US 8,800,255 B2Granted

Arrangement and control of precompression rolls in balers

AssigneeCNH Industrial America LLC

InventorsJohn Henry Posselius, Christopher A. Foster, Johan A. Vande Ryse, Didier O. M. Verhaeghe

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Abstract

A baler and a method of using the baler to produce high density bales based on arrangement and control of compression rollers. The baler comprises a pick-up assembly configured to pick-up crop material; a rotary feeder; a compression assembly comprising at least one compression roller configured to generate a pressure on the crop material as it passes between the compression roller and another compression component in the baler; and a bale chamber, wherein the pre-compressed crop forms a bale. The compression roller and compression component define an adjustable gap therebetween. The one or more compression rollers and/or baler compression components may be located in various locations in the baler. By adjusting the gap, pressure exerted on the crop material as it passes between the compression rollers and baler compression components may be controlled, resulting in bales of higher density.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A baler comprising:

a pick-up assembly;
a rotary feeder downstream of the pickup assembly within a crop flow path;
a compression assembly comprising at least one upper compression roller configured to generate a pressure on crop material passed between the at least one compression roller and at least one lower compression roller, the at least one upper compression roller and the at least one lower compression roller having an adjustable gap therebetween, wherein at least one of the at least one upper compression roller and at least one lower compression roller is connected to a frame of the baler such that it is freely movable or preloaded with a spring or by an actuator and thereby is configured to adjust the size of the gap to remain in contact with crop material in the crop flow path, the compression assembly configured to pre-compress the crop material passed therethrough wherein the compression assembly is located adjacent the rotary feeder along the crop flow path and the gap of the compression assembly is less than a gap forming a portion of the crop flow path between the rotary feeder and an opposing crop guiding surface;
and
a bale chamber positioned downstream of the compression assembly and configured to receive pre-compressed crop.

2 more elements

A method for pre-compressing a crop material to form a high density bale comprising:

picking up crop material by a pick-up assembly;
conveying the crop material along a crop flow path from the pick-up assembly to a bale chamber by a rotary feeder;
pre-compressing the crop material by a compression assembly, wherein the compression assembly comprises at least one upper and at least one lower compression roller configured to generate a pressure on crop material passed therebetween, the at least one upper compression roller upper and the at least one lower compression roller defining an adjustable gap the compression assembly configured to pre-compress the crop material passed through the compression assembly, wherein at least one of the at least one upper compression roller and at least one lower compression roller is connected to a frame of the baler such that it is freely movable or reloaded with a spring or by an actuator and thereby is configured to adjust the size of the gap to remain in contact with conveyed crop material,
wherein the compression assembly is located ad adjacent the rotary feeder along the crop flow path and the gap is sized such that the gap is less than a gap between the rotary feeder and an opposing structure of the baler defining the crop flow path;
and
baling the pre-compressed material by a bale chamber to form a bale.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.