Hesston Corporation

Edward L Swenson

Thomas W Ankenman

Richard J Robbins

Melvin V Gaeddert

Allen K Roth

Howard L Ratzlaff

Larry B Jones

Baler

As the baler advances across the field picking up windrowed crop material, the material is continuously packed into the lower, open end of an upwardly curved duct leading to the bottom of the main baling chamber. A loading fork sweeps upwardly through the duct at regular intervals to stuff an accumulated charge of materials up into the baling chamber from the duct, and a packer at the mouth of the duct continuously adds new material to the duct at such a rate as to precompress the charge of materials accumulating within the duct prior to stuffing thereof into the bale chamber. If the precompressed charge reaches a certain predetermined density level between stuffing cycles, the duct may expand transversely via a spring-loaded sidewall thereof to keep the charge from substantially exceeding the selected density level yet permit the uninterrupted infeed of still further material pending the next operation of the loading fork.

Crop baler

The baling chamber of a rotary baler has an outlet adjacent its front end which must be closed to prevent the escape of crop material when a bale-forming operation is started but must be opened at a certain later point in the operation to allow some materials to escape. A gate disposed within the path of crop flow through the outlet can be shifted between a closed position completely blocking the egress of material and an opened position in which the gate is substantially on edge with respect to the crop flow so as to permit the unhindered movement of crop material through the outlet. The gate is hinged to a stationary scraper that discourages wrapping of crop material around an adjacent roller, and movement of the gate is coordinated with enlargement of the baling chamber during formation so that the gate is opened after the chamber reaches a predetermined size.

Bale starting gate for rotary baler

Method for semicontinuous formation of round bales is permitted by positively capturing material introduced into the bale-forming chamber of a round baler after ejection of the last-formed bale and while the web normally defining the chamber remains displaced from its forming position. In one embodiment, the crop-capturing function is performed by a grid comprising a plurality of parallel, upwardly arcuate, elongate bars forwardly mounted on the baler for swinging movement about a transverse axis toward and away from the lower apron of the chamber. Another embodiment employs a rearwardly mounted, vertically swingable grid of parallel, substantially rectilinear, elongate bars to positively retain crop material in the chamber.

Semicontinuous large round baling method and machine

Semicontinuous formation of round bales is permitted by positively capturing material introduced into the bale-forming chamber of a round baler after ejection of the last-formed bale and while the web normally defining the chamber remains displaced from its forming position. In one embodiment, the crop-capturing function is performed by a grid comprising a plurality of parallel, upwardly arcuate, elongate bars forwardly mounted on the baler for swinging movement about a transverse axis toward and away from the lower apron of the chamber. Another embodiment employs a rearwardly mounted, vertically swingable grid of parallel, substantially rectilinear, elongate bars to positively retain crop material in the chamber.

Growing community of inventors

Hesston, KS, United States of America

Edward L Swenson