Round baler having anti-wrapping idler rolls
AssigneeHay & Forage Industries
InventorsHoward J. Ratzlaff, Ferol S. Fell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An idler roll in a round baler has a number of belt-engaging portions spaced along its length, certain of which portions are of larger diameter than others so that the belts which wrap around the roll and are driven at a constant speed by other mechanism in the baler have a tendency to slip on some of the surfaces due to differences in peripheral speeds of such surfaces, which aids in maintaining the rolls polished and trash-free. A second idler roll has its own set of spaced, enlarged diameter portions, such portions on the second roll being in staggered relationship to those on the first roll so that the net differential in belt tension around the areas of large and small diameter is zero.
Claims19
In a round baler having a plurality of elongated, side-by-side, flexible, bale-forming belts driven in a longitudinal direction at substantially the same speed during bale formation and guided in their driven movement by at least one transversely extending, freely rotatable idler roll around which the belts are looped in engagement with the roll, the improvement comprising:
- said roll having a plurality of axially spaced portions along the length thereof underlying respective ones of said belts,
- at least one of said portions associated with one of the belts having a larger effective diameter than another of said portions associated with another of said belts whereby to cause slippage between the roll and the belts to inhibit the wrapping of crop materials around the roll.
In an idler roll for use in a round baler for guiding a plurality of elongated, flexible, side-by-side, bale-forming belts driven in a longitudinal direction at substantially the same speed and in engagement with the idler roll during bale formation, the improvement comprising:
- a plurality of discrete, axially spaced belt-engaging portions along the length of the roll corresponding in number and location to the number and location of said bale-forming belts to be engaged with the roll,
- at least one of said portions having a larger effective diameter than another of said portions for causing slippage between the roll and the belts to inhibit wrapping of the roll with crop materials during bale formation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.