Hay rake

The rake is an agricultural unit, the ( locally also Ladscheiben, rows, lines, rudder, Striegel ) is the combining of crops such as hay or straw into uniform (night) swaths. These can then be taken up with the baler, a forage harvester or a charging car. In addition, the wilted is also in the evening brought into this form, so it will be better protected from the night dew and the soil can dry better in the morning, before the stalk material is then redistributed evenly with the Tedder, so that it can continue to dry.

Types

There are many different types of rakes. The devices described here are not multiple devices and are shown in the article about Tedder. Most Rake are grown in the rear, all types can also be found sporadically in front cultivation.

Rotary swather

The rotary rake is used most often. He has one or more horizontal centrifugal having 6 to 16 tine arms, which are driven by the PTO or hydraulics from the tractor. On the arms more rake tines are mounted, the strip vertically above the floor and move the crop in one, two or three gyros to the side or at two, four or six rotors also to the center. About a cam track, the prongs are deflected and saved the stalks. The informal passing of the swath can still ventilate. The large roundabout up to 4.50 m complicate the ground contour, which can still be improved before the rotors by tandem running gear under and gauge wheels. By combining two, four or six rotors working widths can be achieved of up to 20 m. The working speed is about 8-15 km / h In some designs with Seitenschwadablage the rotors can be adjusted so that two swaths are stored. This function is usually to set aside the agreement overnight at dry crops used ( night swaths ).

Sternradschwader

It consists of 3-20 zinc wheels, the so-called star wheels, which further push the stalks diagonally to the direction of travel from one star to another, and save them as swath. The resiliently suspended floor driven star wheels have a good adaptation to the ground and treat the crop very gently. However, the performance in heavy and wet crop declines. The Sternradschwader is available as a side delivery that leave the swath side and as Mittelschwader with a working width of nearly 12 meters. The newer small devices are attached to the three-point linkage. All others will be drawn. The larger units also have an articulated framework which facilitates the adaptation to the ground again. The work rate is due to the much higher potential operating speed (v > 20 km / h) significantly higher than that of gyrorakes same width. The acquisition and operating costs are lower than in gyrorakes due to the simpler design. The introduction of Sternradrechwender the early fifties in the last century was a milestone in the development of new techniques to rationalize the forage crop. During the Sternradrechen in Germany with development of the rotary swather has lost their importance, it is widely popular and widely used in other countries, especially in North America. A colloquial name is " Heuma ", a brand name of the company Niemeyer. The Sternradschwader is alleged to interweave the Schwadgut into a braid, which significantly complicates the subsequent reception. Following the same principle work swath. On rotary mowers they serve to ensure that the feed is shifted by a few inches so that it will not run over. When pressing the use of it, if the swath is slightly wider than the pickup.

Rotorschwader

The Rotorschwader has several horizontal centrifugal same rotational direction. By the paralle to the ground surface tines he promoted the crop transverse to the direction of travel and places it on the side. Due to the limited working width he gained little importance. As an example, the CZ ( eg CZ 330, CZ 330 -CH, CZ 340, CZ 450 and CZ 600) series of PZ ( Piet Zweegers ) is mentioned. They have working widths from 3.3 to 6 m. The great advantage of PZ CZ series was the high possible speed ( 20 km / h are possible with appropriate speed), the low demands on the tractor (weight as well as power) and the swath is very airy. Disadvantages are the crop contamination in wet soils, poor soil adaptation of the wide models ( in particular CZ600 ) and at high speed the little gentle treatment of feed due to the high speed. Where These rakes are still used quite frequently, is in many standard fruit trees. The reason is that you can drive up to a Rotorschwader very close to fruit trees, without that upon contact can damage the swather.

Another representative was with the Kuhn Rake Kuhn Flex and Deutz-Fahr with the TS 3.35. Here, no prongs were used but with rubber flaps in practice quite high wear. At the same time they still Rake were often more aggressive and have prevailed even less. In extremely meticulous attitude and level ground, however, this Rake allow a good Schwadergebnis, but they react very strongly to bumps.

In general Rotorschwader are no longer manufactured and used, they are also virtually no demand.

Pick -up Bandschwader

This Rake take the conveyed on by pickup and transport the material to a conveyor belt. This moves transversely to the direction of travel and sets the swath to the desired page. In contrast to this, the feed is gyrorakes not swept across the floor. This can not continue to pollute after shooting. Providers are currently the Italian manufacturer ROC and Kuhn (Model Merge Maxx ).

Trommelschwader

This has long been existing design, there are ridges which are arranged obliquely to the direction of travel. Around 10 combs rotate similar to the reel when combine harvesters and so feed the grass. Currently this Schwaderbauart among other ELHO, type: V-Twin Rake sold. A special feature of the rake is driven hydraulically.

Bandrechschwader

Bandrechschwader (also tape Heuer or Bandrechen called ) have transverse to the direction running chains on which tines are mounted vertically. Your low demands on the tractor makes them particularly interesting for mountain regions, as a belt rake is very close to the vehicle and thus no danger of Achsentlastung. In addition, the performance requirements are very low, so that in addition to the conventional drive on the PTO, a hydraulic drive is possible.

There are designs for the front-mounted or rear mounted with two devices (in particular, by Sepp Knüsel ) so that a working width of about 5 meters is reached; then usually follows in the rear mounting a baler or a loading wagon. At the same time there are also band Heuer for the side mounting on a van. These are hydraulically driven.

Often this type of rake is also grown on a motor mower, especially on steep slopes.