Baler Wall Segment Sensor for Friction Coefficient Measurement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional agricultural balers face reliability issues due to external parameter changes affecting load measurements, making it difficult to accurately assess the load on components when handling crop materials with varying humidity and density, such as silage.
Innovation Solution
A sensor system that measures both normal and friction forces on a wall segment within the baler, allowing for the calculation of the coefficient of friction, which is less influenced by external parameters and provides a more reliable, crop-material-specific parameter for automated control systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a friction sensor is used to measure load on baler components, then overload protection can be implemented, but the measurement reliability deteriorates due to significant changes in output caused by external parameters like humidity, density, and pressure
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the measured parameter from raw friction force to coefficient of friction by dividing friction force by normal force. This parameter transformation eliminates the influence of external parameters such as humidity, density, and pressure, as these factors affect both numerator and denominator proportionally, leaving the coefficient of friction relatively constant for a given material pair.
Solution Approach 2:
The normal force measurement acts as an intermediary that compensates for the influence of external parameters. By incorporating the normal force measurement into the calculation of the coefficient of friction, the system uses this intermediary parameter to eliminate the harmful effects of varying external conditions on the friction measurement.
2Measurement precision
If only friction force is measured, then overload detection is possible, but the ability to calculate coefficient of friction and distinguish material properties deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges the measurement of friction force and normal force into a single integrated sensor system. This combination allows the calculation of the coefficient of friction, which provides precise identification of crop material properties while maintaining manageable device complexity through unified sensor design.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enables a more reliable and objective measurement of crop material properties, enhancing the accuracy of automated control systems and reducing the risk of overload, even with varying crop conditions, by deriving the coefficient of friction from simultaneous load measurements.
Implementation Method 1
a friction force (force parallel to the surface) is measured simultaneously on one wall segment. Thereby, not only the friction force (as is known from the prior art) but also the coefficient of friction is directly derivable from the measurement results.
Data Source
AI summary
An agricultural baler having a baling chamber, an intake duct leading into the baling chamber and a stuffer mechanism for transferring slice of crop in the intake duct into the baling chamber, wherein the baler comprises a wall segment positioned substantially in line with an inner wall surface of the baler, the wall segment being suspended from the inner wall surface via at least one load measurement sensor in such a manner that both a load perpendicular to, and a load parallel to the inner wall are derivable.