IES85956Y1 - Bale splitter with bucket attachment - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present invention relates to a bale splitter. The bale splitter comprises a support means having a plurality of tines for supporting a wrapped bale and a cutting means rnoveably mounted on the support means for splitting the bale and cutting the wrapping material of the bale. The bale splitter further comprises a removeable bucket attachment. The bucket attachment comprises a substantially imperforate base member for receiving loose material and a plurality of sockets provided on the base member, wherein a tine of the support means is received in each of the sockets.

Description

Field of the Invention The present invention relates to bale splitters and, in particular, to a bale splitter with a bucket attachment.

Baclground to the Invention Many farmers use a diet feeder wagon to mix and feed a balanced feed to their animals.

The mix would usually be silage-based, with more concentrated materials, such as rolled barley, soya, molasses etc., added. The silage may be added to the diet feed wagon using atined or forked implement, such as a bale splitter. However, because these other ingredients would often be provided in a loose granular form, tined cannot be used to handle them; rather they must be handled using a closed implement such as a bucket or scoop.

A tractor-mountable bale splitter such as that described in International Patent Application Publication No. WO20l0/016045 may be used to add the silage to the diet feeder wagon. The bale splitter is capable of splitting a wrapped bale of silage (or other fodder material) and separating the wrapping material from the split bale. The bale splitter comprises a tined support means for supporting a wrapped bale during splitting thereof. The bale splitter further comprises a moveable cutting means for cutting the wrapping and splitting the bale into two portions. A grab mounted on the support means is operable by means of an actuator to grip the wrapping material of the bale, so that as the split bale is discharged from the support means into the diet feed wagon, the wrapping material is retained by the grab.

Because the support means of the bale splitter is formed by a plurality of tines, it cannot be used to add the additional granular material to the feed mix. This means that it must be unhitched from the loader arm of the tractor and replaced with a bucket, which can then be used to handle to loose material. This requires the operator to get out of the tractor and disconnect the hydraulic hoses of the bale splitter from the loader arm and then connect the bucket to the loader. This is inconvenient and slows down the process of feed preparation.

K Summary); of the Invention The present invention relates to a bale splitter, comprising: a support means having a plurality of tines for supporting a wrapped bale; a cutting means moveably mounted on the support means for splitting the bale and cutting the wrapping material of the bale; and a removeable bucket attachment comprising: a substantially imperforate base member for receiving loose material; a plurality of sockets provided on the base member, wherein a tine of the support means is received in each of the sockets.

An advantage of the above arrangement is that the bale splitter may be used without the bucket attachment to split bales in the normal way. The bucket attachment may then be attached to allow the bale splitter to be used to handle loose materials, such as granular feed materials. Because the bucket attachment is attached to the bale splitter, rather than directly to the loader of the tractor, the operator is not required to manually disconnect the tractor hydraulics from the bale splitter and reconnect a separate bucket to the loader.

Preferably, the bale splitter further comprises a grab mounted on the support means for retaining the wrapping material of the bale when discharging a split bale from the support means, wherein the grab is operable by means of an actuator. The actuator may be a hydraulic ram. In other embodiments, the actuator may be an electrical actuator.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the bale splitter fiirther comprises: retaining means provided on the support means for engagement with the bucket attachment to retain the bucket attaclnnent on the support means.

The retaining means may be adapted for engagement with complementary retaining means on the bucket attachment. The retaining means may be operable by means of an actuator to retain the bucket attachment on the support means. The actuator may be a hydraulic ram. In other embodiments, the actuator may be an electrical actuator.

The retaining means and the grab may be operable by means of a single actuator, for example, a single hydraulic ram. An advantage of this arrangement is that only a single actuator may be provided to perform two separate functions on the bale splitter.

In a specific embodiment, the retaining means comprises a plunger pin and the complementary retaining means comprises a tab provided at a rear portion of the base member, the tab having a hole provided therein for engagement with the plunger pin.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bucket attachment for a bale splitter, the bale splitter comprising a support means having a plurality of tines, the bucket attachment comprising: a substantially imperforate base member for receiving loose material; a plurality of sockets provided on the base member, wherein each socket is adapted to receive a tine of the support means.

The bucket attachment may fiirther comprise retaining means adapted for engagement with complementary retaining means on the bale splitter to retain the bucket attachment on the support means. The retaining means may comprise a tab provided at a rear portion of the base member, the tab having a hole provided therein for engagement with a plunger pin provided on the bale splitter.

In a preferred embodiment, the sockets may be tapered from a relatively wide aperture at a proximal (or machine-facing) end to a narrower portion at a distal end. Preferably, the aperture is substantially wider than a tine of the bale splitter. An advantage of this arrangement is that it allows a user to insert the tines of the bale splitter into to the sockets more easily, since the wider apertures are easier to locate. When attaching the bucket to the bale splitter, the user has very limited visibility of the sockets, which may be located on the underside of the base member. Providing a wider aperture means that the accuracy with which the user must align the tines and sockets is reduced.

Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 is a rear perspective view of a bale splitter according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 1A is a detail view of the bale splitter of Figure 1; Figure 2 is a top perspective View of the bale splitter of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a rear perspective View of the bale splitter of Figure l, with the bucket attachment in place; Figure 3A is a detail view of the bale splitter of Figure 3; and Figure 4 is an underside perspective view of the bale splitter of Figure 3.

Detailed Description of the Drawings An embodiment of a tractor mountable bale splitter 1 according to the present invention is illustrated in Figures 1 to 4. The bale splitter comprises a support means 2 formed by a support frame 3 and a plurality of bale support members in the form of tines 4. The tines 4 are adapted to support a wrapped bale during splitting thereof. The tines 4 taper towards their distal ends to allow the tines to be slid between a wrapped bale and the ground to facilitate loading of the bale onto the bale splitter 1.

The bale splitter 1 fiirther comprises a cutting means 6 moveably mounted on the support frame 3 for splitting a wrapped bale and cutting the wrapping material of the bale. The cutting means comprises a pair of arms 7 pivotably mounted on the support frame 3 and a cutting blade 8 arranged therebetween, parallel to the pivot axis. The cutting blade 8 has a serrated edge for splitting the bale and cutting the wrapping material of the bale. The cutting means 6 is moveable by means of a pair of hydraulic rams 9 between a first position shown in Figure 1 and a second position (not shown) in which the cutting blade 8 is adjacent, but slightly spaced above, the tines 4, to split the bale and cut the wrapping material.

The bale splitter 1 further comprises a grab 10 mounted on the support frame 3 for retaining the wrapping material of the bale when discharging a split bale from the support means. The grab 10 is mounted approximately midway between the arms 7.

The grab 10 comprises a pair of jaws ll, 12 of which the lower jaw 11 is stationary and the upper jaw 12 is moveable by means of a hydraulic ram 13 between an open position as shown in Figure 1 and a closed position for gripping wrapping material as shown in Figure 3.

The hydraulic rams 9, 13 are powered by the hydraulic system of the tractor on which the bale splitter 1 is mounted. During the bale splitting operation, the hydraulic ram 13 is operated just before operation of the rams 9, so that the grab grips the wrapping material of the bale prior to engagement of the cutting blade 8 with the wrapped bale.

The grab retains the wrapping material until the split bale has been discharged from the bale splitter 1.

The bale splitter 1 further comprises a removeable bucket attachment 20 comprising a substantially planar imperforate base member 2 for receiving loose material, a rear plate 24 and a pair of side plates 22. The bucket attachment further comprises a pair of sockets 23 provided on the underside of the base member, wherein each socket is adapted to receive a tine 4 of the support means. Each socket 23 is substantially channel shaped and has an aperture 26 at a proximal end thereof. The aperture 26 is substantially wider than the width of each tine 4 to allow the operator to insert the tines into the socket easily. Each socket tapers from the aperture 26 towards a channel portion 25. The channel portion 25 of the socket has an inner dimension only slightly larger than the dimension of the tines 4 to provide a relatively close fit with the tine 4.

The bale splitter 1 further comprises retaining means 30 provided on the support frame for engagement with complementary retaining means 31 on the bucket attachment to retain the bucket attachment on the bale splitter. The retaining means 30 comprises a vertical plunger pin 32 operable by means of a linkage 33 connected to hydraulic ram 13. The complementary retaining means 31 comprises a tab 34 provided at a rear portion 35 of the bucket attachment 20. The tab 34 has a hole 36 provided therein.

When the bucket attachment 20 is mounted on the tines 4 of the bale splitter, the hole 36 in tab 34 is aligned with the vertical plunger pin 32. The hydraulic ram 13 may then be operated to lower the pin into the hole to retain the attachment 20 in place on the bale splitter.

In an alternative embodiment, the retaining means 30 may be provided by the grab 10 itself. For example, the bucket attachment may be provided with an extension portion at an upper end of the rear plate, which may be received between the jaws 11, 12 of the grab when the attachment is mounted on the bale splitter. The hydraulic ram 13 may then be operated to close the jaws 11, 12 to grip the extension portion, thereby retaining the attachment in place.

In use, the bale splitter 1 may first be used, without the bucket attachment 20, to split a bale and place the split bale in a diet feed wagon. Use of the bale splitter in this way is substantially as described in W0 2010/016045. The hydraulic cylinder 13 is then operated to open the grab 10 to discard the wrapping material removed from the bale.

In order to allow additional loose material to be added to the feed mix in the wagon, the bucket attachment 20 may then be attached to the bale splitter 1. This is done by lining up the outer tines 4 of the bale splitter 1 with the sockets 23 on the underside of the base member 21 as shown in Figure 1. As set out above, the taper of the sockets means that the tines do not need to be aligned precisely with the sockets. The operator then slides the tines 4 of the bale splitter into the sockets 23 as shown in Figure 2 and then tilts the bale splitter back so that the bucket attachment slides into place on the tines, with the rear plate 24 in contact with the support frame 3, as shown in Figures 3 and 4. This brings the hole 36 in the tab 34 into alignment with the plunger pin 32. The hydraulic ram 13 is then operated to lower the plunger pin 32 into the hole 36 to retain the bucket attachment 20 in place on the bale splitter. (This also has the effect of closing the grab , although this is not of particular relevance in the embodiment shown in the drawings). The bale splitter with bucket attachment may then be used to place loose granular material in the diet feed wagon (or other receptacle) for mixing with the split bale.

The words “comprises/comprising” and the words “having/including” when used herein with reference to the present invention are used to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

It is appreciated that certain features of the invention, which are, for clarity, described in the context of separate embodiments, may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features of the invention which are, for brevity, described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Claims (5)

Claims

1. A bale splitter, comprising: a support means having a plurality of tines for supporting a wrapped bale; a cutting means moveably mounted on the support means for splitting the bale and cutting the wrapping material of the bale; and a removeable bucket attachment comprising: a substantially imperforate base member for receiving loose material; a plurality of sockets provided on the base member, wherein a tine of the support means is received in each of the sockets.

2. A bale splitter as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: (i) a grab mounted on the support means for retaining the wrapping material of the bale when discharging a split bale from the support means, wherein the grab is operable by means of an actuator; and/or ' (ii) retaining means provided on the support means for engagement with the bucket attachment to retain t’h'e'bucket attachment on the support means optionally wherein the retaining means is adapted for engagement with complementary retaining means on the bucket attachment, and further optionally wherein the retaining means is operable by means of an actuator to retain the bucket attachment on the support means, for example a single actuator.

3. A bale splitter as claimed in aC1aim 2, wherein the retaining means comprises a plunger pin and the complementary retaining means comprises a tab provided at a rear portion of the base member, the tab having a hole provided therein for I engagement with the plunger pin.

4. A bucket attachment for a bale splitter, the bale splitter comprising a support means having a plurality of tines, the bucket attachment comprising: a substantially imperforate base member for receiving loose material; a plurality of sockets provided on the base member, wherein each socket is adapted to receive a tine of the support means optionally further comprising: reg)g7I69 retaining means adapted for engagement with complementary retaining means on the bale splitter to retain the bucket attachment on the support means; anf further optionally wherein: I (i) the retaining means comprises a tab provided at a rear portion of the base member, the tab having a hole provided therein for engagement with a plunger pin provided on the bale splitter; and/or (ii) the sockets are tapered from a relatively wide aperture at a proximal end to a narrower portion at a distal end.

5. A bale splitter, or a bucket attachment for a bale splitter, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and/or as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.