Hesston Corporation

Agco Corporation

Hay & Forage Industries

Acco Corporation

Thomas G Schrag

Edward Wesley Esau

Charles F Hood

Scott A Morton

Amos G Hill

Howard R Lohrentz

Patrick Kendrick

Kurt Graber

Michael J Dresher

Jeffrey Funk

Merle Keith Burkhart

Larry D Retzlaff

Maynard M Herron

Cecil L Case

Harold Keith Garrison

Victor D Goeckner

Lawrence D Retzlaff

Kelly Booton

Allen Joseph Kuhn

Jeffery A Baldauf

Arnold E Goertz

Ryan A Zecha

Lavern H Unruh

Linda L Heidebrecht

Craig Pecenka

Keith O'Halloran

Jeffrey S Funk

Jeffrey A Baldauf

Edward W Esau

A system and method for producing a bale having a target weight set by a user. A processor compares stored actual weights to the target weight, and, based on a difference, adjusts the bale-forming process. The processor may calculate a load value for a connecting rod, measure an actual load value for the rod, and, based on a difference, set a new pressure value for the process, and then repeat these steps until the bale is fully formed. The processor may determine a first line relating a calculated load on the connecting rod to a current pressure, determine a second line relating a measured load on the rod to the current pressure, identify a pressure value at the intersection of the first and the second lines, and make this the new pressure value for the process, and then repeat these steps until the bale is fully formed.

System and method for controlling bale weight

A baling system for baling crop material includes a baling chamber. Moveable doors partly define the chamber and the shape of the bale. Hydraulic tension cylinders extend and retract to apply a force to the moveable doors and the growing bale, and transducers measure the lengths of the tension cylinders. An electronic control unit receives the lengths from the transducers, and communicates via a display at least a relative difference between the lengths for consideration in steering the baling system. In particular, the lengths being equal indicates the growing bale is substantially straight and the baling system should be steered straight, and the lengths being unequal indicates the growing bale is developing a curvature and the baling system should be steered in the direction of the cylinder having the shorter length. The transducers may be located external or internal to the cylinders, and may measure the lengths continuously or periodically.

Square baler providing side-to-side bale uniformity

A pickup assembly of an agricultural machine has a rotatable shaft and bulkheads with a reel assembly having plural double-stacked tine rows flanked by reel cover attachment areas. Each double-stacked tine row has a plurality of spaced apart tines with a pair of radially extending portions for engaging crop material. Each double-stacked tine row has a first row of tines and a second row of tines offset from the first row such that adjacent tines are offset in both a direction around the circumference of the shaft and also in a transverse direction along the shaft. A reel cover is coupled to the bulkhead and has slots through which portions of the tines extend.

Tine pickup with narrow tine spacing for a baler

The vertically swingable header of a farm machine utilizes a flotation mechanism having a torsion bar as the source of lifting force. The torsion bar is mounted on the header rather than the base machine and is operably coupled with the base machine through loading apparatus that includes a cam and cam follower system. An alternative embodiment utilizes a cam track fixedly mounted on the base machine.

Crop pickup with torsion bar flotation

Cylindrical twineballs are stored on their sides with the twine dispensing end of each ball facing outwardly away from the baler to facilitate operator access. The twineballs are stored in a pattern consisting of horizontal rows and upright columns, with the upright columns inclined laterally so as to present an overall, generally skewed parallelogram effect to maximize the packing density within a given amount of space. The balls are supported within cradles that may advantageously be interconnected to present multiple, horizontally extending, transversely corrugated shelves. The shelves are upwardly and outwardly inclined to help retain the balls in place.

Twineball storage for balers

A hay baler provided with a tubular duct within which charges of crop material are prepared before being stuffed into the baling chamber has a windrow pickup device at its front end to lift crop materials off the ground as the baler advances. The effective operating width of the pickup is wider than the inlet to the duct so that the stream of crop materials lifted off the ground must be converged centrally into alignment with the inlet before entering the same. A pair of lower stub augers on opposite sides of the inlet are assisted by a pair of upper stub augers rotating in opposite directions relative to the lower augers to accomplish such convergence. A windguard overlies the incoming crop flow as well as the consolidation zone between left and right sets of the stub augers so as to maintain effective control over the flow at all times.

Baler with multi-auger pickup

A wide pickup header on the baler picks up windrows that are signficantly wider than the centrally disposed inlet of a passage containing cutter apparatus that reduces the materials into smaller pieces for compaction into a bale. In order to provide smooth, even, continuous flow of crop materials into and through the cutter apparatus at the inlet, the pickup is provided with a pair of lower, upturning stub augers on opposite sides of the inlet and a full length, downturning top auger spaced above and somewhat forwardly of the stub augers. The top auger not only assists the stub augers in consolidating the wide windrow of materials in toward the center of the machine but also keeps the stream fairly low and concentrated at a level where the stream is readily accepted by the rotary cutter apparatus. Preferably, the top auger maintains the inflowing crop stream below the axis of rotation of the cutter rotor so that prongs of the rotor engage the crop material as the prongs are rotating downwardly and rearwardly through the inlet and into the cutting zone. Preferably, the top auger rotates considerably faster than the stub augers and consolidates materials at a faster rate than the stub augers.

Infeed cutter baler having increased throughput

A baler for making rectangular crop bales has a generally horizontally disposed fore-and-aft extending baling chamber. The pickup of the baler is disposed underneath the baling chamber in line with the path of travel of a reciprocating plunger in the overhead chamber. An in-line transfer duct leads generally upwardly and rearwardly from the pickup to the bottom of the chamber. An enclosed crop flow passage is defined from a point immediately behind the pickup to a point located at the opening in the bottom of the baling chamber and presents a forwardmost cutting zone, a packing zone behind the cutting zone, and an accumulating zone behind the packing zone. Cutter apparatus within the cutting zone reduces the crop materials into smaller pieces as they flow through the cutting zone, whereupon a separate packer takes the materials from the rear side of the cutter apparatus and packs them in a downstream direction toward the accumulating zone where they form into a charge. A stuffer operating through successive stuffing cycles then engages the accumulated and densified charge and sweeps it up into the baling chamber in timed relationship with the reciprocating plunger.

Knife bed assembly for balers

Square baler with infeed cutter

The knotter clutch control prevents the driven dog of the clutch from flipping out into its actuated position for engagement with the driving lug of the clutch unless the lug is in a position wherein positive driving engagement between the lug and the dog is assured. A strategically positioned control lobe on the cam ring of the drive sprocket for the clutch blocks release of the dog into its extended position when the driving lug is at the lug pickup point on its path of travel. The dog is free to be released when the lug is at all other positions on its path of travel so as to be in position for engagement with the lug when it next arrives at the pickup point. The dog is reset into its retracted position after a single revolution of the knotter drive shaft.

Knotter clutch control for square balers

Instead of using the compacting plunger of the baler to unload one or more bales from the bale chamber, an auxiliary ejector system may be utilized that enables the operator to select only the last bale for off-loading, or both the last bale and the next-to-last bale. A shuttle assembly housed almost entirely within hollow rails of the bale case has a number of ejector dogs that need not all be placed in operating position simultaneously, thus permitting the operator to choose to actuate only those dogs which are necessary to off-load the bale he selects. The shuttle is repeatedly actuated and retracted through ejecting and reset strokes until the selected bale or bales are fully off-loaded. During the reset strokes the spring-loaded dogs are yieldably folded down under the pressure of the overhead bale so as to avoid retrograde movement of the bale. An inclined bale chute that receives the discharging bales and guides them to the ground may be selectively raised into a folded up transport position using the same power cylinder that drives the ejector shuttle, such powered raising of the chute being enabled when a normally disengaged coupling between the power cylinder and the chute is selectively engaged by the operator.

Extrusion type square baler having selective bale ejector

A hay baler for producing large rectangular bales picks up crop material directly underneath the fore-and-aft bale chamber of the machine as the baler advances across the field and stuffs charges of the picked up hay into the overhead chamber for compaction by a fore-and-aft reciprocating plunger. Sensors associated with the two laterally spaced driving arms of the plunger detect the extent of uneven crop loading into the baling chamber through measuring any differential in compressive loading on the arms and cause a visual display in the cab of the towing tractor which indicates the direction and magnitude of steering correction which is required to reestablish even loading of the baler. A microcomputer receives the outputs from the driving arms, processes the same and appropriately activates the display monitor in the cab.

Reciprocating plunger crop baler having monitoring system for checking

A baler includes a bale chamber and a plunger movable relative to the chamber between a retracted position and an extended position. The plunger is provided with at least two crop engaging elements spaced from one another by a distance defining a clearance opening therebetween, and a drive crank assembly including a drive arm operates to shift the plunger between the retracted and extended positions in a series of operating cycles. A clearing assembly is included for clearing crop materials from at least a portion of the clearance opening in the plunger. The clearing assembly includes a clearing member mounted on the plunger for pivotal movement relative thereto about a pivot axis, and a drive link for effecting pivotal movement of the clearing member during shifting of the plunger between the retracted and extended positions.

Square baler having plunger cleanout apparatus

A reciprocating plunger of a square baler has a series of cleanout probes fixed to an oscillating drive arm which reciprocates the plunger. The probes sweep along a path adjacent portions of a horizontal frame member of the plunger as the plunger moves through its operating cycle in order to remove the accumulation of loose crop materials from the same. The probes are arranged to swing away from the path of travel of needles which carry baling twine or wire upwardly through the plunger and toward an overlying knotting device, to thereby avoid interference with the needles and substantially prevent the needles from carrying any loose crop materials toward the knotting mechanism.

Growing community of inventors

Hesston, KS, United States of America

Thomas G Schrag