US 4,182,101 A · Machine for coiling fibrous crop materials into large round bales

Abstract

The machine employs a vertically oriented bale-starting chamber and a crop pickup located immediately below such chamber so that materials lifted from the ground by the pickup as the machine advances are fed directly up into the starting chamber to be acted upon by front and rear sets of oppositely moving, vertically disposed belts. A throat area at the bottom of the starting chamber and above the pickup is devoid of compression rollers and other like structure that would squeeze and compress the upwardly fed materials into a mat so that unencumbered free flow of materials up into the starting chamber is assured. A special bale-positioning roll adjacent the bottom of the chamber keeps the bale from riding against belts wrapped around a forward roll so that materials are not wedged in a pinch point where the belts contact the forward roller, and special projections on the forward roller clean out the area just above the latter so as to avoid the accumulation of trash material therein. Specially mounted bearings on the exterior of the sidewalls of the machine prevent wrapping of crop material at the ends of the rolls and premature bearing failure.

Claims15

Dependent claims

In a machine for rolling crop materials into cylindrical bales, wherein said rolling takes place entirely off the ground, the improvement comprising:

a vertically disposed, expandable chamber having a pair of initially generally vertically disposed web stretches defining opposed portions of the chamber and disposed to deflect laterally as the bale grows in size whereby to enlarge the chamber,
said stretches being drivable in opposite linear directions so as to impart a rolling action to material contained within the chamber;
means across the top of said chamber and spanning said stretches for limiting the upward movement of materials being acted upon in the chamber;
a pair of guide members adjacent the lower end of said chamber and spaced apart in a fore-and-aft direction relative to the path of travel of the machine,
said stretches being trained around respective ones of said members;
and
a crop pickup mounted below said members and between the same in a fore-and-aft direction for lifting crop materials off the ground and feeding the same directly up into said chamber in an upwardly flowing stream,
said pickup and said members cooperating to define an open throat through which materials may flow freely into said chamber without substantial compaction or clogging,
said stretches being linearly spaced portions of the same web.

6 more elements

In a machine for rolling crop materials into cylindrical bales, the improvement comprising:

means defining an off-the-ground, vertically oriented baling chamber within which crop materials may be rolled into a bale,
said chamber being expandable as the bale grows within the chamber;
a pair of members located at the bottom of said chamber and spaced apart in a generally fore-and-aft direction relative to the normal path of travel of the machine to define an open, non-compressive entrance to the chamber through which new crop material may be introduced;
and
a crop pickup located forwardly adjacent the rear of said open entrance in disposition for lifting crop material off the ground as the machine advances and for feeding the lifted material up through the entrance into said chamber,
the forwardly disposed member of said pair of members being spaced above said pickup so as to cooperate with the latter in defining a clear, unobstructed, open throat between the pickup and the forward member on the immediate upstream side of said open entrance with respect to the direction of crop material flow through the entrance.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Machine for coiling fibrous crop materials into large round bales

Life of this patent

Machine for coiling fibrous crop materials into large round bales

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15