Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
'7;~
.
~` 1 SELF-LOADING BALE
DISINTEGRATING MACHINE
;~.
,,.
Background of the Invention
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to agricultural
produce material rotating tub grinders, and more
particularly to livestock hay and such feed grinders.
Hay, after being cut and dried in windrows
in the field, is usually baled today in the form of
' large heavy round bales, weighing from 900 to 2000
, pounds each. Those bales are stacked in the Eield
, ~ for later use. Sometimes the hay is baled as smaller
r. 15 hay bales, or even just piled in a haystack or pile.
~ To avoid waste the farmer grinds the hay in the field
;~ into small pieces by a suitable grinder, for feeding
his livestock, and then he transports the gro~lnd hay
to a suitable bin for later feed use. That grinding
20 is usually done by a rotating grinder operable by
, power from a tractor. Such heretofore conventional
grinders have a horizontal flat floor with a rotor
f grinder mill in an opening in the floor. Such
grinders have heretofore been inefficient due to
25 defects in their construction and operation, which
has resul-ted in a mass of the hay bridging in the tub
grinder, during the operation of grinding on the
floor and causing a stalling disruption of operation.
That bridging mass would pile up against the grinder
30 and prevent the grinder from efficient operation in
the flat floor. To overcome such bridging or
blocking heretofore various devices and methods have
been endeavored to cure the defects, such as by
lessening the size of the grinder in the floor
35 only to a portion of the radius of the rotating
` ~1'7'7;~
. -- 2 --
;` 1 tub as the machine is operated which would cause
, only a part of the material therein to contact the
, grinder, and some of it would as a result be left
unground in the center of the tub. Further,
heretofore large heavy iron floor fins have been
fastened to the floor in an effort to cause the
hay moved thereagainst on the inside of the tub on
the floor to be directed toward the rotor grinder
in the floor, and such heavy fins were expensive
,` 10 to make and needlessly heavy of construction and
machine operation, requiring more power input from
the tractor than otherwise needed, with a resultant
!;` ~ loss of grinder power and efficiency. Thus there
~,~ has been a continuing need for a lighter and more
`- 15 efficient and less expensive to make machine
~- grinder, the form of operable tub grinders in the
industry, and to grind large heavy bales.
i~ Further, there heretofore has been
complicated methods of inserting the hay or other
fibrous material to be ground into the rotating
tub, such as by separate conveyors, or manual
labor, resulting in a loss of manpower and the
need of extra expensive adjunct loader conveyors
and machinery.
Also in the industry heretofore, after
the rotating grinder chopped the fibrous material,
by its rotor in the floor, then there has been an
s extra conveyor required thereunder to convey the
chopped material to a desirous point. Such an
extra conveyor was needed to deposit the ground
material in a pile or in an elongated rib of the
material, when it was used to feed cattle in the
field, for example.
In the use of such heretofore rotating
hay grinders used to grind modern round heavy 900 -
l i'7'~
-- 3 --
1 2000 pound bales of hay, there i8 insufficientpower available when used with older tractors,
manufactured about ten years or more ago, to
operate the heretofore known grinders to cut up
such heavy bales, and because of the inefficiency
of the grinder used. Those old tractors, while
still operable and useable, did not produce suffi-
~ cient R.P.M. at the power take-off, 540 such
-~ R.P M. to operate their grinders efficiently
mainly because of the wasted power required to
operate such inefficient machines. Heretofore,
rotor grinders used rotating knife cutter-type
blades, wherein the longitudinal edge of each
cutter blade contacted the hay and pulled and
broke the hay up and literally did not properly
cut it, because of too much cutting edge. The
machine of this invention is, among others,
adaptable for use with the older just mentioned
weaker 540 R.P.M. PTO take off tractors, because
the rotating grinder of this invention has been
simplified in the form of smaller longer end edge
cutter hammer-blade-blowers, and so is adaptable
for use not only with 100 horsepower of not over
540 R.P.M. PTO tractors, but as well with more
powerful modern tractors.
This invention for the first time, as
far as known, has perfected a rotor cutter grinder
- consisting of a plurality of broadside blades with
each blade end as a sharpened cutter edge, for
clean cutting of the hay strands by the shorter
end edge cutters, and with less power being re-
quired to operate the rotor cutter because of the
smaller end cutter edges width of the rotor blades,
each being of substantially less cutter edge by
several times than the overall longitudinal length
'7'~
-- 4 -
1 cutting edge as heretofore previously used in
rotor cutters.
2. DescriPtion of the Prior Art
; While there has been a patented device
which speaks of the rotor as being a blower, such
as in Moeller, Patent No. 4,087,451, his i9 not in
fact constructed nor described as one, and he does
not claim a blower and does not teach such in his
specification; further he does not have solid
concave blade knife-flails, as does Applicant.
Moeller's could not literally effect a blowing by
his knives, as does Applicant's herein invention.
Sum_ary of the Invention
This invention is an improved horizontally
rotatable tub grinder machine having a rotatable
tub wall, on a stationary one plane sloping acute
angle to the horizontal floor, and with an improved
rotor hammer mill in the sloping floor, in the
form of end cutter chopper-blower blades. The
floor opening, having the rotary grinder, is
substantially equal to the radius of the rotatable
tub. The here~ofore used heavy iron floor fins
secured on the upper surface of the flat floor
have been eliminated. The hay within the rotatable
- tub by this invention is moved by the rotatable
tub wall and fluffed up and down by the hay move-
ment over sloping angle floor of this invention,
as will be explained. I have perfected a rotor
chopper-blower, with broadside solid flat end
cutter-propeller blades in the improved construc-
tion of my novel rotor. Each blade is slightly
; end concave, in the direction of its rotation at
its outer end, and each outer broadside end of the
blade is a sharpened flail knife and cutter edge.
--` 117'73tj~
l The cutter end edges of each of my blades cut the
material on rotor revolution into smaller pieces,
and said blades do not drag the material uncu~
down into the rotor floor opening, ag heretofore
in the industry. Further, also, the concave end
portion of each of my blades acts as a suitable
fan blade to propel the air within the involute
housing of the rotor as a blower propeller turbine
and thereby blow deliver the cut material by an
air blast therefrom. I have thus eliminated the
need of a separate conveyor to take the cut material
out of the rotor housing. That rotor housing is
formed as ~n involute blower housing, in combination
with my novel end cutter rotor knives, for efficient
rotor cutter-blower operation.
I have for the first time, as far as
known, perfected individual flail end edge cutter
knives of my rotor to act also as blower blades,
as well as end edge cutter knives, by the end edge
of each flail being a cutter and also that end
being concave to form a fan type solid blade.
Thus a separate conveyor under the rotor is
eliminated.
I secure my machine to a farm tractor by
means of a standard three-point hitch hook-up, and
because of my light construction an old type 540
R.P.M. older tractor may be used as sufficient for
supplying the power take off. However, modern
tractors with as high as 1000 R.P.M. PTO, are
also usable for the purpose.
I have perfected a novel self-loading
method of feeding the forage material into the
rotating tub, without the need of a conveyor or
otherwise to place the material therein, by pivot-
ally mounting the rotating tub and its stationary
1~'7'7;~-- 6 -
1 floor on a secondary frame as a unit on the machinemain frame structure. When desired to load my
grinder, I pivot the tub and its floor as a unit,
on a horizontal pivot by a hydraulic power means
from the tractor, so as to tip them as a unit
from the horizontal position into a vertical
position, and in that vertical position the tractor
is used then to push the entire tub and its floor
horizontally against a quantity stack of hay
desired to be placed therein. That hay can be
baled or a loose stack. I provide a suitable fork
secured in prolonged alignment with the wall of
the tub onto the periphery of the tub, to assist
in the scooping up of the hay into the tub, as
illustrated. When the tractor pushes the device,
with the tub so tilted against the hay sufficiently
to fill the tub, then the tractor operator uses
~ the hydraulic power means to repivot the rotating
; tub and its floor as a unit with the hay therein
back into the horizontal position on the frame,
for operational horizontal chopper machine operation.
! Material to be ground may be otherwise loaded into
my rotatable grinder machine tub, without pivoting
the tub and floor unit, to scoop same therein, as
that could be done within the spirit of this
invention.
By the use of this improved machine a
self-loading of hay to be ground can be accomplished,
as explained, and thus another piece of equipment
is eliminated, such as a machine to load the hay
into the tub. My grinder machine can be used to
self-scoop-load hay which is frozen, loose, egg-
shaped or otherwise baled or loose stacked, by the
pivotal tipping of the tub and floor unit to
accomplish that loading, and then pivotally re-
'7'~
-- 7 --
1 tilting the unit to the horizontal. So far asknown, this tilting-scooping tub self-loading
principle has not been known or used heretofore,
in the rotor machine tub grinding of fibrous farm
material industry.
An object of this invention is to have
an acute angle to the horizontal fixed single
plane sloping floor for a rotatable tub fibrous
material grinder machine, without any floor material
guide fins fixed on the floor, and having a rotor
grinder in an opening of the floor, whereby upon
each tub revolution on that sloping floor, the
fibrous material within the tub is thereby effect-
ively rolled and stirred up and down by the sloping
floor upon each tub revolution.
Another object of this invention is to
provide such a grinder machine having a one-plane
fixed sloping floor, at the bottom of a rotatable
walled tub, without any fixed floor fins on the
floor, and having a rotor grinder in a radial
opening of the floor positioned between the upper-
most and lowermost points of the sloping floor,
and in which the rotatable operation of the tub is
adapted to effectively cause the fibrous material
within the tub to be stirred and to be fed into
the rotor grinder.
Another object, in such a rotating tub
grinder machine, is to provide a rotor grinder
blower in the form of a plurality of solid broad-
side placed rotating chopper-blower flail blades
positioned in an involute blower housing, with the
end of each flail blade formed of concave cup-like
formation in the direction of the revolution of
the rotor, and with each end edge of the blade
sharpened as a knife to effectively end blade edge
11';1'73
-- 8 --
1 chop the material striking the rotor, and with
said rotor chopper operating by its blades in said
housing also effectively comprising a blower for
blowing the material cut by the rotor out of the
housing, upon rotor operation of the solid concave
individual end edge cutter blades in said involute
housing.
Another object of this invention is to
provide such an improved tub grinder machine, with
a rotor having rotating end edge cutter knife-
blower flails positioned in an opening in the
. floor of said tub, and in which the rotating flail
rotor blades extend adjustably above the plane of
~ the adjacent opening substantially upwards to
: 15 three inches, whereby the operation of the rotor
flails cut the material contacting the rotor
flails on tub rotation during operation of the
machine in cut size pieces in proportion to the
flail operation extension above the opening plane.
Another object of this invention is the
provision of such an improved rotating tub grinder
machine, in which the roughage material within the
rotating tub is chopped by the machine, and whereby
the rate at which said material is fed to and
chopped by said improved rotor chopper-blower is
controlled by the speed of the rotating tub.
Another principal object of this invention
: is the provision of the rotating grinder tub and
its fixed one plane sloping floor as a unit adapted
to be pivotally tipped, from its upright normal
operable horizontal position, to a 90 vertical
position, and in such vertical position is adapted
to be scoop pushed against a quantity of fibrous
:: mterial, such as baled hay, for the scoop self~
loading of such material into the tub, and then
.:
'73~;~
g
1 adapted to be tipped back into horizontal position
with the hay in the tub for grinding the material
so scooped into the tub.
Another ob;ect of this invention i9 to
provide such a rotatable tiltable-scoopable tub,
in a rotating tub grinder machine having, a fixed
slanting floor, a rotor chopper-blower in an
opening in the floor and in a delivery involute
housing, the provision of a deflector or baffle
hood at the outer discharge end of the blower
housing for controlling the blown chopped material
discharge therefrom, as may be desired either over
a broad area or to be confined within a relatively
narrow row such as within the standard sized feed
bunk upon operation of the machine and drawing the
machine along that bunk.
Another object of this invention is to
provide such a tiltable self-loading scoopable
rotatable tub grinder mechanism, with a form in
peripheral tub wall extension alignment on the
periphery of said tub, adapted for fork-like
assisting the tub in the scooping action pick up
of the material into the tub upon the explained
tilting self-loading tub action.
Other and further objects will be apparent
to those skilled in the art from the following
detailed description and from the drawings as
hereinafter explained.
My invention incorporates a novel rotor
knife-blower feature, namely, having the substantial
outer end edge of each cutter blade concave or
cup-like shaped in the direction of rotation of
the rotor, and with the rotor in an involute
discharge housing. Thus the concave flail knife
end edge cutters act as fan blades to create a
li'7'7;3~
- 10 -
1 blower turbine-like action at the same time as
being a rotor cutter.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Fig. 1 is a right side elevational view
of my rotatable hay grinder machine embodying the
principal parts of my invention, as connected to a
towing tractor, and with its rotatable tub shown
by full lines in horizontal operative position for
hay grinding.
Fig. la diagrammatically illustrates my
machine with its rotatable tub pivoted into hori-
zontal grinder position.
Fig. lb diagrammatically illustrates my
machine with its tub pivoted into vertical self-
scoop load position.
Fig. 2 is a smaller diagrammatic view,
with the rotatable tub and its stationary floor
pivoted, as a unit, on the main frame to a vertical
position, adapting the machine for tub pushing
self-loading scooping of hay, in this instance
with the hay being a large round bale.
Fig. 3 is a similar view to Fig. 2, but
showing the start of pivotal tub unit tilting
elevation of the unit, after the hay has been
scooped into the tub.
Fig. 4 is a rear end view, after the hay
has been scooped into the tub and the tub completely
tilted back to the horizontal, with the machine
ready to be pulled by the tractor to a given point
for horizontal hay grinding operation.
Fig. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional
view of the machine, taken on the line 5-5 of Fig.
1 and looking in the direction of the arrows.
- i~'7'~
1 Fig. 6 is a perspective down angle view at
the left ront side of the machine, as connected at
its three-point hitch to a tractor, and i9 illustra-
tive o~ the opening in the tub floor in which opening
my improved rotor blower is operable when the t~b is
positioned horizontally and the opening is over the
rotor.
Fig. 6a diagramatically illustrates my
rotor flat pivoted flails.
- Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment
-~ I provide a two-wheeled chassis having a
suitable main horizontal frame 10, having a tongue 11
conventionally attached for towing to and by the
`~ 15 tractor T, by a conventional three-point hitch. A
secondary horizontal frame 13 is pivotally attached
at 50 to and carried on that main frame. On the
secondary frame 13, I stationarily provide a one-
plane acute angle sloping floor 18, pivotally with
the tub secured thereto. The secondary frame has
several grooved rollers 34 vertically positioned
thereon to carry a peripheral ring or inner tub 14
via rib-track 33. Rotatable tub 14, has said inner
peripheral rib-track 33 at its lower extended inner
peripheral edge meshing with the grooved rollers and
is mounted on secondary frame 13, so as to be carried
by and supported on and by said rollers 34, on said
~rame 13. The tub 14 is thus rotatable on and car-
ried by those rollers. The tub rotation is caused by
a conventional hydraulic drive motor 15, having a
rubber tire 31 on drive wheel 30, with tire 31 riding
on the lower tub skirt 32. Drive wheel 30 is suit-
ably conventionally hydraulic power operated to thus
cause a drive wheel rotation of the tub 14 as shown.
Tub 14 outer skirt 32 extends downwardly peripherally
in wall continuation of the tub for that purpose.
~ .~
il'7'7;~
-12 -
1 The rotatflble tub is approximately eight feet in
diameter. An internal wall fin 14a is sometimes used
to protrude radially from the lower wall portion
inwardly of the tub.
A suitable two-wheel supported main chas-
sis lO is provided, having a tongue 11, suitably
connected by a conventional three-point hitch to a
towing tractor, indicated as T. The tractor provides
conventional power take offs for the machine, by
direct drive power to operate the rotor mechanism R,
and by hydraulic power to operate hydraulic cylinders
adapted to pivotally operate the pivoted rotatable
tub 14 and its fixed floor 18 as a unit at pivot 50
as illustrated, and by hydraulic power to run a suit-
able hydraulic motor 15 for rotating the rotatable
cylindrical tub by the motor having a rubber tired
wheel 30 frictionally riding against the tub.
A horizontal extension shelf 35 of the
secondary frame 13 carries the tub drive motor 15.
Wheel 30 driven by motor 15 has its rubber tire 31
riding on the periphery of the lower rotatable wall
skirt 32 of the tub 14, for thereby rotating the tub.
A stationary tub acute angle sloping floor 18 is
provided below 14, as a unit therewith on secondary
frame 13, and with the floor in an acute angle to thehorizontal, for reason to be explained. The rotat-
able tub 14 and floor 18, as a unit are pivotally
carried by the plural spaced-apart rollers 34 meshing
against track 33, on chassis 10.
I pivotally mount secondary frame 13
structure, carrying the stationary floor 18 and tub
14 thereover, by rollers 34 as a unit, on the main
wheeled chassis 10 at pivot point 50. A projection
48 extending downwardly from chassis 10 has a suit-
ably pivotally secured double-action hydraulic cylin-
der 42 connected thereto. Hydraulic cylinder 42 is
'7;~ti6
-13-
1 pivotally secured at the end of its piston arm to a
lower projection pivot point under the pivoted secon-
dary frame 13. When hydraulic power from the tractor
is applied to one side of the hydraulic cylinder 42,
42 will cause its arm to be withdrawn into its cylin-
der and thus cause a pivoting of tub 14 and f loor 18
by secondary frame 13, as a unit on pivot 50 into the
vertical position shown in dotted lines of Fig. 1.
My novel rotor grinder mill 21, in radial
tub floor opening 20~ as illustrated in Fig. 6~ con-
sists of a plurality of broadside individual solid
flail knife blades 40, each of which at its outer end
is slightly concave or cup-shaped and only with the
extreme outer flat end 31 edge of each sharpened as a
knife. I have a plurality of my flails 40, each
replaceably pivotally secured to a rotatable rotor
drum 38. Flails 40 are pivotally secured close to-
gether on drum 38 and are each positioned broadside
to act as an end edge knife-propeller when drum 38
rotates. The pivoting of each flail 40 permits each
to project radially from the axis of the rotor 38 on
rotor operation. Thus on rotor 38 rotation, counter-
clockwise as indicated in Fig. 5, each flail 40 is
pivotally extended as a spoke and is adapted to cut
off hay or forage material striking against its outer
end knife edge, and the cut pieces are blown down
into the involute rotor housing 25, by the blower
action of the rotating individual blades rotating
within that housing, as will be explained. It will
be seen, as shown in Fig. 5, that the outer ends of
the individual cutter blades extend a distance up-
wardly of three or four inches or less above the
plane of the adjacent opening in surface of the floor
of the tub when the tub is horizontally thereover.
No conveyor is required because the cutter-blowing
action of grinder mill 21 is sufficient to blow the
li'ï'7~6
- I 4 -
1 cut material piece9 from the involute blower housing
25. A deflector hood 45, as illustrated in Fig. 5,
is provided, to control direction of the cut material
exit, when desired to direct the blown cut material
leaving involute housing 25 of the machine into a
stratight row as the machine is operatively pulled
forwardly by the tractor, as, for example, on a feed
bunk of a cattle pen, or to direct the material over
a larger area, on grinder operation.
Referring to Fig. 6 perspectively is shown
my novel rotor R with its individual broadside elon-
gated reiatively narrow flail cutter-blower blades
40. I mount each of those blades 40 individually
pivotally on the axial rotatable tube means. The
axial rotor tube 38, to which flails 40 are each
pivotally attached, is power driven to rotate at an
R.P.M. of between 500 and 1500. Upon such rotor
flail axial rotation operation, each flail broadside
blade is thus spun outwardly by shaft 38 rotating
force, and thus the outer knife edge of each flail 40
will cut off the fibrous material, such as hay, as
may be in the tub and be over the floor radial open-
ing 20. Opening 20 has a framework around and
several cross-bars across it, as shown. The cross-
bars act to prevent an undesirable greater quantityof the hay in the tub from being dropped through
opening 20 against the knives than may be desired, as
in the case of grinding smaller conventional approxi-
mate 18" x 36" hay bales in the tub for grinding. A
straight bar edge 18c is adjustably secured at one
longitudinal opening 20 edge, at the side thereof
towards which the rotor flail blade ends rotate~ and
edge 18c acts to cause the fibrous material to abut
thereagainst as in scissors effect, in the rotor
rotation operation cutting of the material, by the
ends of the flails, as diagrammatically illustrated
-15-
1 in Fig 5.
The pivoting of the secondary frame 13,
with its tub 14 and floor 18 as a unit on its pivot
50 on the main frame, in terms of the horizontal
positioning of the opening 20 of the floor 18 over
and with re]ation to the top of the rotor R upper
operational action, is controlled, in terms of the
distance of that opening 20 over the rotor, by an
adjustable means in the form of a lug screw bolt 60
downwardly through the secondary frame 13 onto the
` main frame 10. When that bolt 60 is extended, it
being substantially opposite the pivot point 50, such
extension will thus cause a shorter hay chopping of
pieces by the upper rotating outer periphery extended
edges of the rotor flails in opening 20, on grinder
operation as the hay rubs across that opening and
against the flails as explained. Larger pieces may
be cut, upwards of approximately three or more inches
in length, when that adjustable stud bolt 60 is un-
screwed in its seat, so as to have the floor with theopening 20 adjacent the flails so that the flail ends
extend therethrough sufficiently for that desired
longer length cut. In other words, the horizontal
pivoting of the unit 14 - 18, by its secondary frame
13 on its pivot 50, in lower horizontal relationship
caused upon withdrawing bolt 60 will cause the rotor
to cut the longest pieces, and when bolt 60 is turned
down in its seat it will slightly raise the floor on
pivot 50 with the floor 20 opening above the rotor
and thereby decrease the length of the pieces cut
upon rotor operation. The distance of opening 20 in
~the floor over and above rotor R controls the length
of cut of the material. A suitable fork F is at-
tached in extension of the side wall from the periph-
ery of the tub 14, for purpose to be explained.
My one plane stationary sloping acute
,- ~"
.~ .
11'7'~;~ti6
-16-
1 angle tub floor 18, in fixed floor relationship on
the secondary frame 13, is at an acute angle of about
10 to 2~ above the horizontal, as illustrated in
Fig. 5. Floor 18 extends in that one plane acute
angle from one inner side oE the rotating tub 14 to
the opposite side thereof. Floor 18 has radial open-
ing 20 formed therein. My novel chopper-blower rotor
mill 21 is positioned so that on rotation thereof its
flails 40 will extend slightly upwardly through that
opening 20, when the floor and its tub are in hori-
- zontal position, as illustrated in Fig. 5. The up-
permost portion of that sloping floor 18 is indicated
by the reference character U, and the lowermost por-
tion of 18 by the reference character L.
Upon operation of my improved grinder
machine 12, with a mass of fibrous bulk material
therein, such as a large round heavy bale of hay, as
diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 5, the tub 14 is
rotated counterclockwise by motor 15 in direction of
horizontal arrow of Fig. 5, and the rotor-blower mill
21 is operated counterclockwise, as there illustra-
ted. Then the lower portion of the hay H in tub 14
is chopped as the tub 14 so revolved and mill 21 so
operated as the hay is moved by tub 14 over that mill
21. Such hay is first self-scoop loaded into the
tub, as diagrammatically shown, by the pivotal scoop
operation of the tub, in Figs. 2, 3, and 4.
During such horizontal grinding operation
and tub rotation, the friction of the inner walls of
the rotating tub 14, rubbing against the hay therein,
; causes the hay therein to be moved therein counter-
clockwise, in the direction of said arrow in Fig. 5,
as viewed downwardly onto the tub, and as so indica-
ted in Fig. 5. Thereupon my new sloping stationary
one plane acute angle floor, heretofore described,
assists in causing of the hay mass being moved to be
,:
:
-17-
1 raised by such wall ~riction to the point U on the
floor, being the highermost point of that sloping
floor, and then to the point L, being the lowermost
point of that sloping floor, with each complete revo-
; 5 lution of the walls of tub 14. Said one plane acute
angle sloping stationary floor 18 and revolving tub
walls 14 together act as means for accomplishing that
frictional raising and lowering of the mass of the
hay H in the tub upon each such tub revolution. That
sequential each tub revolution raising and lowering
action of the hay mass H just described is diagram-
matically illustrated by the arc directional arrows A
and B of Fig. 5. To restate, that raising of that
bulk mass H of the material to be cut in the tub, is
accomplished as that material is moved on the sloping
floor up onto the higher point U of the sloping floor
18, as indicated by arrows A, as caused by the fric-
tion of the rotating tub wall against that mass, and
then that material is so moved down to the low point
L of floor 18 by that friction, as indicated by ar-
rows B, which occurs upon and by each revolution of
the tub.
That frictional movement of the hay mass,
so caused by the combination of the revolving tub on
and over said fixed one plane acute angle sloping
floor, just described, in addition to the hay mass
being raised and lowered on each tub revolution, also
causes that mass of hay H within the tub to be
"rolled and stirred'1 or fluffed and kept loose from
bridging, upon each tub revolution. With a hereto-
fore rotary tub flat floor machine grinder, there was
resultant operational bridging formation of the mass
of the material therein, and that problem is now
overcome as a result of the novel acute angle sloping
floor and rotating tub construction and combination
of this invention, just explained.
,~:
-18-
1 I provide, with said novel one plane slop-
ing fixed floor, as illustrated in Fig. 5, an upward-
ly extending fixed peripheral short side wall there-
of, 18a, therearo~md, extending vertically upwardly
from the periphery of the floor 18, as a cup closely
around the lower outer periphery of the rotating wall
tub 14. Said short peripheral wall 18a prevents a
wedging of any portion of hay mass H in the tub at
point X, on the floor under the wall of the tub and
as sometimes occurs on grinder operation. On opera-
tion of my machine grinder, because of my novel slop-
ing floor 18, each one-half revolution of the tub 14
moves any such wedged material, occuring at point X,
on my sloping floor 18 toward and across opening 20
in the floor, where such material crosses over my
rotor R, where it is then rotor chopped up. As a
result, my sloping floor 18 acts as a self-cleaning
means to prevent any wedging accumulation of any
material at point X, as occurs heretofore.
My machine can operate successfully with-
out inner tub wall fins 14a, as such wall fins 14a
are not always necessary for successful grinding
operation of my machine with materials such as hay
and straw. The moving side walls on grinder machine
operation normally create sufficient friction against
and to cause the bulk of such materials indicated as
H in the tub to be moved with and by the rotating tub
side walls up to the high spot U of the floor and
then down to the low spot L of the floor, upon each
revolution of the tub 14, as explained.
I diagrammatically illustrate how the mass
H of hay within the tub, upon each tub revolution
operation, is raised on the floor 18, as indicated by
arrows A, during the first half of each revolution to
the higher floor point U, and then ho~ the mass H is
lowered within the tub on the floor 18 during the
ll'~','~ti~
- 1 9 -
1 second hal-E of each tub revolution to the lower floor
point L as indicated by the arrows B. That raising
and lowering is repeated upon each single revolution
of the tub, as a result of my novel fixed sloping one
plane acute angle floor combination with the rotat-
able tub walls, thus thereby frictionally effecting
such rolling and stirring of that mass upon each
raising and lowering of the mass H as just explained.
That raising and lowering or rolling and stirring
action of mass H just explained, is substantially
directly proportional to the acute angle of that one
plane sloping fixed floor to the horizontal, meaning,
increasing that angle to approximately 30 from the
horizontal would be the means for substantially in-
creasing the up and down automatically caused rollingand stirring of the mass H within the tub, as here-
tofore explained, during machine grinding operation
of the mass. Conversely, for example, decreasing the
angle of that acute one plane fixed floor down, sub-
stantially to a 10 acute approximate angle from thehorizontal, would lower the extent of that up and
down automatic caused raising and lowering and stir-
ring and rolling action of the mass H within the tub
on that slanting floor, during machine grinding oper-
ation. The greater that angle of the fixed floor themore input power would be required from the power
source of the attached tractor vehicle, from which
power my machine is operated, at a given speed of tub
14 rotation, from the suggested acute floor sloping
angle shown as heretofore of approximately 20 from
the horizontal, and the lesser that angle then the
less power input would be required. As illustrated,
I have found the usual rate of speed of rotation of
the tub 14, for normal hay grinding operation by my
machine, would be about lO revolutions per minute. I
prefer to provide the tub 14 with its wall as a
il'7'7
- 2 o -
1 slight outer sloping wall, and that wall in coopera-
tion with my no~el acute angle fixed sloping floor
comprises the friction means for "rolling and stir-
ring" snd raising and lowering and fluffing of the
mass H within the tub, upon grinder operation and the
tub wall rotation, as explained.
It will be understood that many changes
and modifications may be made within the preferred
embodiment of my invention heretofore illustrated and
described in detail, within the spirit, scope and
teaching and intent of this invention, and therefore
I wish only to be bound by the hereunto appended
claims.
