A baler a chute assembly extending in a rearward direction from a baling chamber configured to simultaneously receive first and second bales as the bales are urged out of the baling chamber. The chute assembly includes a rail assembly and an opposing shelf assembly, the rail assembly and the shelf assembly cooperating to form a cavity therebetween. The rail assembly includes an upper rail and a lower rail with the lower rail offset from the upper rail in a horizontal direction toward the cavity, and the shelf assembly includes a horizontal first surface, an ejection plate, an angled second surface and a guide rail. As the first and second bales are urged from the bale chamber the first bale engages the rail assembly and the second bale engages the shelf assembly. The chute assembly rotates the first and second bales as the bales drop from the chute assembly in a single line of bales arranged in an end-to-end orientation.

A rectangular baler including a bale chamber having a plurality of walls including a movable wall section, an actuator for exerting a pressure on the movable wall section, a plunger for compressing crop material, and a control system configured to control the plunger to perform cyclic plunger strokes such that in each stroke the plunger force (F) exerted by the plunger on the crop material increases to reach a maximum plunger force (Fmax) to compress a newly inserted slice of crop material. The control system includes a first module to measure, at consecutive moments during a plunger stroke, a plurality of first values for the plunger force exerted by the plunger and/or for the pressure (Pd) in the actuator; and a control module to control at least one baling setting influencing the compressing of the crop material in the bale chamber as a function of the plurality of first values.

A hay baler (10) comprises a fore and aft hay bale forming zone, and a cut vegetation pick up and delivery arrangement for delivering cut vegetation to the hay bale forming zone. A compression plunger (19) of the hay baler (10) is movable in the fore and aft direction for compressing cut vegetation into a bale in the hay bale forming zone. A reservoir (23) retains a supply of non-toxic liquid surfactant or lubricant, and a pump means (25) is provided for pumping the non-toxic liquid surfactant or lubricant from the reservoir (23) at a supply pressure to one or more discharge outlets (32) in the hay baler (10). Thereby, inwardly facing surfaces in the fore and aft hay bale forming zone are at least partially coated with the non-toxic liquid surfactant or lubricant.

A method and adapted electronic systems for determining a value representative for or an estimate of the load on a plunger of a baler for harvested agricultural material includes obtaining the speed of movement of a drive element for the plunger, followed by determining the estimate of or value representative for the load on the plunger based upon the obtained speed of movement of the drive element.

A rectangular baler including a baling chamber, an intake duct, a pick-up mechanism for picking up crop material and introducing it into the intake duct, and a stuffer mechanism to selectively execute a packer stroke to advance crop material partially along the intake duct and a stuffer stroke to transfer the crop material accumulated in the intake duct into the baling chamber. The stuffer mechanism includes a tine bar extending between two stuffer assemblies at each side of the baler. Each stuffer assembly includes a first stuffer arm connected at a first pivot point to a first crank arm of a first drive mechanism, a second stuffer arm connected at a second pivot point to a second crank arm of a second drive mechanism, and a coupling plate pivotally mounted around a stationary pivot point. The coupling plate couples the first stuffer arm with the second stuffer arm.

A sensor assembly and method is described for determining the position of a reciprocating plunger of a baler. A first sensor may detect at least one location of a crank arm driving the plunger as the crank arm rotates. A second sensor may detect a rotation of a crank gear that drives the rotation of the crank arm. A controller may determine a position of the reciprocating plunger relative to a baling chamber based upon, at least in part, the detected crank arm location and the detected rotation of the crank gear.

An agricultural baler has a shaft for coupling with a PTO, a flywheel connected to the shaft, and a plunger connected to the flywheel via a crank. An auxiliary motor is connectable to the flywheel and adapted for rotating said flywheel depending on a control signal. A motor controller is connected to the auxiliary motor and provided with an algorithm for determining the control signal for automatically rotating the flywheel to a predetermined launch position.

A rectangular baler including a chassis; a compacting plunger supported on the chassis for advancing crop material; and a bale chamber between the compacting plunger and the back end. The chassis is provided with a first and second sidewall extending from the front end in the direction of the back end. There is further provided a pull rod connecting the first sidewall and the second sidewall, at a location between the plunger and the front end. The pull rod has a first part and a second end part extending freely through a first hole in the first sidewall and a second hole in the second sidewall, respectively.

A baling system acts at shut-down to automatically pre-position a plunger so that it is just past a rear-dead-center position when the baler is restarted, thereby minimizing the load on a power take-off during the next restart. In particular, when the power take-off is deactivated, a control unit automatically brakes the power take-off so that the plunger stops in the desired position. Alternatively, the baling system acts at restart-up to automatically repeatedly activate and deactivate the power take-off in order to accelerate the plunger to a predetermined minimum operating speed before activating the power take-off for continuous operation, thereby maximizing a flywheel's momentum during the restart.

A system for ejecting a bale from a baler, wherein the ejection process is controlled by a control unit with input from various sensors and from a remote operator located on a tractor. The control unit automatically positions a chute, controls a power take-off from the tractor, depressurizes and opens a chamber door, ties the bale, selects and causes ejector teeth to project into a forming chamber to engage the bale, causes the ejector teeth to move toward a discharge outlet such that the engaged bale moves with them toward and through the discharge outlet, and determines when the bale has fully ejected from the baler. The remote operator may choose to eject only the bale or to eject the entire contents of the forming chamber, and if the former, the control unit determines the bale's length and selects a subset of the ejector teeth that corresponds to that length.