World's First Plastic-Wrapping Baler

World's First Plastic-Wrapping Baler CROP STORAGE Round Bale Silage 16-2-23 New from Finland is the world's first big round baler with its own built-in plastic wrapping device. Designed for making silage bales, the combination machine doesn't have a conventional front-mounted pickup feeder. It's coupled to a chopper which loads freshly-chopped material directly into the baler's top-loading chamber. Here, courtesy of Konnevisti, Finland's leading farm magazine, is how this first-ofits kind combination baler-wrapper, developed by Esko Rantalahti, works: The basic concept of the machine is an enclosed chamber roller-baler with the rollers running parallel to the direction of travel. Six rollers at the bottom form the bale wrapping device. When each bales is fmished, a hydraulic cylinder pushes the built-in bale wrapper, supported by internal axles, out the rear of the baler. It carries the bale with it, then pivots to turn and spin the bale as it's wrapped with plastic. After wrapping, which takes about 3.5 minutes, the wrapper unit tilts to drop the bale on the ground and then returns to its tucked-in position inside the baler. Because the wrapper is contained inside the baler, the entire hookup ù tractor, chopper, baler and wrapper ù is coupled much closer together than recently-introduced hookups involving separate tow-behind plastic wrap-pers. The accompanying photos show.the prototype machine which inventor Rantalahti successfully field tested late last summer. It baled and wrapped about 50 silage bales. Rantalahti, who has applied for a patent on his invention, plans to have several improved models ready for further field testing this summer. He's confident that the plastic wrapping procedure can be auto-mated and controlled right from the cab (on the prototype, the operator has to get off the tractor to manually operate the wrapper). Other engineering modificatons slated for production models include revamping direction of the feed flow to ensure that silage bales are equally firm at both ends, and to redesign the roller ends so they don't get entangled with forage and malfunction. Production models will be designed to pro-duce silage bales right at 4 ft. in diameter. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Rahtikone OY, Esko Rantalahti, P.O. Box 86, Mantyharju, Fin-land SF-52701

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