The present invention relates generally to a baler for forming cylindrical bales of crop material, commonly referred to as a round baler, and more particularly to an improvement in a crop pickup apparatus for a round baler having lateral converging apparatus working in conjunction with the pickup that is wider than the bale forming chamber inlet.
Round balers rely on a pickup apparatus with a set of tines that engage a windrow of crop material on the ground and lift it upwardly and then urge it rearwardly to a transverse infeed opening into a bale-forming chamber. Pressure to increase efficiency in crop packaging operations has resulted in the prevalence of crop pickup units that are significantly wider than the bale forming chamber into which the crop material is fed. A wider pickup allows the baler to handle wider crop windrows and also results in better crop fill at the lateral extremes of the resultant bale. Historically, wide pickups have incorporated augers situated at the extremes of the pickup width to converge the crop laterally inwardly to achieve a width of the crop mat being fed into the bale chamber that is approximately the same as the chamber width. Longitudinal placement of the converging augers requires an elongated feed table, increasing the distance the crop must travel between the pickup tines and the bale chamber inlet opening. A secondary feed mechanism, such as a stuffer or rotor, is often necessary to convey the converged crop mat along the lengthened feed table and into the bale chamber.
Although quite effective, secondary feed mechanisms add complexity and cost. Without them, the potential for clogging the bale chamber infeed opening increases. Efforts to eliminate the secondary feed mechanism have focused on minimizing the distance between the pickup tines and the crop inlet opening. Reducing the feed table length to eliminate the need for a secondary feed mechanism requires that tine movement on the tine reel be optimized for maximum crop movement efficiency and to reposition tines depending on rotational position to prevent their contacting the more closely positioned converging augers. While this approach reduces the need for a secondary feed mechanism, the benefit may be offset by the increased complexity in the tine position management mechanism within the pickup apparatus.
It would be a great advantage to provide a simple tine position management mechanism for a round baler pickup unit that eliminates the need for a secondary pickup feed mechanism, reduces the required clearance between a tine reel and one or more crop converging augers to overcome the above problems and limitations.