WO1991002452A1

WO1991002452A1 - Improvements relating to belts for baling machines

Info

Publication number: WO1991002452A1
Application number: PCT/GB1990/001275
Authority: WO
Inventors: Thomas Bartlett Snell
Original assignee: Thomas Bartlett Snell
Priority date: 1989-08-14
Filing date: 1990-08-14
Publication date: 1991-03-07
Also published as: AU6281390A

Abstract

A round baling machine has parallel rollers (1) in a cylindrical array which entrain the straw or other material and form it into a cylindrical bale. A belt (3) for fitting around a group of such rollers (7) is as wide as the lateral span of the rollers and has a partable join so that it can be put on and taken off without disturbance of the rollers or any adaption of the machine. The join may be formed by strips (4) of interlocking pile fabric adhered and/or welded to ends of the belt (3), which is preferably of polyurethane coated fabric, giving almost infinite adjustment within a limited range.

Description

"Improvements relating to Belts for Baling Machines" This invention relates to belts for baling machines- Hay, straw and silage is now frequently collected in large cylindrical bales and the baling machines which carry out this operation are generally powered from the tractor that draws them. Some machines have expanding belt arrange¬ ments, which "grow" with the bale. However, others known as fixed chamber machines have a cylindrical array of parallel rollers with frictional surfaces. These direct the material entering the bale chamber into an arcuate path and thereby develop the cylindrical bale. When it reaches a predeter¬ mined size, the bale is contained by string, netting or sheet material and discharged. Such a fixed chamber machine will be identified as "of the kind referred to." These machines work well in some conditions, but not in all. In particular, short, dry and brittle straw tends to slip on the rollers, and the bale therefore fails to rotate. It has been proposed in DE-31 28 104 to cure this with belts, but in practice the idea was not pursued. A number of separate belts were entrained around a group of rollers, and kept in the correct spacing by interposed fingers mounted on a cross rod. These fingers also acted to remove material collecting in the space between the upper and lower runs of the belts. It was claimed that the belts were easily removable, but they were quite time consuming to fit ^• and difficult to tension evenly, and it is believed that the system was discarded. However, the problem is still there and it is this that the present invention aims to solve. According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a flexible belt for fitting in a round baling machine of the kind referred to, the belt having a width substantially that of the bale forming rollers, having a length such that it can be entrained around a group of such rollers, and a partable join so that it can be fitted without disturbance of said rollers or adaption of the machine.

With a wide belt, as opposed to the narrow ones of DE- 31 28 104, there is no need for modification of an existing machine by providing the spacing fingers, and there is unlikely to be any trouble with material getting trapped between the runs of the belt.

Preferably, the join is formed with an overlap of the ends of the belt, and these ends may have attached thereto, across the width of the belt, complementary strips of interlocking pile fabric, such as that known as VELCRO (R.T.M.) where the respective piles have hooks and eyes. This enables the adjustment of the belt loop to be almost infinite, within limits, so that its tension can be modified from time to time, for example as the belt stretches.

These strips may be adhered to the belt, especially if they are available with a self-adhesive backing. Alterna¬ tively, they may be welded. However, as welding can irrevocably flatten the pile and reduce its shear strength, it would be inadvisable to do this over the entire area of each strip. Instead, the welds may be done in a skeleton pattern, for example in a diamond pattern grid. There could also be a combination of adhering and welding.

It is important that the belt should be fitted without any lateral offset of one end with respect to the other, and so that the belt will move in the correct direction in relation to the overlap. Therefore, in the vicinity of the overlap the belt may carry marking and/or be shaped to indicate the manner of fitting and the correct alignment of the respective ends.

The belt requires good frictional and abrasion-resis- tant surfaces, one for efficient traction by the rollers and the other for entraining the straw or other material. Polyurethane will serve well for both purposes and it iε preferred that the belt should have a fabric core with an ether-based polyurethane coated on opposite sides. According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of modifying a round baling machine of the kind referred to by fitting a belt as defined above around a group of rollers.

For a better understanding of the invention, one embodiment will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic longitudinal vertical section of a baling machine for producing round bales, Figure 2 is an enlarged detail of Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a plan view of part of Figure 2, showing a belt join.

The machine of Figure 1 will not be described in detail as the general principles are well known. The bale forming rollers 1 are in a generally cylindrical array to define the bale shape, and the straw is fed in through a gap 2 onto a group of rollers at the bottom of the array. It is these that are particularly critical in entraining the straw and initiating the bale forming process and, as mentioned above, in some circumstances they fail to do this.

The problem is substantially alleviated by having a belt 3 around these rollers. In this invention, the belt is not an endless loop, which would be impossible to fit without quite a bit of dismantling. Instead, as seen in Figure 2, it has overlapping ends which fasten together by strips 4 of interlocking pile fabric extending the width of the belt, which corresponds to the lateral span of the rollers. This belt can be fitted without any adaption of the baling machine, and by one man.

The belt ends need to be aligned properly, and to do this there are provided arrow marks 5 and 6 on the exterior, straw engaging surface which come' into conjunction at the trailing edge of the overlap. The direction in which these arrows point indicates the direction in which the belt should move. There is also a notch 7 in the trailing edge of the outer part of the overlap, accentuating the arrow 5 and .into which the arrow 6 points. Since painted or printed marks can be worn away, particularly on the outer portion of the overlap, the notch 7 may be of increasing importance as the belt is repeatedly refitted. The arrow 6 will be rather more protected but, as a precaution, the belt may have an indented mark to augment that arrow, or there may be a welded-on triangle of polyurethane, of contrasting colour to the main belt.

Also indicated in Figure 3 iε a pattern of welding the pile fabric strips at the overlap. The thin lines in a diamond pattern will provide adequate anchorage while incurring minimal damage to the pile as a whole. It was mentioned above that adhesive could be used, and there could be a combination of the two techniques. In a preferred method where the strips are polyurethane backed, solvent is applied to those backs or to the polyurethane belt coating over the regions where the strips are to be attached, the strips are applied and smoothed out so that they adhere by means of the tacky polyurethane, and then welding is carried out. Thiε solves the problem of keeping the strips accurately in place during welding.

While the most important place for such a belt is around the bottom group of rollers, as shown in Figure 1, it will be understood that, in some circumεtanceε, . it may be beneficial to fit such a belt additionally, around another group of rollerε.

Claims

1. A flexible belt for fitting in a round baling machine of the kind referred to, the belt (3) having a width substantially that of the bale-forming rollers (1) having a length such that it can be entrained around a group of such rollers, and a partable join so that it can be fitted without disturbance of said rollers or adaption of the machine.

2. A belt as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the join is formed with an overlap of the ends of the belt (3) .

3. A belt as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the ends have attached thereto, across the width of the belt, complemen¬ tary strips (4) of interlocking pile fabric.

4. A belt as claimed in Claim 3, wherein said strips (4) have respective piles of hooks and eyes.

5. A belt as claimed in Claim 3 or 4, wherein said strips (4) are adhered to the belt.

6. A belt as claimed in Claim 3, 4 or 5, wherein said strips (4) are welded to the belt.

7. A belt as claimed in Claim 6, wherein said strips (4) are welded in a skeletal pattern.

8. A belt as claimed in any one of Claims 2 to 7, wherein in the vicinity of the -join the belt (3) carries marking (5, 6) and/or is shaped (7) to indicate the manner of fitting and the correct alignment of the respective ends.

9. A belt as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein at least the belt surfaces are of polyurethane.

10. A method of modifying a round baling machine of the kind referred to by fitting a belt as claimed in any preceding claim around a group of rollers.