US2237839A

US2237839A - Baler for sheet metal or the like

Info

Publication number: US2237839A
Application number: US179155A
Authority: US
Inventors: James N Miller
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1937-12-10
Filing date: 1937-12-10
Publication date: 1941-04-08
Anticipated expiration: 1958-04-08

Description

J. N. MILLER 2.237.839

BALER FOR SHEET METAL OR THE LIKE A ril 8, 1941.

Filed Dec. 10, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet l o 80 c a 23 42 22 L5 35 o o a 3i 41 1 2'6 ATTORNEY.

April 1941- J. N. MILLER 2,237,839

BALER FOR SHEET METAL OR THE LIKE Filed Dec. 10, 1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 April] J. N. MILLER 2,23

BALER FOR SHEET METAL OR THE LIKE Filed Dec. 10', 1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 IN VENTOR.

Patented Apr. 8, 1941 urrso res rrss'r orrios 7 Claims.

Th present invention relates to. leaders and; particularly to balers for sheet metal or the like.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a power unit which is capable of moving a packer in a plurality of directions for the purposeof scraping sheet metal into the packing receptacle and for the purpose of imparting a hammer blow action by the packer to the sheet metal to pack. the same in the receptacle.

It is another object of the present invention to provide for forcing a wedge into the receptacle to thereby cause the sheet metal to be packed against a wall of the receptacle.

Other and further objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description, referonce being had to the accompanying drawings wherein preferred forms of embodiments of the present invention are clearly shown.

Fig. 1 is a side view of one form of the invention, showing the receiving trough and the packing receptacle in section.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the same packing receptacle and receiving trough but on a larger scale.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line t-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4.- is a sectional view of the packing receptacle and receiving trough in modified form in which a wedge is also employed for packing.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional View similar to Fig. i but showing the wedge and the rear door of the receptacle in a different position.

Fig. 6 is a. top plan View of the packing receptacle shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. '7 is a rear View of the packing receptacle showing the door closed.

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 7 but showing the door open.

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary sectional View of the modification shown in 4 and showing scrap material being baled.

Fig. 10 is a view similar to Fig. 9 but showing as rear door open and the bale being eiec'ted.

Fig. 11 shows still another form of the invep tion in which the entire tractor is moved for reciprocating the packer.

Fig. 12 is still another embodiment of the invention in which the receiving trough receptacle are arcuate in shape.

Fig. 13 is a rear view of the packing receptacle shown in Fig. 12 and the supporting frame therefor; and

Fig. 14 is a sectional view taken on line i i-24 of Fig. 13.

Referring to the drawings, a simple form of the invention includes a power driven shovel machine ill in which the packer 2| is attached by brackets 22 to the dipper 23. This packer 2| is capable of being moved in a plurality of directions, namely, primarily, to scrap the sheet metal into a trough 25 and the receptacle 2B and for moving the packer 2| longitudinally of the trough for forcing the sheet metal from the trough into the receptacle 26.

The receptacle 26 and trough 25 are supported by frame 28, and include a bottom wall 29, opposite side walls 3!], rear wall 3|, and top side wall 32. slanting walls 34 also are carried by the frames 28. The rear of these slanting walls 34 terminate at the front of receptacle 26. The rear wall 3| is carried by brackets 35 which arehinged on ears 36 by a pin 31 and therefore the wall 3| forms a rear door for the receptacle which may swing rearwardly and upwardly. The door 3| is latched in closed position by a suitable latch The power shovel includes a truck in the form of a caterpillar tractor 4| carrying a swivel plate 42. The cabin portion 44 and the power machinery and control machinery are mounted for swinging movement on the truck. A boom 45 is carried with the cabin portion 44 and is held in place by guy cables or rods 46. The dipper stick 48 carrying the dipper 23 is provided with the usual teeth 49 which mesh with and are actuated by a gear 5|]. The gear 56) is mounted on a shaft 5| which also pivotally supports the dipper stick 43. The gear 5!] is rotated by the cable 52 which is connected with the power machinery and control mechanism within the cabin M. The top of the boom 45 carries pulleys 54 and a pulley 55 is carried by the dipper 23. A cable 56 rides on pulleys 54 and -55 and is connected with the power machinery within cabin M.

The machinery just described is the usual machinery employed in power driven shovels in which the dipper stick may be moved away from and toward the boom by the gear and the dipper may be raised and lowered by the cable 56. As is well known the power driven shovel actuating machinery may be swung, on the truck, in a horizontal plane. In the present invention the packer 2| can be swung in a horizontal direction by the swinging of the entire machinery on the truck and therefore scrap metal to be baled can be scraped and pushed upwardly over either of the inclined walls 34 and pushed into the trough 25.. It of course will be understood that the dip-per stick 48 and the cable 56 will be raised and lowered so that the packer 2| can slide over or directly above a slanting wall 34. Likewise, by the use of the dipper stick 48 and the cable 55, the dipper can be extended over a considerable distance for gathering and scraping scrap metal onto the inclined wall 34.

In the preferred manner of operating the baler, a sufiicient quantity of scrap metal to form an entire bale is first scraped into the trough 25 before an attempt is made to pack the material in the receptacle 26. During this gathering of the material it may be desirable to crush the sheet metal in the trough and for this purpose the dipper stick may be raised and dropped into the trough so that substantially all the material of the bale is contained within the trough before the packing is started in receptacle 26. It has been found that with experience the operator may accurately estimate the amount of material desirable to complete a bale. After all the material for the bale is within the trough 25, the g packer 2| is utilized first to pushthe scrap material into the receptacle 26. This is clone by manipulating the control mechanism so that the packer moves forwardly or outwardly in a substantial horizontal plane so as to push the material in front of the same into the receptacle. The packer is then utilized for the purpose of imparting hammer blow action to the scrap material so as to crush and compress the same within the receptacle 28. This is accomplished by lifting the dipper stick and the packer 2| and then'releasing the same so that the packer will swing rearwardly on the cable 56. It will of course be understood that hammer blow action may be imparted to the scrap material as it is being forced into the receptacle. The method of pushing the material into the receptacle and the crushing and packing of the samedepends considerably upon the type of material which is being baled. After the material is in the form of a bale, the door 3| is unlatched and raised so that the bale maybe ejected through the rear of the receptacle and the packer may be utilized for this ejection since the forward part thereof is long enough to push the bale out of the receptacle.

Under certain conditions it may be desirable to, not only employ hammer blows from the rear of the receptacle 26 but, also compress the material from another angle. For this purpose I have provided a wedge 6i), the top side of which lies substantially in a horizontal plane and in this preferred construction the bottom wall 6| of the trough and receptacle inclines upwardly, rearwardly, as is shown in Fig. 4. Bydriving the wedge rearwardly, the depth of the receptacle is decreased as is shown in Fig. 5 andtherefore the material will be compressed between the wedge 5t and the top wall 32. The wedge will be moved rearwardly for compressing the material by imparting hammer blow actions thereto by the packer 2| in the same manner that the packer applies hammer blow actions to the material being baled. In this embodiment of the invention, it is desirable to provide a sliding door'for the rear end of the receptacle and such sliding door is shownat 63. This sliding door is carried in guide frames 64 and in the present embodiment, the door slides upwardly. The door 63 rides upon the top surface of wedge 6| and is adapted to slide upwardly to accommodate the increasing taperof the wedge 6|]. The upper part of the door is provided with a large opening 65 which is arranged to receive the forward part of packer 2| whereby the shovel machinery may be utilized for raising the door higher inorder that the bale might be ejected through the rear of the receptacle. A friction type latch 61 is pivotally carried by one of the frames 64 for frictionally holding the door in its raised position. Here again the packer may be utilized for ejecting the bale from the receptacle 26. Such operation is shown in Fig. 10 wherein the bale is shown at 68. It will be noted in Fig. 10 that the wedge 60 has been withdrawn from. its packing position shown in Fig. 5 so as to relieve the binding action between that and the upper wall 32. The wedge 6|] may be withdrawn by the packer 2|. The forward end of the wedge 60 is formed with a shoulder 69 and the rear end of the packer can be manipulated to strike this shoulder so as to withdraw the wedge 60 from its wedging position.

Preferably the packing face area of the packer 2| is smaller than the area of the mouth of the receptacle in which the scrap materials are baled. If the depressions and impressions left by the packer due to the hammer blow action are undesirable, the hammer blow' action may be imparted to the material through a plate 10 such as that shown in Fig. 9. In this manner all the side walls of the bale will have a relatively smooth surface. Also if desirable, the wedge 60 may be used but preferably the plate 10 is removed before the wedge is driven rearwardly.

The manipulation of the control mechanism of the shovel machinery may be simplified by forming the trough and receptacle in a form following an arc. Such trough and receptacle are shown at 12 and 13 respectively in Fig. 12. It will be noted that the shovel or dipper 23 has been omitted in this embodiment and it of course will be understood that this dipper may be omitted in the other embodiments of this invention but when the shovel is omitted a relatively heavy packer 2| is desirable to compensate for the weight of the dipper in order that the hammer blows will be suificient to pack and compress the material being packed. In the embodiment in Fig. 12 the slanting walls 34 shown by the dotted lines, not only extend throughout the length of the trough but also throughout the length of the receptacle. The rear wall 14 is stationary but the upper wall is in the form of a door 15 which is swung open to the dotted line position during the gathering operation so that the material may be slid up the wall 34 and directly dumped into the receptacle l3. In the operation of this embodiment, after sufiicient material has been inserted within receptacle l3 and the rear part of trough 12, the dipper 2| is raised and dropped upon the material so as to partly crush the same and then the door 15 is closed and held closed by a suitable latch or latches 16. The packer is then manipulated through the power machinery to impart hammer blow action to the material to compress and bale the same. It will be of course understood that this same method of operation may be carried out in the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 and 2, that is the rear wall may be stationary, the upper wall forming a door and the slanting walls 34 which extend to the rear end of the receptacle 26.

If desirable a long pointed nose 18 may be formed on the packer which not only assists in crushing the material being packed but may be utilized as a tine for removing the bale from the receptacle 13, that is by driving the nose 18 into the bale and then lifting upwardly on the dipper stick, the bale can be lifted out of the receptacle I3.

In all of the heretofore described embodiments of this invention the unit including the supporting frames, trough and receptacle may be attached to and movable with the power driven machinery. For this purpose, the unit is attached by rods or bars 80 to the swivel plate 42. By hooking the forward part of packer 2|, for example, under the top wall 32 of the receptacle '26, the trough and receptacle unit may be raised and swung in a horizontal plane with the cabin and machinery or may be bodily moved when the tractor is moved. Thus the entire machine may be moved from scrap pile to scrap pile. I

A further embodiment of the invention is shown in Fig. 11 wherein the packer 82 is swung horizontally for scraping the material up the slant ing wall 34 by manipulating the tractor 83. The packer 82 may be raised through a cable M and dropped on to the material within. the trough 25 or within the trough and receptacle l2 and i3 respectively of Fig. 12 so as to crush the material. In this embodiment the packing and baling is accomplished by lowering the packer 82 into the trough 25 and then ramming the nose 85 into the sheet metal to pack the same within the receptacle.

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have provided a baler which not alone is utilized for compressing and packing the scrap material but which is also sufficiently mobile for gathering and scraping the material in position to be baled into the baling receptacle. Also the entire baling apparatus and the power unit therefor are embodied in a single unitary structure which can be moved from place to place whereby the baling may take place adjacent the material which is to be baled.

While the forms of embodiments of the present invention as herein disclosed constitute preferred forms, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted. all coming within the scope of the claims which follow:

I claim:

1. A baler for scrap sheet metal or like materials comprising in combination, a scrap receptacle having a movable wall and having an open side, a packing element for forcing scrap materials to be baled into the receptacle, mechanically operated means for imparting movement to the packing element through the open side of the receptacle and for imparting movement to the packing element for ejecting the baled materials out of the receptacle when the wall is removed.

2. A baler for sheet metal or the like comprising in combination, a receptacle having an open side, a wedge within the receptacle, a packer for forcing material to be baled into the receptacle, means for imparting movement to the packer for packing material within the receptacle between the wedge and a wall of the receptacle and for imparting movement to the wedge for packing the material toward said wall.

3. A baler for sheet metal or the like comprising in combination, a receptacle having an open side, a wedge Within the receptacle, a packer for forcing material to be baled into the receptacle, means for imparting movement to the packer for packing material within the receptacle between the wedge and a wall of the receptacle and for imparting movement to the wedge for packing the material toward said wall and for imparting movement to the Wedgel for withdrawing the same from the wedging position.

4. A baler for sheet metal or the like comprising in combination, a receptacle having a movable wall, a packer for packing material against said wall, a wedge for packing the material against another wall of the receptacle, said wedge being adapted to engage an edge of the movable wall and said wall being movable to accommodate the increasing taper of the wedge, and means for imparting movement to the packer and to the wedge.

5. A baler for scrap sheet metal or like materials comprising in combination, a scrap receptacle having an opening for receiving the scrap materials to be packed, a. door for said. opening, a packing element for crushing and pushing the scrap materials into the receptacle through the opening when the door is open, said receptacle having another opening through which the pack ing element imparts hammer blow actions to the materials in the receptacle when the door is closed, the closed door forming a wall of the receptacle against which the materials are packed, and mechanically operated means for actuating the packer.

6. A baler for scrap sheet metal or like materials comprising in combination, a scrap receptacle open at one side for receiving the materials to be baled therein; a packing element for forcing the scrap materials into the receptacle through the open side thereof; and means for actuating the packing element including a beam, mechanism for pivotally supporting the beam for swinging the end of the beam in a plane transversely to the open. side of the scrap receptacle, an arm, mechanism for pivotally supporting the arm on the beam, mechanism for swinging the arm about its pivot in a plane substantially at right angles to the first mentioned plane, said packing element being connected to the arm, and an engine for actuating said mechanisms.

7. A baler for scrap sheet metal or like materials comprising in combination, a scrap receptacle open at one side for receiving the materials to be baled therein; a, packing element for forcing the scrap materials into the receptacle through the open side thereof; and means for actuating the packing element including a beam, mechanism for pivotally supporting the beam for swinging the end of the beam in a plane transversely to the open side of the scrap receptacle, an arm, mechanism for pivotally supporting the arm on the beam and for moving the arm along its pivot, mechanism for swinging the arm about its pivot in a plane substantially at right angles to the first mentioned plane, said packing element being connected to the arm, and an engine for actuating said mechanisms.

JAMES N. MILLER.