Patent ID: 7370575

Claim:
In a combination of a baler for making large, parallelepiped bales, and a crop re-hydration system for re-hydrating crop to be baled, wherein said baler includes a main frame supported on a wheel assembly including an axle assembly supported by said frame, a fore-and-aft extending baling chamber having a crop inlet in an underside of a forward region thereof, a plunger mounted at a forward end of said baling chamber for reciprocating within the chamber so as to selectively traverse said crop inlet, a pick-up mounted to a forward end of said baler for picking up and delivering a windrow of crop to a curved chute defining a pre-compression chamber and having an outlet coupled to said crop inlet, the improvement comprising: said crop re-hydration system including a direct-fired steam generator mounted to a rear region of said baling chamber of said baler and including a combustion chamber; a source of fuel and a source of combustion air being coupled to said combustion chamber so as to enter said combustion chamber as a combustible mixture; a main steam conduit being coupled to said combustion chamber and extending to a forward location of said baler; a steam distribution manifold being located at said forward location on said baler and coupled to a forward end of said main steam conduit; a source of process water being coupled for being injected into said combustion chamber for contact with combustion gases for changing the injected water into steam; and said main steam conduit having a length between said combustion chamber and said steam distribution manifold which is sufficient for the injected water to become thoroughly mixed with hot combustion gases and completely changed to steam prior to reaching said steam distribution manifold.