Bale wire stripping system

Abstract

A conveyored bale dewiring system for safe severing and removal of bale strap material from about a compressed bale composed of a planar table with an integral conveyor system, an overhead cutting assembly on an articulated balanced 4-bar linkage, a grasping blade and opposing meshed puller gears, a rotating drum anvil and rotating drum cutter head assembly, and containment safety shroud. The system consists of a continually moving conveyor on which the bales are loaded; a cutting head which floats over the top of irregular shaped bales and automatically grabs and cuts each strand in succession as the bale is moving forward on the conveyor, and a grabber and chopper unit which simultaneously grabs each strand and pulls it down through the conveyor deck into a rotary drum anvil which chops the wire or bands into a manageable length and deposits it into a holding bin. The system is designed to sequentially cut and retrieve as many strands as there may be on a bale while the bale remains in motion on the conveyor. As the wire or bands are removed, the product is delivered by the conveyor to other equipment for processing. The system not only provides an efficient, continuous stream of debaled product for processing, but eliminates the danger and injuries to workman of cutting and handling the unwieldy banding material. The system further processes the banding material into a saleable scrap product.