a plurality of tines 8 for breaking up the material in the wagon. The beater-drums rotate in the direction of the arrow a so that the material in the wagon is thrown up and over. An auger 10 rotating in the same direction is provided near the beaters 6, this auger being parallel to and substantially at the same height as the lower beater 6 and working in a concave housing 12. The tines 8 of the beater 6 move close to a concave member or shield 14 provided beneath and to - 4 the front of the beater, this concave member 14 extending from the floor 4 to the auger concave 12. The edge or lip 16 of the concave 12 is joined to the edge or lip 18 of the concave 14 to provide an upstanding ridge or parting 20 between the two concaves 12 and 14. The flights 22 of the auger 10 are arranged to scrape or nearly scrape the ridge 20. Since the flights 22 of the auger at this point are moving upwards this continual scraping action will continually clear the ridge and prevent blockage. The auger 10 is chain driven at one end from the beater-drum shaft indicated at 23. By correctly handling the flights 22 of the auger the material which it receives from the beater will be discharged sideways at the opposite end from its bearings and drive sprocket.

The lower edge 24 of the concave member 14 bears on the moving floor 4. It is important that there should be no gap between the end 24 and the floor 4 since otherwise some of the material on the floor will drop down at the end and be wasted. The problem with the concave member 14 is that of providing an effective sliding seal between the lower and inner edge 24 thereof and the moving floor conveyor belt 4. Unless this seal with the conveyor 4 is carefully designed particles of forage feed get under the edge 24 of the concave until pressure is built up due to accumulating material and in the end the concave member itself is forced upwards until it fouls the tines or teeth 8 on the beater-drum 6 and at the same time forage begins to be discharged on to the ground. - 48903 - 5 To overcome this difficulty the concave 14 has saw-cuts 26 in a circumferential direction starting at the lip or edge 24 and extending inwards some 4, 8 or 12 for instance, the saw-cuts being possibly 8 or 12 apart and forming individual plates or segments 30. A coil spring 32 is attached to each segment 30 at 34 and anchored to a transverse bar 36 provided on the chassis of the wagon. In this way it is possible to take advantage of the small but finite flexibility of the metal of the concave 14 so that each segment 30 will more perfectly seal on to the surface of the conveyor 4 than would be the case if the concave were of one solid piece right across the width of the wagon.

If desired the concave member 14 is slightly eccentric relative to the beater-drum 6 in such a way that the radial gap between the tines 8 and the concave 14 is less at the top lip 18 than at the bottom 24. In other words, the radial gap diverges gradually in the direction of motion.

This has the effect of producing a degree of self-cleaning action as the tines 8 sweep round the arc concerned.

This application is divided out of Application No. 823/79 ^4-8801^ which claims a forage feeder comprising a wagon, a horizontally mounted rotatable beater for breaking up the material in the wagon and urging it towards the discharge end of the wagon, a feed delivery auger, a concave member or shield beneath the beater extending from the floor of the feeder to contact the auger trough providing a lip adjacent to the auger, the flights of the auger being arranged to contact or pass close to the said lip.

Claims (4)

1. Forage feeder comprising a wagon, a horizontally mounted rotatable beater for breaking up the material in the wagon and urging it towards the discharge end of the wagon, a concave member or shield beneath the beater 5 extending from the floor of the feeder forwards and upwards, the lower end portion of the said concave member having individual plates bearing on the said floor and means are provided for urging the plates into contact with the floor, the means being connected to each plate individually, in such a manner as to be able to bias individual plates towards the floor relative to the 10 remainder of the plates.

2. Forage feeder according to Claim 1 wherein the means for urging the said plates into contact with the floor of the wagon comprise individual springs, one provided for each plate, the lower ends of the springs being anchored to the chassis of the wagon.

3. Forage feeder according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the said concave member is slightly eccentric relative to the beater such that the radial gap between the tines of the beater and the concave member is less at the lip than it is at the lower end of the concave member.

4. Forage feeder substantially as described with reference to the drawings.