Patent ID: 7281471
Filing Date: 2007-10-16
Classification: A01D

Abstract:
1. A cotton receiving and compacting structure on a cotton harvesting machine, comprising: a floor and opposing side walls extending upwardly from opposite peripheral edges of the floor defining a cotton compacting chamber having opposite first and second ends, wherein the side walls have an inner surface facing the chamber and an outer surface, the first end being enclosed by a door openable for unloading cotton from the chamber in a first direction generally parallel to the side walls, and the second end being enclosed by an end wall; the compacting chamber is divergently tapered toward the door a compacting apparatus disposed above or in an upper region of the chamber and movable downwardly into the chamber for compacting cotton therein into a compacted body having a shape and an extent defined by the opposing side walls, each of the side walls including a plurality of circular openings therethrough and into which cotton can be compacted the compacted cotton in the circular openings forming protuberances extending in a second direction which is generally perpendicular to the side walls, wherein a cross-sectional view of each said circular openings taken along a horizontal plane substantially parallel to the floor, defines that each of said circular openings has an upstream edge and a downstream edge wherein the upstream edge is substantially parallel to the downstream edge, further wherein the upstream and downstream edges are substantially perpendicular to the inner and outer surfaces of the side walls; and wherein the side walls are tapered divergingly toward the first end of the chamber, so that the downstream edge of each of the circular openings is outwardly sidewards with respect to the upstream edge such that when a compacted body of cotton is removed from the chamber in the first direction, the protuberances are removed from the circular openings in the first direction while passing the downstream edges without retention of the protuberances in the circular openings.