IES68519B2 - A bale shredder - Google Patents

Abstract

A device adapted for shredding baled fodder, comprising conveying means adapted to move a bale, against a rotor having a plurality of blades, the device also having a second rotor fitted with blades. Both rotors rotate in the same direction, and the blades on each of the rotors are arranged in a double helix pattern (intertwining double spiral pattern). The blades from each of the rotors pass through the same horizontal plane but not the same vertical plane so that at any given time in the place of overlap of the blades, at least one blade from either rotor passes between two others from the other rotor, the blades from each moving in opposite direction. The device may also comprise a conveying means for feeding out or delivering the shredded foddder and/or a retaining arm which keeps the bale pressed against the rotating drums. .

Description

The present invention relates to a bale shredding device in particular a device for shredding and feeding out bales of fodder more especially round and square bales of silage, hay and straw.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Devices for the tearing/cutting of round and square straw and grass bales are known. In particular international application No.PCT/N089/00047(publication number WO 89/11786) describes a device especially for the tearing/cutting of straw and grass bales. The device consists mainly of a rotation device adapted to set a straw/grass bale in rotation over a rotor having a plurality of blades and working in the straw/grass bale against rotating counter tools. A plurality of bands are mounted between and are adjacent to the rotating to the counter tools so that the counter tools are self-cleaning against the bands.

All round bales although they may look the same are actually quite different. This depends on the type of baler used, the compression ratios within a given baler and also the type of fodder being baled.

Some fodder may consist of long fibers of material or alternatively very short material. The fodder may have a high or low moisture content. Short fiber fodder would tend to be more lush and thus have a higher water content. The more fibrous material would tend to be ( dryer. For instance first cut silage i.e. the first silage cut in a given year tends to consist of long blades and stems of grass. Such « silage can consist of fibers up to 90cm in length. Subsequent silage cuts tend to be shorter.

Some baling machines use a high pressure packing system which ensures that the fodder is packed very tightly into the bale. Other balers using lower compression tend to form looser bales. This may result in hard i.e. tightly packed bales or soft i.e. loosely packed bales.

Round bales of fodder are stored usually lying on their sides and may be stacked upon each other. Such storage can cause the bale to deform quite noticeably. The more loosely packed and the higher the moisture content the more likely it is to deform. Some bales tend to become flat bottomed over a period of time even if no weight is placed on them.

Such deformed bales present problems for devices designed to shred bales. For instance a bale having flat sides is not easily rotated and thus is not easily fed into the cutting blades of a shredder.

While the bales which tend to deform most are the loosely packed, high moisture content, bales, other bales which keep their shape better provide other problems. For instance bales which contain long fibers of fodder are not easily shredded as the fibers of the fodder tend to become wrapped around the rotary cutting drum of the devices of the prior art. The fodder gradually becomes built up on the cutting rotary drum and the shredding action is gradually reduced. v Furthermore tightly packed bales tend to have a hard center or 4 core which is not easily shredded.

When the outer layers of the bale have been shredded off and the hard center is left then this may be flung out of the machine or at least away from the rotating cutting blades as the blades do not cut into the hard center and the hard center therefore tends to be thrown back by the action of the blades. The large mass of the bale is no longer present to keep this part of the bale pressed up against the cutting drum.

Some modern baling machines are now fitted with knives which in theory cut the longer fibers so that they are a manageable length.

Bales formed by such a machine are therefore more easily shredded. However the existence of these machines does not remove the need for a shredding machine which can cope with bales produced from other balers and/or which are misshapen.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide a bale shredding device which copes equally well with bales which are densely or loosely packed and which are composed of fodder which has a long fiber length and/or short fiber length and which may have a high or low moisture content, or bales which may be misshapen.

SUMMARY OF THE IHVENTION The present invention relates to a device adapted for shredding baled fodder, comprising conveying ineans adapted to move a bale, against a rotor having a plurality of blades, characterised in that the device further comprises a second rotor also fitted with blades, both rotors rotating in the same direction, and in that the blades on each of the rotors are arranged in a double helix pattern (intertwining double spiral pattern) and are arranged so that the blades from each of the rotors pass through the same horizontal plane but not the same vertical plane so that at any given time in the place of overlap of the blades, at least one blade from either rotor passes between two others from the other rotor. The blades from each moving in opposite directions. The blades of the device are triangular shaped and planar.

The device of the invention may also further comprise a conveying means for feeding out or delivering the shredded fodder. The conveying means is height adjustable. e In a preferred embodiment the device of the invention further comprises a retaining arm which keeps the bale pressed against the rotating drums. The retaining arm may be provided with biasing means.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a perspective view of the device of the invention.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the rotating drums of the device of the invention Figure 3 is a side elevation of the device of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIHEMTS With reference to Figures 1 to 3, bale shredder 1 consists of a frame 2, drive means 3, conveyors 4, 5 and rotors 7 and 8.

With reference to Figure 1 the frame 2 of the bale shredder 1 has a holding area 6 for a round bale 9 of fodder. Bale shredder 1 may also be used to shred rectangular or 'square' bales, in particular large square bales. The holding area 6 has a gate 10 which allows the bale 9 to be placed within the holding area 6* Gate 10 pivots on a hinge 11. When it is desired to place a bale 9 in the holding area 6, gate 10 is lowered so that the holding area 6 has one open side which /. allows for ease of insertion of bale 9.

However the bale 9 may be placed in holding area 6 using a loader etc. The position of gate 10 is controlled using two chains (not shown), one on each side of gate 10 and attached to frame 2 of the bale shredder 1 by hooks (not shown). The hooks allow the chains to be fixed at any length and thus the angle at which gate 10 is positioned may be altered as desired. In particular gate 10 may be fixed in a substantially horizontal position to support a bale which extends beyond holding area 6. Holding area 6 can accomodate bales up to 1.2 metres in length or diameter. With gate 10 in the horizontal position bales up to 1.6 metres in diameter or length can be accomodated.

Bale 9 is inserted on its side and it is irrelevant in which direction the fodder was originally rolled to form the bale.

The floor of the holding area 6 is provided by a conveyor 4. When bale 9 is placed in holding area 6 it rests on conveyor 4 and thus may be moved by conveyor 4 in the direction of the arrow. On the side of shredder 1 opposite to gate 10 there are provided rotors 7 and 8 each of which are provided with a series of blades 12.

Each of the rotors 7, 8 is protected by side casing 25. In particular upper rotor 8 is also protected by an upper casing 13.

Deflectors 14 and 15 are fitted to the frame 2 at the rear of rotors 7 and 8 respectively.

To facilitate transporting a number of the bale shredders 1 together, in a transport container, it is possible to remove the upper casing 13, the deflector 15, and upper rotor 8 complete with side casing 25 so that the height of the shredder 1 is no greater than upper member 16 of the frame 2.

Conveyors 4 and 5 may be chain conveyors or belt conveyors.

A retaining arm 17 is pivotably mounted on the frame 2 as shown in Figure 1. The arm 17 comprises a rectangular portion of metal mesh.

The arm 17 is raised to allow bale 9 to be inserted. After bale 9 has been inserted the arm 17 is then allowed to fall so that it presses against bale 9.

Arm 17 may simply be provided with an off-centre pivot so that it naturally rests on bale 9 due to gravitational forces. Arm 17 could further be provided with a biasing means, e.g. a spring etc. so that it exerts a greater force on bale 9 than just that provided by gravitational forces. Alternatively a hydraulic ram may be used to move retaining arm 17. Retaining arm 17 will follow bale 9 as the bale is shredded.

In use the bale shredder 1 is connected to an agricultural tractor. Preferably, the rotors 7,8 and the conveyor 5 are driven from the p.t.o. of the tractor by means of a chain drive using a double sprocket arrangement. Alternatively, a hydraulic drive could be utilised but generally this does not provide sufficient torque.

A shaft 18 is driven in a well known manner from the p.t.o. of the tractor. The shaft rotates in a bearing 3. A drive sprocket 19 is splined on the end of the shaft 18.

Drive from the drive sprocket 19 is transmitted by a chain 20 to one of a double sprocket 21 on the rotor 7, to rotate the rotor. 7.

Drive from the double sprocket 21 is transmitted, by a chain 22, to a sprocket 23 mounted on the end of the upper rotor 8. A third sprocket may be fitted to rotor 7 to drive conveyor 5. Both rotors 7, 8 are thus driven by drive shaft 18 and both rotate in the same direction. From the perspective of Figure 1 both rotors rotate in a clock-wise direction.

The bearing 3 is supported by an adjustable mounting, which may be moved to vary the tension in the chain 20.

In use the bale shredder 1 is fitted to a tractor. The shredder may be simply fitted to the linkage arms on the tractor and towed along behind the tractor on jockey wheels 24. It is not necessary to use a top linkage but a top linkage may be used if so desired. The bale 9 is placed in the holding area 6 of the shredder 1.

This is done by raising arm 17 and lowering gate 10 and may be done either prior to attaching the bale shredder to a tractor or afterwards. Gate 10 is then closed and arm 17 is then lowered when the bale is in position. Alternatively gate 10 may be used to support the bale 9 as described above. Bale 9 may be put in place using a front loader etc in which case it may not be necessary to open gate 10.

The machine is then set in motion by using the p.t.o. drive of the tractor to operate the shredder 1. The p.t.o. drive drives rotors 7 and 8, and conveyor 5 as described above. Conveyor 4 is set in motion using a hydraulic motor (not shown). Note that the bale 9 as shown in Figure 1 is perfectly round but the bale shredder 1 is specifically designed to cope with misshapen and other types of bales as described above.

The action of conveyor 4 and retaining arm 17 cause the bale 9 to be moved towards rotors 7 and 8. As bale 9 is pressed against the rotors 7 and 8, the blades 12 start to shred the bale. As the bale 9 is gradually shredded by the action of rotors 7 and 8 it becomes reduced in size and tends to rotate in an anti-clockwise direction. The rotation of bale 9 is caused by the movement of conveyor 4 and the rotating actions of rotors 7 and 8. The speed of rotation of rotors 7 and 8 is substantially greater than that of bale 9. Even if the bale is misshapen it will be gradually rounded off by the shredding action of the machine. Retaining arm 17 helps to ensure that bale 9 is kept pressed against the rotors and is thus gradually shredded. Retaining arm 17 also stops fodder from being thrown out of the machine by the action of the rotors 7 and 8. In particular if bale 9 has a hard densely packed centre then retaining arm 17 will ensure that this j remaining part of the bale is not thrown from the machine by the action of the rotors. ϊ Some of the fodder shredded from bale 9 will be taken over the top of rotor 8. This fodder is prevented by upper casing 13 and deflector from being thrown away from the shredder 1. The fodder hits deflector 15 and is dropped down onto conveyor 5.

Conveyor 5 is a transverse conveyor its motion in a direction away from, rather than along the shredder 1. The axis of rotation of conveyor 5 is parallel to that of rotors 7 and 8. Conveyors 4 and 5 also rotate in a clockwise direction from the perspective of Figure 1.

Most of the fodder from bale 9 will tend to exit the shredder 1 from between the top of lower rotor 7 and the bottom of upper rotor 8. At this point between the two rotors there is a shredding action as the relative motion of the blades 12 on rotors 7 and 8 is in opposite directions. Here a greater shredding action is achieved and the fodder is more finely shredded. The fodder which exits from this position hits deflector 14 and again is directed down onto conveyor 5. As described above conveyor 5 is also set in motion by shaft 18 and it delivers the fodder away from shredder 1. Conveyor 5 is height adjustable to allow fodder to be fed out from the machine at different height, levels, for example over the retaining wall of a feeder of manger etc. Conveyor 5 may be geared so as to deliver the fodder at a rate suitable to the rate of shredding. The shredder 1 may be moved along using the tractor and thus the fodder may be fed out into a feeding trough or manger as the tractor moves.

A more detailed description of the arrangement of the blades on rotors 7 and 8 is shown in Figure 2.

In particular the blades 12 on rotors 7 and 8 are arranged on each rotor in a double helix arrangement. . The path of the blades 12 on each rotor pass through the same horizontal plane between the rotors. The double helix arrangement on rotor 7 is offset from that on rotor 8 so that blades on both rotors do not collide i.e. do not pass through the same vertical plane. Rather at any given time a single blade from a given rotor passes between two others (which are slightly offset) on the other rotor at the position between rotors 7 and 8. The double helix arrangement of the blades 12 ensures efficient shredding of the fodder and maintains the rotors free of fodder, avoiding a build-up of material as happens with prior art machines.

The blades 12 are planar and triangular in shape. They are bolted to pieces of upright metal on each of the rotors 7 and 8. The double helix arrangement of the blades 12 ensure that at a given time only one blade cuts into the bale 9 removing a portion of fodder. The motion of the rotors 7,8 and the blade arrangement ensures that the blades 12 bite into bale 9 so as to keep the bale at the center of conveyor 4, and prevent movement of the bale off to the side of the conveyor.

Retaining a central position of bale 9 on conveyor 4 is important to ensure complete shredding of bale 9. Blades 12 bite into bale 9 in rapid succession thus ensuring a greater tearing action as individual pieces of fodder are removed from the bale by each blade.

In an alternative arrangement the shredder 1 is fitted with a loading arm similar to the type known for bale wrapping machines. The shredder 1 is thus self-loading and this eliminates the need to have alternative means for loading a bale 9 onto shredder 1.

Claims (5)

1. A device (1) for shredding baled fodder, comprising conveying means (4) adapted to move a bale (9), against a rotor (7) having a plurality of blades (12), characterised in that the device (1) further comprises a second rotor (8) also fitted with blades (12), both rotors (7,8) rotating in the same direction and in that the blades (12) on each of the rotors (7,8) are arranged in a double helix pattern and are preferably arranged so that the blades (12) from each rotor (7,8) pass through the same horizontal plane and not through the same vertical plane so that at a given time at least one blade from either rotor passes between two others from the other rotor.

2. A device (1) according to any one of the claims 1 to 3 which further comprises a conveying means (5) for delivering the shredded fodder away from the shredder (1).

3. A device (1) according to claim 2 wherein the conveying means (5) is height adjustable.

4. A device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 3 which further comprises a retaining arm (17) provided to press bale (9) against rotor (7) and/or rotor (8).

5. A device (1) for shredding baled fodder substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.