Hesston Corporation

Thomas W Ankenman

Allen A White

George Yatcilla

Cecil L Case

Edward L Swenson

The angular or rotative position of a sprocket wheel may be incrementally adjusted through the appropriate manipulation of a pair of spaced-apart, opposed wedge assemblies mounted on the wheel that capture a crank of the shaft so that by inching the crank in one rotative direction or the other through manipulation of the wedge assemblies, the rotative relationship between the wheel and the shaft is changed. Each wedge assembly includes a pair of relatively shiftable components having interengaging cam surfaces, one of such components having an arcuate surface that is received in slidable, mating engagement by a complementally formed recess on the proximal side of the crank, thereby permitting relative rotational movement between the crank and the wedge assemblies so as to accommodate the swinging or arcuate nature of the crank movement during adjustment.

Angularly adjustable mounting for sprocket wheels and the like

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

In a baling operation that uses a continuously reciprocating plunger, if the next charge to be stuffed into the chamber has not yet reached the desired size and density by the time the stuffing fork is ready to begin its next operating cycle, the fork is temporarily deactivated, without affecting the plunger, until the charge reaches full size and density. Thereupon, the fork stuffs the entire charge into the baling chamber in a single cycle of operation for compaction by the plunger. The baler is loaded from the bottom of the baling chamber through an upwardly curved duct that serves both as an accumulating chamber and as a precompression area into which the charge is progressively packed by a rotating, retractable finger drum at the lower end of the duct. A backstop for precompression purposes may be presented at the top of the duct in a number of alternative ways, i.e., the moving plunger itself may be of such length as to cover the duct during a large portion of its stroke; the stuffing fork may be stopped at a position within and extending across the duct; or an auxiliary device may be rocked into and out of the duct in timed relation to operation of the fork.

Apparatus for loading and baling crop material

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 machine

Method for loading and baling crop material

The shaft which drives the tying needles of a baler back and forth across the bale chamber has a cam-operated brake associated therewith for intermittent application and release of the brake at preselected points along the path of swinging travel of the needles. The cam is located at the peripheral edge of a rotary member of the brake, and a follower is rocked by the cam to, in turn, shift a non-rotating brake member away from the rotary member to thereby release the brake. A series of coil springs yieldably bias the two members into cooperating frictional interengagement to apply the brake.

Growing community of inventors

Hesston, KS, United States of America

Thomas W Ankenman