Hesston Corporation

Melvin V Gaeddert

Bobby D McWhirt

Martin E Pruitt

Howard J Ratzlaff

Howard R Lohrentz

Adin F Holdeman

Edward L Swenson

Rex O Weigand

Raymond F Schmitt

Leonard W Hodson

David J Jordan

The dispensing end of a round baler's swingable twine dispenser projects outwardly through an aperture in the baler sidewall when the dispenser is in a standby position, and a twine severing blade is mounted to the sidewall proximal to the aperture. The twine is drawn across the severing blade and is thereby severed when the dispenser is returned to the standby position after twine has been dispensed along the length of a bale formed within the round baler's baling chamber.

Round baler having wrapping twine cutter

The baler has an internal chamber within which crop materials are coiled up into a cylindrical bale by oppositely moving belts which are looped around a pair of spaced apart guide rollers at the bottom of the chamber to define a wide-open, entrance throat to the chamber from the windrow pickup device of the baler. Located within the throat is a control gate positioned to partially span the throat and to prevent retrograde outflow of crop material during bale formation while permitting unobstructed inflow of material from the crop pickup device. When swung upwardly to its opened position, the gate permits incoming material to be fed upwardly in the chamber and acted upon by a generally upwardly moving belt thereof while preventing outflow of material being acted upon by a downwardly moving belt of the chamber. When swung down to its generally horizontal, closed position during the later stages of the bale formation as the enlarging bale comes to rest upon the gate, the short length of the gate relative to the throat dimensions permits material to continue to flow into the chamber in a generally rearward, horizontal direction beneath the forming bale while the closed gate continues to obstruct outflow promoted by the downwardly moving belt at the opposite side of the chamber.

Throat control apparatus in an open throat, rotary baler

A rotary crop baler belt roller mount is provided which facilitates the changing and installation of endless bale-forming belts. A mount is provided adjacent one end of each transverse belt-supporting roller and includes an annular spacer removably mounted between the end of the roller and the adjacent baler sidewall. Preferably, the spacer is maintained in its operative position by means of a bolt, the bolt passing through the baler sidewall and spacer and being received within a hub assembly secured within the belt roller. In belt changing operations, the spacer can be rapidly removed simply by loosening the associated bolt and withdrawing the spacer. Removal of the spacer from each of the roller mounts in the baler presents a series of belt-clearing gaps adjacent the baler sidewall, allowing quick, easy installation of belts around the belt rollers.

Rotary baler with improved roller mounts for endless belt replacement

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 windrow crop pickup has tines which are controlled by a cam at one end of the pickup reel so that the tines rock to-and-fro in a particular pattern during rotation about the axis of the reel, such action aiding in proper uplift of the crop from the ground and subsequent stripping of the crop from the tines as they release and feed the crop materials for further processing. The controlling cam for the tines is mounted on the outboard side of its supporting sidewall of the pickup, and each set of tines has an operating rocker at the end of the reel adjacent the cam which projects through an opening in the proximal sidewall and is received by the cam track such that, upon driving rotation of the reel, the stationary track imparts the desired rocking motion to the tines.

Crop pickup with outboard cam control

A rotary baler utilizing endless, driven belts to assist in formation of the bale has a tailgate that is raised for discharge of the bale after the forming cycle has been completed. A span of the belting is carried by the tailgate as the latter is opened, and a stationary tightener is positioned in the path of travel of the span during its movement with the tailgate so that the belting is progressively deflected in a transverse direction by the tightener as the tailgate continues to open, thereby tensioning the belting to forcefully eject the bale from the baler.

Rotary baler having bale-ejecting apparatus

As the twine dispensing tube swingably approaches its home or standby position, the tube strikes one leg of an L-shaped, pivoting lever of the cutter to swing the opposite leg thereof up into edgewise engagement with the underside of the twine such that the latter is stretched between the raised leg and the end of the tube. A depending, swingable knife of the cutter which has been momentarily pushed by the tube out of its path of travel returns with its sharp edge engaging the twine stretch and depresses the latter out of a straight-line relationship between the tube and the raised leg of the lever such that, as the tension and stress in the moving twine stretch increase due to its deflected, serpentine condition around said knife edge and the lever and the opposite pulling forces exerted by the tube and the bale, the twine severs itself against the sharp edge of the knife.

Twine actuated cutter in a rotary crop baler

Forming belts and an overhead device within the chamber of the baler apply a compacting force to the bale during its formation, the belts also serving to drive the bale in a rolling motion so as to coil up new hay material continuously being presented to the chamber. The position of opposed, oppositely moving stretches of the belts essentially determines the variable horizontal dimensions of the chamber, while the position of the overhead device, which draws together and retains the belt stretches, essentially governs the vertical dimension of the chamber. Both the belt-retaining device and a slack-takeup roller for the belts are carried by a common support that progressively swings further and further from the bottom of the chamber under resistance during bale growth to pay out additional belt length and to continue compaction of the bale. The support has a special lever at its outer end which carries the retaining device on one side of the fulcrum point of the lever and the takeup roller on the opposite side of the fulcrum point such that, if necessary during the forming cycle, the lever can rock to the extent necessary about its fulcrum point under a light-spring resistance to accommodate the entry of sudden slugs into the baling chamber without the paying out of undesired amounts of slacks to the belts. Bale density may be adjusted via an arrangement which permits adjusting the effective length of a force-transmitting crank located between the springs that provide tension for the belts and the slack takeup for the belts themselves.

Bale tensioning apparatus in a rotary baler

During the twine wrapping cycle after complete formation of the bale, the bale continues to sping in the baling chamber, and twine from a pair of separate dispensing tubes is wrapped around the bale in helical fashion as the tubes swing back and forth along the length of the bale. The tubes swing in mutually opposite directions during the cycle and start and finish in a crossed position, thereby each moving from one end of the bale to the opposite end thereof and then back again to complete the cycle. As the tubes cross each other near the midlength of the bale during their return strokes, the twine strands become interlaced so as to more effectively bind the bale and promote structural integrity thereof. Separate cutoffs for each tube sever the twine strands as the tubes approach their home positions.

Interlacing twine wrapping mechanism for rotary balers

In the event that crop material is loaded into the baling chamber more heavily in one portion than another, the forming belt at the area of insufficient volume will become slackened relative to the remaining belts. Such slack condition is sensed by the monitor, and a signal device such as a light, buzzer or bell is actuated to indicate to the operator that additional crop material is needed in the deficient portion of the chamber so as to prevent the bale from becoming improperly shaped. The operator can thereupon take steps to assure that material is loaded in such a way as to make up for the deficiency.

Crop loading monitor for rotary balers

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.

Machine for coiling fibrous crop materials into large round bales

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

The bale is formed by rolling it between an arcuate retaining grid at the front of the bale and an upwardly moving, flexible belt at the rear of the bale while continuously adding additional crop material to the forming chamber. The grid and the belts yield away from one another under substantial resistance during growth of the bale in order to compact the latter to the desired density. Because the grid and the belts share a common spring tensioning mechanism, compacting force is applied uniformly around the bale by those members throughout the forming process, thereby rendering the bale more truly circular in cross-sectional configuration and of more nearly uniform density throughout.

Machine for forming high density round bales

A harvesting machine, such as a combine, may be adapted for the harvesting of row crops by attaching a series of laterally spaced-apart, individual row units across the header of the combine. Each unit attachment is of low-profile configuration having a pair of downwardly and forwardly extending, obstruction-free dividing members which become disposed on opposite sides of a crop row during operation, the drive for gathering mechanism on the members being disposed below and to one side of the crop delivery passage defined between each pair of dividing members whereby to render the passage wholly unobstructed from top-to-bottom and front-to-rear thereof to facilitate the orderly, clog-free movement of crops rearwardly through the passage and into the header for further processing. The dividing members are mounted for adjustable shifting transversely as a unit along the header to accommodate changes in row spacing from one field to the next, and yet each member is vertically swingable independently of the other during operation to allow individual compensation for changes in ground contour. A drive shaft common to all of the units extends across the header to provide driving power for the gathering mechanism of the members and is provided with relatively telescoping sections to accommodate row spacing adjustment of the attachment without disengaging the shaft.

Growing community of inventors

Newton, KS, United States of America

Melvin V Gaeddert