Fastbale – non-stop round baling and wrapping process continues to evolve during field evaluations

The Vicon FastBale – a revolutionary non-stop round baler wrapper combination that cleverly integrates a pre-chamber with a main chamber, and a wrapper – continues to undergo field evaluation throughout 2015 in the main markets in Europe.

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Latest enhancements to the non-stop bale production process include a bale tipping kit to place bales on their side after being released from the wrapper, and the development of a film-on-film applicator kit for those looking to avoid the use of net to secure the bale.

Designed and developed at the Kverneland Group’s baler competence centre at Ravenna, Italy, FastBale represents two world firsts: it is currently the World’s only non-stop fixed chamber baler and secondly, it is the World’s only non-stop fixed chamber baler wrapper combination.

Machine layout is truly innovative with two chambers arranged in series, allowing a number of rollers to be shared. Operating as a pre-chamber, the first section of FastBale produces two-thirds of the bale. As the pre-chamber reaches its preset density, crop flow is diverted into the main bale chamber allowing baling to continue non-stop.

The pre-chamber is then opened, moving the pre-formed bale into the main chamber, where it can be taken to its maximum size of 1.25m. Once bale formation is complete, crop flow is switched back to the pre-chamber, again to allow baling to continue non-stop. Net is then applied to the completed bale, the tailgate is opened and the finished bale is transferred onto the wrapper. This entire process enables baling to continue uninterrupted.

To make bale transfer simple, reliable and fuss-free, the engineering team devised a wrapper frame mounted on a parallel linkage. This enables the wrapper to be lowered to meet the completed bale as it simply rolls from the main chamber. This avoids the need for a complex mechanical transfer system.

At this point, the wrapper is raised to allow twin satellite arms to wrap the bale. Unlike traditional wrapping mechanisms, FastBale’s twin satellite arms offer a fresh look at the wrapping process and rotate in a vertical plane. Once complete, the wrapper is lowered, and the rear wrapper roller is then raised, gently releasing the wrapped bale onto the ground.

FastBale’s ingenious design has enabled the baler competence centre to create an extremely compact machine – FastBale is shorter than any other baler-wrapper combination on the market.

Following several seasons of testing, FastBale will be revealed at the forthcoming Agritechnica Show.Field evaluation continues in order to better understand the full potential of this innovative system.

The development of FastBale is a direct result of the Kverneland Group’s significant investment in its baler manufacturing facility, as it seeks to take a leading position in the round baler market.