AGRICULTURAL BALER WITH IMPROVED PLUNGER GUIDE

摘要

An agricultural baler is disclosed having an elongate bale case (20) of rectangular cross section, a crop inlet opening (19) formed in a side wall of the bale case; a feeder mechanism (18) for introducing charges of crop material into the bale case (20) through the inlet opening (19), and a plunger (30) of rectangular cross section reciprocable along the longitudinal axis of the bale case (20) to compress successive charges of crop material received from the feeder mechanism (18) to form a bale. The plunger has a head (32) with a rectangular working face (33) and guides (45) engaging the walls of the bale case to maintain the working faced aligned generally normal to the axis of the base case (20) as the plunger (30) is reciprocated. In the invention, the plunger (30) includes a generally planar tail (34) on the side of the plunger head (32) engaging the side wall of the bale case (20) formed with the crop inlet opening (19) for maintaining the crop inlet opening (19) closed as crop charges are compressed by the plunger, guides (46,49) are mounted on the upper and lower edges of the tail (34) at its end remote from the working face (33) to contact the upper and lower walls of the bale case, and the guide (49) on the lower edge of the tail is located further from the working face (33) that the guide (46) located on the upper edge of the tail (34).