Animal feed processor

Details Animal feed processor Animal feed processor

1999-04-30

2001-03-13

Rosenbaum, Mark (Department: 3725)

Solid material comminution or disintegration

Apparatus

Combined or convertible

C241S604000, C241S605000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06199781

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to animal feed processors and more particularly to an animal feed processor for discharging a supplemental feed onto disintegrated baled crop material discharged from the processor.
BACKGROUND
Crop materials, such as straw, hay or other forage are often baled for storage and transportation. It is then necessary to undo or break the bales apart in order to spread the crop materials for animal bedding or to dispense the crop materials as feed.
Over the years many different types of machines have been developed to undo or break apart bales of crop materials, this has become somewhat challenging with the advent of large rectangular or circular bales since these cannot be handled manually. Different types of machines are depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 3,979, 077 which issued to Dalman on Sep. 7, 1976; U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,361 which issued to Marcy on May 15, 1984; U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,672 which issued to Morlock et al on May 22, 1984; U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,916 which issued to Keyes et al on Jun. 25, 1985; U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,191 which issued to Dwyer et al on Apr. 14, 1987; U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,810 which issued Frey on Oct. 25, 1988; U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,867 which issued to Whittleton et al on Oct. 26, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,040 which issued to Bussiere et al on Aug. 23, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,241 which issued to Brewster on Feb. 11, 1997 and U.S. Pat. 5,738,87 which issued to Vandenberg on Apr. 14, 1998. All of these machines have been designed to undo, break apart or disintegrate bales of crop materials and can lay the loose materials down in a row as the machine is moving.
The machine typically comprises a container for receiving the bales, a disintegrator often in the form of a roller with cutters or flails for chopping or shredding the material from the bale, a mechanism to direct the bale to the disintegrator and a discharge slot such that the crop material is discharged from the bail processor to the ground forming a windrow as the machine moves forward.
Often, it is desirable to provide a combination of feed materials to the animals to provide them with a more nutritious and balanced diet as well as to make the feed more palatable to the animals. The feed mixture would normally include a crop (forage) material such as hay or straw together with a supplemental feed such as whole grain, chopped grain, corn, vitamin or other supplements, and high protein feed pellets or cakes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an animal feed processor which discharges a supplemental feed onto the disintegrated baled crop materials discharged from the processor.
This and other objects are achieved in an animal feed processor that comprises a container for receiving baled crop material mounted on a chassis and a hopper for receiving the supplemental feed also mounted on the chassis. A disintegrator for shredding the baled crop material is mounted within the container; the container also has a slot on one side to discharge the disintegrated baled crop material. The hopper includes a mechanism for discharging the supplemental feed from the hopper also to the one side of the animal feed processor.
The animal feed processor may further include a fork lift mounted at the back end of the chassis for lifting bales into the baled crop material container. A hitch may be fixed to the front end of the chassis for coupling the animal feed processor to a tractor.
In one embodiment of the invention the hopper is mounted in front of the baled crop material container while in a further embodiment the hopper is mounted in back of the baled crop material container.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a conveyor such as an auger has an input located at the base of the hopper and an output located near the baled crop material discharge mechanism to discharge the feed supplement. The auger is driven by a speed controlled motor such as a hydraulic motor.
With regard to a further aspect of the invention, an adjustable opening at the input to the auger, the speed of the motor or both may be used to control the flow of supplemental feed.
In the embodiment in which the hopper is located in front of the container, the conveyor for discharging the supplemental feed may comprise a drop box located below and at the back of the baled crop material container, a first auger having a first end within the base of the hopper and a second end connected to the drop box and a second auger having a first end connected to the drop box and a second end mounted above and near the baled crop material discharge mechanism. In addition the hopper may have a conduit passing through it from front to back to receive a drive shaft to drive the disintegrator.
In accordance with further aspects of the invention, the augers are independently driven by speed controlled hydraulic motors that can receive their power from the tractor hydraulics. In addition, an adjustable discharge door on the discharge slot may be used to direct the flow of the disintegrated baled crop material to form a windrow on the ground or to fill a feed bunk as the feed processor moves forward. An adjustable spout mounted on the cylindrical conduit at the end of the auger may be used to direct the flow of the supplemental feed onto the windrow or into the feedbunk.
Many other objects and aspects of the invention will be clear from the detailed description of the drawings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4092004 (1978-05-01), Leverenz et al.
patent: 4830292 (1989-05-01), Frey
patent: 5622323 (1997-04-01), Krueger et al.
Brochure entitled “Kwikmixer—3” Henke Machine Inc.
Advertising material entitled “Ez Feed 280” for Highline Mfg, Inc.
Brochure entitled “Bale Processor” from Jiffy by Westward Products Ltd.

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