Patent Application
20250151656
The present invention relates to agricultural balers, and, more particularly, to windguard systems used with such balers.
Agricultural packaging machines, such as balers, for example, are used to consolidate and package crop material so as to facilitate the storage and handling of the crop material for later use. In the case of hay, a mower-conditioner cuts and conditions the crop material for windrow drying in the sun. In the case of straw, an agricultural combine discharges non-grain crop material from the rear of the combine which is to be picked up by the baler. The crop material is typically raked and dried, and a baler, such as a round baler or a square baler, for example, straddles the windrows and travels along the windrows to pick up the crop material and form it into round or square bales. More specifically, a pickup unit at the front of the baler gathers the cut and windrowed crop material from the ground and then conveys the cut crop material into a bale-forming chamber within the baler. After the bale is formed and wrapped by a wrapping mechanism, the rear portion of the baler is configured to open and discharge the bale onto the field.
The pickup unit of some balers includes a pickup reel and a windguard with tines. The tines hold down the hay or other crop material as it is being fed by the pickup reel to prevent the crop material from being blown off the reel and to ensure an adequate compaction of the crop material. Many known windguard designs suffer from dead spaces where the crop is not held closely by the windguard against the pickup tines of the reel throughout the entire crop path. The dead spaces may be either radially along the tine path or axially along the width of the pickup reel as one side of the reel feeds more crop than the other side of the reel. Described herein is an improved windguard design that seeks to eliminate the dead spaces.
According to one aspect, a windguard assembly for a baler is configured to either limit or prevent crop material from being blown away by the wind during feeding of the crop material into a bale chamber of the baler. The windguard assembly includes a transversely mounted roller that is configured to rotate about an axis of rotation. The roller includes a plurality of crop engaging surfaces that are configured to transport the crop material toward the bale chamber. The windguard assembly also includes a tine assembly that is mounted with respect to the roller. The tine assembly includes a plurality of axially spaced-apart and longitudinally extending tines extending from a transversely mounted shaft. One of the tines of the plurality of tines is independently moveable with respect to another tine of the plurality of tines.
The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this invention, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the invention will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. The exemplifications set out herein illustrate embodiments of the invention and such exemplifications are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.
The terms “forward,” “rearward,” “upward,” “downward,” “left,” and “right,” when used in connection with the agricultural baler described herein and/or components thereof are usually determined with reference to the direction of forward operative travel of the towing vehicle and the height of the baler, but they should not be construed as limiting. The terms “longitudinal” and “transverse” are determined with reference to the fore-and-aft direction of the towing vehicle and the width of the baler, and are equally not to be construed as limiting.
Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to
From the pickup assembly 100, the crop material is transported to and fed through a feeding assembly into the bale chamber 20. As the crop material enters the bale chamber 20, multiple carrier elements, e.g. rollers, chains and slats, and/or belts (e.g., a series of conveyor belts 16), for example, begin to roll a bale of hay within the chamber, forming a cylindrically shaped bale. These carrier elements are movable so that the chamber can initially contract and subsequently expand to maintain an appropriate amount of pressure on the periphery of the bale. The bale is then optionally wrapped with twine or a net wrapping material dispensed from a wrapping mechanism generally arranged behind shield 40. Upon completion of the optional wrapping process, tailgate 50 pivots upwardly about pivot points 51a, 51b and the bale is discharged onto the ground.
Further details of baler 10 may be described in U.S. Pat. No. 11,547,053, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety and for all purposes.
Referring now to
Each arm 210A, 210B has a curved shape that includes a first end 211 including an opening that is pivotably coupled to the frame 202 by a pin or fastener (for example) and a second end 213, which is opposite the first end 211, to which the windguard roll 201 is mounted. Roll 201 includes a central shaft 214, and ends of shaft 214 are mounted to respective bearings or bushings 223. Each second end 213 includes a plurality of openings (four shown) one of which is mounted to one of the bushing 223 by a pin, bearing or fastener 215. It should be understood that roll 201 rotates about an axis 217 defined through shaft 214. Axis 217 also passes through bushing 223 and fastener 215. Axis 217 may also be described as the longitudinal axis or axis of rotation of roll 201. It should be understood that roll 201 is rotatable about its own axis 217, whereas roll 201 is pivotable with respect to frame 202 about a different axis 219 defined by arms 210A, 210B.
Windguard assembly 200 also includes a tine assembly 330 that is pivotably mounted relative to roll 201. Tine assembly 330 includes a rod, tube or shaft 203, elongated fingers or tines 204 extending rearwardly from shaft 203, and arms 333 fixed to opposing sides of shaft 203. The components of tine assembly 330 may form a weldment that are fixedly mounted together. Shaft 203 and its tines 204 are mounted to bushing 223 (or shaft 214 of roll 201) by arms 333. Arms 333 are pivotably mounted about axis 217 by bushing 223.
Arms 333 may pivot either freely or by a limited amount about axis 217 to adjust to the volume of crop flowing beneath tines 204. Although not shown, a rotation limiter (e.g., a bracket, flange or pin in slot) may be connected between arms 333 and arms 210 (or frame 202) to limit pivoting action of tine assembly 330 relative to frame 202 (and about axis 217) between two end points. It should be understood that roll 201 can rotate about axis 217 while arms 333 remain stationary, and arms 333 can pivot about axis 217 while roll 201 remains stationary.
As compared with some known windguards, the windguard tines 204 of windguard assembly 200 are better configured to hold the crop against the pick-up tines 31, thereby improving feeding performance of pick-up assembly 100 by eliminating any dead spots between tine assembly 330 and pickup assembly 100. Specifically, by arranging the pivot axis of tines 204 on the axis of rotation of roller 201, tines 204 are positioned closer to the flow of crop as well as closer to the pick-up roll 30 of pick-up assembly 100.
Shaft 203 and its tines 204 may be non-rotatable (i.e., fixed) with respect to arms 333, as described above. Alternatively, shaft 203 and its tines 204 may be pivotably mounted to arms 333. Such an additional point of rotation would allow the tines 204 to more closely follow the path of crop flow and be in even closer proximity to the pick up roll 30. Shaft 203 may be either freely pivotable with respect to arms 333 or pivotable to a limited degree relative to shaft 203. For example, a rotation limiter (e.g., a bracket, flange or pin in slot) may be connected between shaft 203 and arms 333 to limit pivoting action of shaft 203 and tines 204 relative to arms 333 between two end points.
It is noted that according to a different embodiment, the arms 333 may be omitted and the shaft 203 could be pivotably connected to the arms 210A and 210B at point 301 (
Turning now to
Based on the challenges noted above,
As an alternative to the embodiment shown in
Each tine gang 606a/b includes a plurality of tines 204″ and those tines constitute a subset of the total number of tines 204″ that form part of the entire tine assembly 600. By making the tine gangs 606a/b of tine assembly 600 independently moveable with respect to one another, each tine gang 606a/b can adjust to the crop load at that tine gang. The embodiment shown in
The windguard assembly illustrated in the figures and described above can be implemented in any hay and forage agricultural vehicle that harvests a grass type crop, including but not limited to pull-type forage harvester grass pickups, self-propelled forage harvester grass pickups, round baler pickups, small square baler pickups, or large square baler pickups, for example.
While this invention has been described with respect to at least one embodiment, the present invention can be further modified within the spirit and scope of this disclosure. This application is therefore intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention using its general principles. Further, this application is intended to cover such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art to which this invention pertains and which fall within the limits of the appended claims.
