The Paul Revere Corporation

Warner Heckley

Wilbur E Groeneveld

John Arnold

Leroy M Kluver

Richard W Kunkle

A tractor drawn and powered machine is disclosed for forming large round bales of fibrous agricultural crops in a chamber of fixed size. The baling chamber consists of a lower and an upper section. The lower section includes a wheel mounted main frame, along with a pickup reel and a bottom conveyor comprising side by side belts entrained on four transversely extending rollers. The upper section is supported on a subframe which is hinge mounted along its front edge to the main frame allowing thereby the rear portion of the upper section to open as a rearward facing tailgate for discharge of a completed bale. Situated within the subframe of the upper section are all of the conveying elements which make up the rear, top and front of the generally cylindrical periphery of the baling zone. Each conveyor element in the upper section comprises a plurality of side by side belts entrained on spaced apart transversely mounted upstream and downstream rollers. A space between the last of the serially arranged conveying elements and the uppermost surface of the bottom conveyor provides an inlet into the baling chamber. During the bale forming operation a latch mechanism holds the tailgate closed. When a bale is ready for discharge the tractor is halted, the tailgate is opened by a hydraulic cylinder and the bale is conveyed out the rear of the machine. As soon as the bale falls to the ground, the tailgate can be reclosed making the machine ready for pickup of more crop material with which to form another bale.

Round baler and discharge means

This invention relates to the inlet throat of a machine for forming large round bales of fibrous agricultural material. The machine includes a single axle chassis and a tongue enabling it to be towed along a windrow by a tractor. On top of the chassis is a generally cylindrical housing containing a baling chamber of fixed size having a horizontal axis. Around the periphery of the baling chamber is a plurality of serially arranged conveying elements. The rear portion of the housing swings upward from a hinge point at the top to enable rearward discharged of a completed bale. A pickup mechanism is transversely mounted across the lower front of the chassis. Behind the topside of the pickup mechanism there is a conveyor which forms the bottom of the front part of the baling zone. The conveyor consists of a plurality of side-by-side belts entrained on four parallel rollers which extend horizontally across the entire bottom of the machine. The rollers are fixedly journalled to the housing frame with the three rearmost rollers being generally on the circumference of the baling zone and the front roller positioned such that a plane tangent with the top of both the pickup reel and the top of the middle roller will also pass tangentially across the top of the front roller.

Growing community of inventors

Rockford, OH, United States of America

Warner Heckley