US 3,938,681 AGranted

Grappling hayfork

AssigneeHesston Corporation

InventorsMax E. Bennett, James Edson McCanse, Gordon L. Lawson, William H. Clark

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Abstract

A vertically swingable boom is provided with a downwardly opening grappling fork having horizontally swingable tines that are operated in unison by mechanism reciprocable vertically across the outer end of the boom. Power is supplied to the mechanism via a vertically swingable rocker and a fluid pressure piston and cylinder assembly lying along the boom and having a ram coupled with the rocker that reciprocates toward and away from the fork. Special geometrical and tolerance relationships between the tines and the plunger mechanism permit certain of the tines to move more deeply into the grappled load than others if disproportionate resistances are encountered, all without subjecting the fork, the connecting mechanism, and the ram to excessive bending forces.

Claims7

Dependent claims

In apparatus for handling animal foodstuffs:

an elongated lifting boom mounted at one end for vertical swinging movement toward and away from the ground;
a transversely extending, downwardly opening pickup fork on the opposite end of said boom having at least one pair of opposed tines mounted on the boom for generally horizontal swinging toward and away from one another to close and open said fork respectively,
said fork including mechanism intercoupling said tines with one another for actuation thereof in unison when said mechanism is reciprocated transversely of said boom;
power means having a component reciprocable along said beam toward and away from said fork;
and
structure operably coupling said component with said mechanism for effecting said transverse reciprocation of the mechanism during said longitudinal reciprocation of said component whereby to open and close said fork,
said mechanism including means permitting limited unequal swinging of said tines with respect to one another when uneven resistances are encountered during closing of the fork.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.