Bale weight measurement and control system using liftgate
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsCharles S. Sloan, Daniel E. Derscheid, Stephen E. O'Brien
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A bale holder is actuated to hold a bale in a lift gate of a baler. Lift gate actuators are then actuated to lift the gate, while it is holding the bale. A gate position sensor senses the position of the lift gate, and a force detector detects a force that is used in order to support the gate in the detected position. Bale weight generation logic then generates a bale weight based on the sensed lift gate position and the detected force. A control signal is generated based on the bale weight.
Claims20
A baler that generates a bale of material, comprising:
- a first housing;
- a lift gate pivotally movable, relative to the first housing, between a closed position and a lifted position;
- an actuator that is actuatable to move a moveable member to engage the bale, so the bale is lifted with the lift gate as the lift gate moves from the closed position to the lifted position;
- and
- a bale weighing system that generates a bale weight metric indicative of a weight of the bale when the bale is lifted by the lift gate.
A baler that generates a bale of material, comprising:
- a first housing;
- a lift gate pivotally movable, relative to the first housing, between a closed position and a lifted position;
- a lift gate actuator that is actuated to drive movement of the lift gate from the closed position to the lifted position;
- a bale retaining mechanism that includes an actuator that is actuatable to move a moveable member to engage the bale, so the bale is lifted with the lift gate as the lift gate moves from the closed position to the lifted position;
- a position sensor configured to sense a position variable indicative of a lift gate position and generate a position signal indicative of a value of the position variable;
- a force detector configured to detect a force variable indicative of a force used to support the lift gate in the lift gate position and to generate a force signal indicative of a value of the force variable;
- and
- a bale weighing system that receives the force signal and the position signal and generates a bale weight metric indicative of a weight of the bale when the bale is lifted by the lift gate based on the value of the force variable and the value of the position variable.
A method of controlling a baler, comprising:
- generating a bale of material in a chamber defined by a first housing and a lift gate pivotally movable, relative to the first housing, between a closed position and a lifted position;
- actuating a bale retaining mechanism to engage the bale so the bale is lifted with the lift gate as the lift gate moves from the closed position to the lifted position;
- actuating a lift gate actuator to drive movement of the lift gate from the closed position to the lifted position;
- sensing a position variable indicative of lift gate position;
- generating a position signal indicative of a value of the position variable;
- detecting a force variable indicative of a force used to support the lift gate in the lift gate position;
- generating a force signal indicative of a value of the force variable;
- and
- generating a bale weight metric indicative of a weight of the bale when the bale is lifted by the lift gate, based on the value of the position variable and the value of the force variable.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.