Apparatus for loading and baling crop material

Abstract

In a baling operation that uses a continuously reciprocating plunger, if the next charge to be stuffed into the chamber has not yet reached the desired size and density by the time the stuffing fork is ready to begin its next operating cycle, the fork is temporarily deactivated, without affecting the plunger, until the charge reaches full size and density. Thereupon, the fork stuffs the entire charge into the baling chamber in a single cycle of operation for compaction by the plunger. The baler is loaded from the bottom of the baling chamber through an upwardly curved duct that serves both as an accumulating chamber and as a precompression area into which the charge is progressively packed by a rotating, retractable finger drum at the lower end of the duct. A backstop for precompression purposes may be presented at the top of the duct in a number of alternative ways, i.e., the moving plunger itself may be of such length as to cover the duct during a large portion of its stroke; the stuffing fork may be stopped at a position within and extending across the duct; or an auxiliary device may be rocked into and out of the duct in timed relation to operation of the fork.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.