Abstract:
A slide frame for a baler is provided for mounting one or more accessories such as a wind guard and/or a rotor, powered or non-powered, for assisting a pickup on a baler to pick up cut crops from the ground and deliver such crops to the inlet of a baling chamber. The slide frame is mounted in such a way as to automatically space each respective accessory a predetermined place with respect to the crop pickup device.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
   None 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Field of the Invention 
   The present invention relates generally to agricultural equipment, and more specifically to a mounting for a rotor for use in combination with a pickup portion of a baler or the like to increase baling capacity and prevent plugging of the input of a baler. 
   Balers are used for many different crops. Most balers are used to bale hay. Hay is usually classified as any type of grass or legume, such as alfalfa, that is fed to livestock such as cows and horses. 
   Balers also bale straw, which is of course the part of the plant above ground that is left after grain such as wheat, oats, barley or the like are harvested, for example, which a combine harvester. A primary use for straw is for bedding for animals. Straw is also commonly used as mulch for gardens or the like. 
   A third category of crop material which is baled using a baler is a stiff stalk crop, such as corn stover including corn stalks which are typically baled after the corn is removed from the stalk, such as with a combine harvester which saves only the corn kernels or with a corn picker, which saves only the corn while it is still on a cob. It is this third category of crop material which is the most problematic to bale, primarily because of the stiff long pieces of plant stalk. Corn stalks are commonly used as feed for animals, such as cattle, or can be used as a raw material for making a bio-fuel, such as ethanol. 
   When baling corn stalks, the flow of material is not always a steady flow. Because the corn stalks do not fold together like hay and straw material, sometimes the corn stalks do not flow easily into the baler pickup. This causes the cornstalks to pile up in front of the pickup as the baler is towed through a field, causing a large pile of corn stalks to be pushed along in front of the baler pickup instead of evenly entering the baler. This requires the operator to stop the baler, reorganize the pile of cornstalks in front of the pickup of the baler and resume the baling operation. Additionally, these cornstalks can plug up the pickup of the baler so that the baler can no longer be used until such plug of material is removed, or at a minimum repositioned. This problem can occur numerous times during the process of baling a field and happens most often when the crop comprises cornstalks. 
   When the pickup of a baler becomes plugged with crop, the operator has a few options. Some operators will wait for the pickup to clear itself which is very damaging to the pickup; some will shake the pickup with a hydraulic lift, which is damaging to the pickup itself, some will increase and decrease the revolutions per minute of the controls of the baler which can damage the drive line and the tractor, and the most desperate operators will get out of their tractor and cab and try to clear the plug by hand. All of these methods take valuable time. Some of the methods cost money in repairs because they damage the equipment. And whenever the operator is out of the cab of the tractor, safety can be an issue. 
   Another problem with using a baler to bale a crop is that if the crop does not enter the pickup evenly, the bale will not be formed evenly, which devalues the bales produced and the negatively impacts the perception of quality of the baler itself because even, consistent bales are desired. This is especially true when the bales being made are large round bales. Also, uneven entry of the crop also causes extra stress on the baler, in particular of the pickup portion of the baler. This can cause premature wear and or premature failure of the components thereof. 
   The speed of baling is controlled to a great degree by how fast the operator can drive through the field and pickup the crop. Usually it is the pickup portion of the baler that is the limiting factor as to the speed that the baler can be towed during operation because once the crop is in the baling chamber the baler can usually handle a high capacity of crop. So although a faster pickup of the crop will increase the efficiency of the baler, operators soon learn the maximum speed that they can tow the baler for a particular crop under particular conditions and they will try to operate at such maximum speed whenever possible. Pushing beyond that optimum speed for such crop and conditions will typically cause plugging of the pickup. In general, the maximum baling speed for certain crops under the conditions existing at the time is proportional to the amount of crop material that enters evenly through the pickup portion of the baler. For certain crops, such as alfalfa, the more the crop “slips” in the pickup portion of the baler the more likely that there will be leaf shatter and leaf loss, decreasing the value of the crop. So to the extent that a pickup of a baler can be made to minimize this slippage of the crop with respect to the pickup, it will be more efficient and more of a valuable feature of such a baler. 
   U.S. Pat. No. 6,680,092 to Anstey et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, shows one quite complex way to mount a wind guard to a baler for allowing the wind guard to float up and down in response to the amount of flow of crop through the pickup of the baler. A simpler way to do this would be preferred if possible. 
   Accordingly, there is a need for a baler apparatus that overcomes the aforementioned problems with the pickup portion of balers for baling crop materials. Because existing prior art pickup systems have built in limitations as to how quickly an even flow of the crop can be moved from the ground to the baling chamber, it is desired to overcome those limitations to create a more efficient baler by creating an even flow of crop materials through the pickup portion to the baling chamber from the instant the crop materials first enter the pickup portion of the baler and consistently maintain that flow of crop materials during the use of the baler. 
   BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for mounting accessories such as a wind guard or a rotor, powered or un-powered, for assisting a baler pickup to deliver cut crops from the ground to the inlet of a baling chamber of a baler. In the case of an accessory like a baler rotor shaft on which are mounted a plurality of rotor plates, spaced evenly and rigidly affixed to the rotor shaft, the rotor plates rotate with the rotor shaft. This rotor needs to be positioned in a proper position with respect to the pickup of the baler in all positions of the pickup, close enough to urge crop material against the pickup tines and far enough away from the pickup tines to not touch the pickup tines. This spacing in a dynamic sense is not easy to accomplish. 
   In the case of an accessory like a wind guard, it also needs to be positioned in a proper position with respect to the pickup of the baler in all positions of the pickup, close enough to urge crop material against the pickup tines and far enough away from the pickup tines to not touch the pickup tines. 
   Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a side view of a baler in the transport position thereof; 
       FIG. 2  is a side view of a baler in the baling position thereof; 
       FIG. 3  is a perspective view of a powered baler rotor assembly; 
       FIG. 3   a  is a perspective view of a non-powered baler rotor assembly; 
       FIG. 4  is an enlarged detailed view of dashed line portion of  FIG. 1  with the large round baler in the transport position thereof with the pickup assembly up; 
       FIG. 5  is an enlarged detailed view of dashed line portion of  FIG. 2  with the large round baler in the operational baling position thereof with the pickup assembly down; 
       FIG. 6  is an enlarged detailed view with the large round baler in the baling position thereof with the powered rotor down; 
       FIG. 7  is an enlarged detailed view of the large round baler in the transport position thereof with the powered rotor up; 
       FIG. 8  is a perspective view of a baler rod wind guard; 
       FIG. 9  is a perspective view of a baler rod wind guard attached to the slider plate; 
       FIG. 10  is an enlarged front view of the pickup of the baler; 
       FIG. 11  is an enlarged detailed side view with the large round baler with the powered rotor and crop pickup device in the upper transport position thereof; and 
       FIG. 12  is an enlarged detailed side view of the large round baler in the lowered operational baling position thereof showing the pickup assembly and the crop pickup device in the lowest position thereof. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   Referring now to the drawings wherein like reference numerals correspond to the same or similar parts throughout the drawings, the present invention is shown as part of a large round baler  300  in  FIGS. 3 ,  4 ,  7 , and  8 . The application of this invention is not limited to a large round baler, however. 
   Referring now to the drawings wherein like reference numerals designate identical or similar parts throughout the several views, a preferred embodiment  1  of the present invention is illustrated in  FIG. 1 . The baler can, for example, be like the basic baler of U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,940 to Grady, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, though a more modern baler with more modern features can be used instead, for example the baler shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,948,300 to Bandstra et.al, which is also incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Of course it is to be understood that this invention can be used on any other type of baler, for example those that produce bales of a non-cylindrical shape, because the pickup sections of all prior art balers have crop material flow problems from time to time in the pickup sections thereof that could be solved by this invention. 
   U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/193,447, filed Aug. 18, 2008, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/196,450, filed Aug. 22, 2008, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/739,194, filed Apr. 24, 2007, all incorporated herein by reference in their entirety, show powered and un-powered rollers as well as wind guard arrangements to assist a baler pickup to move crop from the ground and into the inlet of a baler. 
   In  FIG. 1  a baler  300  is shown being towed in a forward direction  140 . When the pickup  710  is lowered to the  FIG. 2  position with tines  711  thereon rotating about an axis A 7  in clockwise direction shown in  FIG. 2 , cut crop (not shown) on the ground will be lifted and transported to an inlet  510  of a baling chamber  510  of the baler  300 . 
   Referring to  FIG. 3 , a rotor assembly  110  is illustrated comprising a plurality of rotor plates  120  (all rotor plates are not numbered) with anti-wrap oversleeves  100  disposed between all the rotor plates  120 , and a rod wind guard  130 . A rotor shaft  210 , upon which the rotor plates are affixed, is not seen in  FIG. 1 , but may be viewed in  FIG. 2 . The forward direction  140  is shown in  FIGS. 1 ,  7 , and  8 , and is defined for the purposes of this document, including the claims, as the usual operating direction of the implement, in this case, a large round baler  300 . Likewise, the front of the implement  300  is the leading portion of the implement  300  when traveling in the forward direction. The rear of the implement is opposite the front. 
   The rotor, comprising the rotor plates  120  and the rotor shaft  210  may be hydraulically driven such as by the hydraulic motor  125  in  FIG. 3  or the motor  125  can be absent as shown in  FIG. 3   a  so it will be driven by the flow of crop material over or under the rotor blades  120 . 
   Looking to  FIGS. 6 and 7 , as the rotor assembly is rotated downward, a point  250  gets closer to the bottom of a tube  260 . When the point  250  contacts the bottom of the tube  260 , rotation ceases. In the preferred embodiment, looking at  FIGS. 4 and 4   a , as the rotor assembly rotates upward, the slide plate  350  contacts the bottom of a plate  351  on the baler frame to limit upward rotation on the front end an thus limits downward movement on the rear end of the slide frame. In alternate embodiments, this plate  350  may be mounted on the non-rotating portion of the wind guard  130 , or there could be a point or stop similar to  250  on the opposite side of the tube  260  to contact the top of the tube  260  to limit rotation. 
   The rotor assembly  110  is shown installed on a large round baler  300  in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . The rotor, comprising the rotor plates  120  and the rotor shaft  210  (not shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 ), is shown in a lowered position in  FIGS. 2 and 5 , whereas the rotor is shown in a raised position in  FIGS. 1 and 4 . 
   In  FIGS. 6 and 7 , detail views of the rotor assembly  110  are shown corresponding to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , respectively. In  FIG. 6 , the rotor, comprising the rotor plates  120  and the rotor shaft  210  is shown in a lowered position. In  FIG. 7 , the rotor is shown in a raised position. Comparing  FIG. 6  to  FIG. 7 , note that the stripper pan  220  is raised and lowered simultaneously with the rotor shaft  210 . Crop fin members  240  are disposed at both ends of the rotor. Only one crop fin  240  is shown in  FIGS. 2 ,  5 , and  6 . The crop fin members  240  are intended to help guide crop material into the rotor assembly  110 . The crop fin members  240  can also function to move the rotor assembly  110  fore and aft. 
   The rotor assembly  110  is permitted to move fore and aft, as shown in  FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  6  and  7 . The rotor assembly  110  is placed in the forward position, when the pickup header  710  is in a raised position as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 7 . When the pickup header  710  is in a lowered position, as shown in  FIGS. 2 and 6 , the rotor assembly  110  is placed in the aft or rearward position. 
   A view of the rod wind guard  130  alone is shown in  FIGS. 1-9 , with  FIGS. 8 and 9  showing the wind guard  130  mostly alone in perspective views. The stripper pan  220  is preferably configured with the rod wind guard  130 . The rear portion of the individual rods of the rod wind guard  130  pass through an elongated aperture in the stripper pan  220 . The rods  130 , then, function independently of the rotor, that is, not fixed to the rotor. The rod wind guard  130  is, therefore, permitted to rise with increased crop infeed, then drop as the crop thins out. The rear portion of the rods of the rod wind guard  130  and/or the stripper teardrop-shaped anti-wrap oversleeves  100  serve to guide the crop as well. In an additional embodiment, the rod wind guard  130  pivots only upon moving the rotor slide frame. The rods of the rod wind guard  130  are not engaged with the stripper pan  220  in this embodiment. 
   In operation, a baler  300  having a main frame with a front and a rear, a baling chamber  510  having a baling chamber inlet  610  uses a rotary crop pickup device  710  operatively pivotally attached to the main frame along a first pivotal axis (A 1 ) to pick up cut crops from the ground. The rotary crop pickup device  710  is of a type having spaced apart pickup tines  711  that rotate about a rotational axis A 7  ( FIG. 11 ) in one direction (which is clockwise in  FIG. 11 ) for picking up crop from the ground and moving the crop to the inlet  610  of the baling chamber. The rotary crop pickup device  710  has a raised transport position ( FIG. 1 ) and a lowered working position ( FIG. 2 ) and is moveable between the raised transport position and the lowered working position. 
   A left side mostly horizontally disposed slot  114 L is fixed with respect to the main frame. A right side mostly horizontally disposed slot  114 R is fixed with respect to the main frame. 
   A slider frame ( 100 ,  FIG. 3 ) is adapted to mount at least one accessory thereon for assisting the rotary crop pickup device. This slider frame  100  has a left side bearing  104  extending through the left side slot in the left side panel, and a mirror image right side bearing  104  extending through the right side slot  114 R in the right side panel for permitting the slider main frame  100  to move between a forward position in the slots  114 L and  114 R to a rearward position in the slots and to pivot about a second axis (A 2 ) which second axis (A 2 ) is always disposed in the left and right side slots  114 L and  114 R respectively. 
   A left side member  101  is pivotally attached to the slider frame about the second axis (A 2 ) and is operatively attached to the rotary crop pickup device along a third axis (A 3 ) as shown in  FIG. 3 . A right side member  101  pivotally attached to the slider frame about the second axis (A 2 ) and is operatively attached to the rotary crop pickup device along a third axis (A 3 ) whereby when the rotary crop pickup device  710  is in the raised transport position the left and right side bearings  104  of the slider frame  100  are in a forward position of the left and right side slots  114 L and  114 R and when the rotary crop pickup device is in the lowered operative position the left and right side bearings  104  of the slider frame  100  are in a rearward position of the left and right side slots as shown in  FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  4  and  5 . 
   The accessory attached to the slider frame in  FIGS. 4 and 5  is a wind guard  130  pivotally attached thereto along a fourth axis (A 4 ), said fourth axis being fixed with respect to said slider frame. The wind guard comprises a plurality of rods  130  extending rearwardly from the fourth axis (A 4 ) toward the rotary crop pickup device  710  for tending to push crop against the tines  711  of the rotary crop pickup device  710 . 
   In a preferred embodiment all of the first through seventh axes (A 1 -A 7 ) are respectively substantially parallel to each other. 
   When the accessory attached to the slider frame  100  is a rotor with blades  120  thereon the rotor is rotatable about a fifth axis (A 5 ) and rotatable in a direction opposite to the direction of rotation of the rotary crop pickup device  710  for urging crop disposed between the tines  711  of the rotary crop pickup device  710  and the rotor to pass towards the baling chamber  610 . 
   In  FIG. 3  the rotor is a power rotor, preferably a hydraulic motor  125 . In  FIG. 3   a  the rotor rotates due to the passing of the crop between the rotor blades and the tines of the rotary crop pickup device, i.e. it has no motor like motor  125  of  FIG. 3 . 
   The slide blocks  350  on each side of the device  110  shown in  FIG. 3 , are disposed on a front upper portion of the slider frame  100  for engaging and sliding along a plate  351  on the baler above the slide blocks  350  for limiting the degree to which the slider frame can pivot downwardly in the rear thereof about the sixth axis (A 6 ). 
   Since the rotor part  101  is operatively pivotally attached along a sixth axis (A 6 ) to the slide frame  100 , it is moveable between a lower position close to the rotary crop pickup device  710  and an upper position spaced farther from the rotary crop pickup device  710 . Several tension springs  117  are operatively attached at one end thereof to the slider frame  100  and operatively attached at another end thereof to the rotor plate  101  to apply a force tending to help rotate the rotor upwardly about the sixth axis (A 6 ) when the crop passes between the rotor and the rotary crop pickup device. Nuts  118  can be adjusted to adjust the tension on tension springs  117 , as is well known in this art. 
   The stop mechanism  250  associated with the rotor  110  and the slider frame  100  is used to prevent the rotor  110  from pivoting beyond a predetermined angle downwardly about the sixth axis (A 6 ) thereby preventing the rotor blades  120  from contacting the rotary crop pickup device  710 . 
   The above embodiments are the preferred embodiments, but this invention is not limited thereto. It is, therefore, apparent that many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is, therefore, to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.