A bale wrapper is a farm implement for wrapping

bales Bales is the surname of: * Alison Bales (born 1985), American basketball player * Barry Bales (born 1969), American musician * Billy Bales (born 1929), British former motorcycle speedway racer * Burt Bales (1917–1989), American jazz pianist ...

in plastic, for them to turn into

silage Silage () is a type of fodder made from green foliage crops which have been preserved by fermentation to the point of acidification. It can be fed to cattle, sheep and other such ruminants (cud-chewing animals). The fermentation and storage ...

. Bale wrappers come in three main forms - Turntable type, Satellite type and In-line Type.

Satellite bale wrapper

A satellite bale wrapper usually consists of hydraulic driven bale supporting rollers and a hydraulic driven rotating satellite arm which carries the plastic film roll and Dispensing unit. The rotation of the support rollers and the satellite arm are synchronized so that an even cover of

plastic film Plastic film is a thin continuous polymeric material. Thicker plastic material is often called a "sheet". These thin plastic membranes are used to separate areas or volumes, to hold items, to act as barriers, or as printable surfaces. Plas ...

is applied to the bale as the wrapping process takes place. High speed satellite wrappers have two rotating satellite arms which effectively halves the time taken to wrap a bale.

Turntable bale wrapper

The wrapper has a loading arm, much like a bale handler, at the side, that scoops up a bale and places it on the wrapping table. The wrapping table usually consists of two rollers, and four belts which slowly spin the bales while the table itself revolves. As the bale turns,

is pulled through the dispensing unit and wrapped tightly on the bale. When the table has revolved at least 16 times, the bale can be ejected. This is done by a

hydraulic ram A hydraulic ram, or hydram, is a cyclic water pump powered by hydropower. It takes in water at one "hydraulic head" (pressure) and flow rate, and outputs water at a higher hydraulic head and lower flow rate. The device uses the water hammer ef ...

which tilts the wrapping table, so that the bale can be tipped off. The film is cut and then tied to the wrapper for the next bale. All this is controlled via a computer inside the cab of the

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commo ...

In-line bale wrapper

Best suited for high volume producers the in-line wrapper places bales in neat rows along fields and yards. The bale is placed on the wrappers saddle or table and is driven forward by a push ram allowing the producers to consecutively wrap each bale into one long tube. This also allows for producers to save time and money in the process, by eliminating the need for an extra working hand and save on plastic wrap costs.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bale Wrapper Agricultural machinery