Pickup (agricultural engineering)

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The PickUp is a component in agricultural engineering for picking up stalks. The main application machines include balers , special rakes , forage harvesters and loader wagons , where the pick- up picks up the crop (hay, straw, silage) from a swath and feeds it to another working unit.

construction

The pick-up consists of a main shaft and, depending on the manufacturer, usually five carrier shafts arranged around this main shaft, to which the pick-up tines are attached. The carrier shafts are guided by the main shaft on a circular path and swing by an eccentric arm that is guided in a curved path. With this control, the pick-up tines first pick up the crop, lift it and, for example, transfer it to a conveyor rotor by dipping the crop off the metal sheets. Due to the acceleration of the crop when lifting, pickups need the so-called hold-down device, which specifies the direction of the crop flow. The hold-down device essentially consists of a sliding plate, but increasingly also of rollers, which disturb the flow of crop less.

The Maschinenfabrik Bernard Krone as well as Lely offer uncontrolled pickup on without cam track. Due to the lack of cam track control, the scraper plates must be shaped so that they can take over the function of the cam track. The manufacturers promise a smoother run because of the significantly reduced number of moving parts, which means that maintenance is no longer necessary. The simple structure also lowers manufacturing costs. Furthermore, the uncontrolled pickup can be operated at higher speeds than would be useful with a controlled pickup. Furthermore, the uncontrolled pick-up has an even crop flow, which can minimize blockages.

However, uncontrolled pickups have the disadvantage that they pick up short, wet forage much less cleanly than those with a curved path. Controlled pickups are also not dependent on higher speeds and do not require an aggressive tine position. You can therefore adapt to the ground much better, as the lower speed means that softer tines can be used. For this reason, the degree of soiling is significantly lower than that of the harder tines of the uncontrolled pickups. There is also no risk of clogging due to the lack of scraper plates. Since uncontrolled pickups do not 'comb out' the stalks lengthways, the quality of the cut is worse than with controlled pickups.

A swinging pickup is important on hilly terrain as it can adapt even better to uneven ground.

  • Pickup on an older self-loading wagon. The drive device can also be seen

  • Pickup in use at an Agrobil

  • Baler with pickup

  • Pick-up on forage harvester with roller crop press