Patent ID: 7320202

Claim:
Apparatus for collecting, stacking and bundling elongate pieces comprising: a vehicle for moving in a direction of working movement across ground between stacks on the ground of the elongate pieces to be collected; a frame arranged for attachment to the vehicle; an unscrambling and stacking assembly mounted on the frame including a row former for receiving the elongate pieces and for unscrambling and aligning the pieces side by side in a row and including a transfer section for stacking rows on top of one another to form a stack of the rows; and a bundling assembly mounted on the frame for wrapping the stack of the rows with a bundling material; the unscrambling and stacking assembly and the bunding assembly being mounted on the frame for transportation with the vehicle across the ground; the unscrambling and stacking assembly including a receiving section for the pieces which is mounted on the frame so as to be located on a first side of the vehicle; the bundling assembly being mounted on the frame so as to be located on a second side of the vehicle opposite to the fist side and arranged to discharge the bundle rearwardly of the vehicle from the second side; wherein the transfer section of the unscrambling and stacking assembly includes a transfer conveyer extending across the vehicle from the receiving section on the first side to the bundling assembly on the second side; and wherein the transfer section of the unscrambling and stacking assembly includes a transfer rack for lifting a row of a predetermined number of the pieces from the transfer conveyer and moving the row generally horizontally from the transfer conveyer, and a stack support for receiving the moved rows deposited thereon and for moving the received rows downwardly to receive a next row on top of a previous row.