Package making – Methods – With contents treating
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-28
2002-12-31
Rada, Rinaldi I. (Department: 3721)
Package making
Methods
With contents treating
C053S587000, C053S529000, C053S209000, C053S399000, C053S438000, C100S065000, C100S210000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06499276
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a wrapping machine, in particular to a bale wrapping machine. The invention also concerns a combined compacting and wrapping machine for compacting material into bales and wrapping the bales with plastics film. The invention is particularly concerned with a machine for forming bales of agricultural silage, grain, hay, straw, maize, beet pulp, beet tops, and the like (hereinafter referred to as “fodder”) and wrapping the formed bales with a plastics film, which preferably is air tight and water tight. The machine of the invention may also be used for compacting and wrapping general farm and agricultural waste products, such as waste plastics and the like, and for compacting and wrapping other loose materials and objects such as comminuted peat moss, saw dust, wood shavings, wood chippings, brewery waste, bricks, blocks, cartons and the like.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It has become conventional practice in agriculture to form harvested fodder into cylindrical-shaped bales, and square or rectangular bales, which are then wrapped in a plastics film. This is particularly suitable method of manufacturing silage because the silage is kept air-tight within the wrapped bale which, typically, is wrapped with up to six plies of plastics. The cylindrically shaped bales are commonly called “big round bales”.
In the present method of producing wrapped bale fodder, such as silage, at least three machines are used. Firstly the grass or other fodder for use as silage is cut, in a field, by a cutting machine. A conventional baling machine then traverses the field, picks up the cut grass, compacts it into a round bale, ties it with twine, and deposits it on the ground. A bale wrapping machine then traverses the field, picks up the compacted and tied bales, and wraps the bales with several layers of a plastics film, and drops the wrapped bales on the ground. The wrapped bales are subsequently gathered and brought to a storage area. Alternatively, the compacted and tied bales may be transported to the storage area before wrapping and are wrapped in the storage area by a bale wrapping machine.
A typical conventional round baling machine is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,380 B. The grass or other fodder to be harvested is lifted from the ground by a collecting device, and fed to a pressing chamber of the machine where it is wound into a cylinder by rotatable rollers, disposed in a circular array, to form a round bale. When a bale of the desired diameter or density is formed a binding cord or twine is wound around the bale to keep it intact during further handling. The bale is then discharged onto the ground.
Machines for wrapping the large bales, formed by the baling machine, with a plastics film are described, for example, in EP 0539549B, GB 2191984A, GB 2228246A and EP0208034A (GB 2159489B).
Bale wrapping machines of the kind described comprise a wheeled chassis which may be towed by a tractor. The chassis carries a tipping platform which, in turn, supports a turntable. The turntable is rotatable about a vertical axis. The turntable carries a pair of spaced rollers each of which rotates about a horizontal axis. An endless belt is stretched between the rollers and rotates with the rollers. In order to wrap a large round bale of fodder material with plastics film, the round bale is lifted onto the turntable by means of lifting arms. The bale rests on the endless belt. The free end of a roll of plastics film is attached to the bale and the turntable is then rotated about a generally vertical axis to cause the sheet of film to be wrapped around the bale. However, if no movement of the bale about its longitudinal axis were to occur the bale would merely be wrapped with a single band having the thickness of the width of the plastics film. However, on each rotation of the turntable the endless belt is caused to move for a predetermined distance which, in turn, causes the bale to roll about its surface, i.e. about a horizontal axis. This rolling of the bale on the belt allows a new area of bale to be wrapped by the film on each rotation of the turntable, thus eventually achieving a complete covering of the bale with substantial degree of overlap of the plastics film.
In the bale-wrapping machines described above the bale to be wrapped is mounted on a turntable which rotates about a vertical axis, and the dispenser for the roll of plastics film is fixed. It is the rotation of the bale about the vertical axis which causes the film to be unrolled from the dispenser. However, it is also known from the prior art, for example in EP-B-0110110, DE 3642513A, and GB 2193683A, for the bale to be mounted on rollers which rotate the bale only about the horizontal axis. In this arrangement there is provided a rotary support arm for the film dispenser which rotates the film dispenser, about a vertical axis, around the bale, while the bale is being turned about a horizontal axis.
The conventional methods of producing wrapped bale fodder as described above suffers from a number of disadvantages. Firstly, it is an expensive operation because of the number of machines, tractors, and manpower utilised. A conventional bale wrapping machine of the kind described above is capable of wrapping about 40 large round bales of fodder per hour. To produce 40 round bales per hour requires the services of two conventional round baling machines, each of which requires a tractor and, a driver for the tractor. Because the conventional baling machines use a pressing and winding system to compact and form the bale of fodder, the density of bale obtained is not particularly high. In other words, the volume or weight of fodder contained in the formed bale is not as high as desired. Furthermore, with conventional bale wrapping machines there is a high degree of overlap of the plastics film resulting in a high cost.
With conventional baling machines it is necessary to tie the bales with twine, or enclose it within netting material as otherwise the bale will break apart upon ejection from the baling machine or during further handling. The necessity to tie the bales in the conventional baling machines adds to the cost of the machine because a tying mechanism must be provided in the machine. For the user there is the additional cost of providing twine or cord.
More particularly, the provision of twine or cord on conventional large round bales is a great inconvenience to the farmer because he must cut off the twine before feeding out the fodder. Also, because the bales are formed by winding the fodder into a cylindrical shape the bale may be unrolled during the feeding out operation, and special machines are used for this purpose, as described in GB 2158111 A. Alternatively the bale is shredded. It is almost impossible to remove all the twine from the bale without breaking or unrolling the bale in some way.
Another disadvantage of conventional baling machines is that they are unable to handle crops which are cut to a short length such as maize silage or short cut grass (i.e. “precision chopped” material), because it is difficult to tie such bales with twine. Also, conventional baling machines have a compaction chamber of a fixed size and are capable of producing a bale of a fixed size only.
Compactors for use in compacting waste products such as bulk waste and garbage by means of rollers which press down and simultaneously rotate axially within a compaction chamber are known. Such compactors are described for example in WO 93/09938 (EP 0618863 B), and EP 106268. However, such compactors are not known for use in compacting round bales of fodder for subsequent wrapping. U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,409 B discloses a silage compression apparatus for compressing forage into a compact stack comprising a plurality of rollers which rotate around the inside of a cylindrical confining ring. However, this apparatus is for use in producing pit silage and is not suitable for producing bales of silage which can be handled or wrapped in plastics film.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the inventio
Comtor Limited
Desai Hermant M.
Rada Rinaldi I.
Young & Thompson
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