Secondary Feed Roll for Round Baler Crop Inlet
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Solution Overview
Problem
Round balers with wider pickup units than the bale forming chamber face challenges in efficiently conveying crop material without clogging, often requiring complex and costly secondary feed mechanisms, and existing solutions complicate the converging apparatus or increase tine extension requirements.
Innovation Solution
A secondary feed roll with radially arranged fingers is introduced beneath the feed table to interact with the pickup tines and converging augers, ensuring continuous crop material flow into the bale chamber inlet, reducing clogging and complexity by minimizing the distance between the tine reel and the inlet opening.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a wider pickup unit is used to handle wider crop windrows, then crop gathering efficiency is improved, but the risk of clogging the bale chamber infeed opening increases
Solution Approach 1:
A secondary feed mechanism acts as an intermediary component between the wide pickup unit and the bale chamber infeed opening. This mechanism includes a feed table and converging apparatus that intermediates the crop flow, guiding and converging the crop material from the wide pickup onto a narrower path that matches the infeed opening width, thus preventing clogging while maintaining the benefits of a wide pickup for crop gathering efficiency
2Shape
If converging augers are added to narrow the crop width, then the crop width matches the chamber width, but the feed table length increases and device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The converging apparatus is merged with the feed table structure, integrating the crop convergence function into the existing feed table rather than adding a separate, complex auger system. The feed table itself is designed with features that guide and converge the crop material laterally inwardly, combining multiple functions (feeding and converging) into a single integrated component, thereby reducing overall device complexity while achieving the desired crop width reduction
3Device complexity
If the distance between pickup tines and inlet opening is minimized, then secondary feed mechanism complexity is reduced, but tine extension control becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The tine extension mechanism is designed with dynamic characteristics that automatically adjust tine position based on operational conditions. The tines are capable of varying their extension length to accommodate different crop conditions and pickup requirements, allowing the system to maintain optimal performance across varying operating conditions without requiring complex manual adjustment mechanisms
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
The solution effectively conveys crop material from the ground to the bale chamber with reduced incidence of jamming, maintaining efficiency and simplicity, while being durable, inexpensive, and easy to maintain.
Implementation Method 1
a secondary feed roll having a plurality of radially arranged fingers that upwardly extend into the crop mat... to convey crop material from a forwardly disposed pickup tine reel to the inlet opening
Data Source
AI summary
A crop pickup apparatus for a round baler in which the pickup apparatus substantially wider than the bale chamber inlet opening. The pickup includes a pair of large crop converging augers situated along a common axis, one each on opposing sides of the crop inlet, and forwardly adjacent to the bale chamber infeed throat. The pickup apparatus also include a secondary crop feeding roll having a plurality of generally radially extending fingers that upwardly extend into the crop mat in an area adjacent to the converging augers to convey crop material from a forwardly disposed pickup tine reel to the inlet opening. The fingers are arranged to partially overlap with tines on the tine reel so that the crop material is generally continuously urged along the entire longitudinal feed path into the inlet opening.