This application is a U.S. National Phase Application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Patent Application No. PCT/NO2016/050092, filed May 18, 2016, and claims the priority of NO 20150983, filed Jul. 31, 2015, all of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties. The International Application was published on Feb. 9, 2017 as International Publication No. WO 2017/023177 A1.
The present invention is related to a compactor suitable for compressing and wrapping bulk material, as stated in the preamble of claim 1.
Compactors of this type are used in production of bales of bulk material, such as forages, sawdust, peat, bark waste products and so on. There are numerous solutions on the market designed for production of round bales or square bales. The compactors are typically mobile units transported by a tractor or truck from one site to another. The compactors are in the compacting process typically driven by a tractor or electric motor. The material to be compacted is transported as bulk material to the compactor site by larger trucks or trailers, often having a loading volume of 40 m3.
A limiting factor for use of compactors of this type is unloading of large trucks or trailers. The reception capacity is often limited because the hopper or bunker part of the compactors has a limited size and capacity because the compactors have to be transported from site to site on the road. In many countries, the maximum road transportation width is 255 cm. This limitation also imposes a limitation on the bunker part of the compactors and hence the capacity. As a result, unloading trucks and trailers become tedious processes both with regard to backing the trailer in an unloading position adjacent to the bunker section. Moreover, the unloading capacity is low and the truck or trailer often has to be parked in an unloading position for a long period of time, usually 30 minutes or more. Loss of material in the unloading process has also been observed.
A compactor is described in the applicant's brochure “Orkel MP/MC Compactors”: http://www.orkel.no/assets/Produktinformasjon/MP-MC-brochure.pdf. The compactor is suitable fort road transport and comprises a bunker module, transport devices for bulk material, a compactor module and a wrapper unit.
An object of the present invention is to alleviate the disadvantages of the prior art compactors and provide a compactor having a larger unloading capacity and at the same time is transportable on roads having a transportation width limit. Another object of the present invention is to provide a compactor of this type that reduces spillage and loss of material from the unloading process.
The objects above are achieved by a compactor in accordance with claim 1.
The present invention is related to a compactor, suitable for compacting and wrapping bulk material and suitable for transportation on public roads. The compactor comprises a bunker for reception of the bulk material, and conveyor means to convey the bulk material. A baler unit for pressing and wrapping bulk material received from the conveyor means of the bunker. The bunker exhibits a front end adjacent to the baler unit, and a rear end facing the supply of bulk material. Moreover, the compactor (100) exhibits a longitudinal axis L coinciding with the transport direction of the compactor on a road.
In accordance with the present invention, the bunker comprises
An optional end plate is mounted at the rear end of the bunker unit, pivotal about a substantially horizontal axis extending substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis L, pivotal between an unfolded position on the ground and to an erected position extending substantially vertically.
The end plate may advantageously be provided with a side plate which is separate from and mutually movable with the remaining side plate, thus enabling the side plate of the end plate to be pivoted in flush with the remaining side plate.
The frame may comprise a first and second frame part mounted mutually movable in a lateral direction to a common support frame, wherein the first bunker section is mounted to the first frame part, and the second bunker section is mounted to the second frame part.
The novel and inventive features of the present invention enables the bunker to be folded in a transportation mode that because of the reduced width allows transport at normal speed. Moreover, the present invention can increase the compacting capacity of about 30%. Moreover, the end plates reduce spillage of bulk material to a minimum. Another advantage of the present invention is that big trucks unloading as much as 40 m3 can unload the whole load in one operation without having to wait for the compactor to handle the bulk material received and release space for more bulk material still remaining on the truck or trailer.
The invention is in the following described in further details by reference to drawings which illustrate one embodiment of the present invention, where
Now referring to
In the following, a description of a folding process to prepare the compactor for transport is provided with reference to
Now referring to
Now referring to
In
In
In
The respective bunker sections 201A and 201B including their accompanying components, can be mounted to the main frame 207 in numerous ways. For example, the main frame 207 may be constructed or two frame parts, movable in a lateral direction viewed in the transport direction of the compactor, and connected to a common support frame. Moreover, the movable parts of the bunker as described above can be driven in numerous ways. The end plates 205A and 205B may be operated manually. The conveyors may also be pivoted manually. However, in a preferred embodiment, the pivotal or movable parts of the bunker are driven mechanically, e.g. powered by electricity or pneumatically. The details of the frame and mechanical drive means have been omitted here as it is assumed that an operative result is within the reach of a person skilled in the art having the present disclosure in hand. Moreover, whereas the conveyors (206A, 206B) has been exemplified as belt conveyors, this is not required to obtain the desired effects of the invention and other bulk conveying means are conceivable and within the reach of a person skilled in the art.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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20150983 | Jul 2015 | NO | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/NO2016/050092 | 5/18/2016 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2017/023177 | 2/9/2017 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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9253947 | Hornung | Feb 2016 | B2 |
9622420 | Kraus | Apr 2017 | B2 |
20150096450 | Hornung | Apr 2015 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2009268422 | Nov 2009 | JP |
20120020611 | Mar 2012 | KR |
Entry |
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International Search Report and Written Opinion in corresponding PCT Application No. PCT/N02016/050092 dated Aug. 31, 2016. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20200079045 A1 | Mar 2020 | US |