Hesston Corporation

Adin F Holdeman

Howard J Ratzlaff

Martin E Pruitt

Melvin V Gaeddert

Howard R Lohrentz

John Dale Anderson

Dwight C Moddelmog

The bale-forming machine has rolling mechanism that initially tumbles loose crop material forwardly between the mechanism and the ground as the machine advances along a windrow. Thereafter, the rolling material becomes confined off the ground in an elevated forming chamber as additional material is fed into the chamber and as the mechanism rolls the material into a bale. Upon reaching a predetermined size, the bale can be tied and then ejected from the chamber through the raised rear section of the machine.

Method and apparatus for making large round crop bales

The pickup assembly has an upright loading duct with a primary conveying impeller located between the upper outlet and the lower inlet of the duct. A secondary crop pickup impeller adjacent the inlet combs through crop stubble as the machine advances and lifts severed crop materials up to the primary impeller where the latter propels the materials upwardly through the duct and out the outlet. Flexible rubber fingers on the secondary impeller are generally T-shaped, having heads that are releasably clamped against the hub of the impeller by an inverted channel which is capable of retaining a series of the fingers at the same time. The secondary impeller floats independently of the duct and has one or more gauge wheels associated therewith to keep the fingers of the impeller from digging into the ground during rotation.

Crop pickup assembly

The cutting cylinder has knife segments extending across its periphery in a staggered pattern so that each row winds essentially helically from end to end of the cylinder, thereby providing an effective shearing action as the knife segments cooperate with a stationary shear bar to sever incoming crops into countless short lengths. Air and crop cups located directly below the knife segments capture the short lengths before they can enter the interior of the cylinder and sweep the same through the cutting chamber, blasting them out the discharge spout without the assistance of an auxiliary fan. By keeping the elongated cups substantially parallel to the axis of rotation of the cylinder and perpendicular to the path of travel of the entering crops, regardless of whether the cutting edges of the knife segments are arranged parallel to or slightly oblique to the axis of the cylinder, the full thrust of the spinning cylinder is utilized to propel the crop pieces up the spout for maximum efficiency. The air flow path within the cutting chamber is also designed to provide the most efficient use of operating power possible.

Growing community of inventors

Hesston, KS, United States of America

Adin F Holdeman