The present invention is concerned with a dung removing machine for the removal of the dung from underneath the pens of the fur animals at fur farms, whereat the dung removing machine comprises a dung-col¬ lector-conveyor part placed transversely to the running direction and operating at the level of the base to be cleaned, the said collector-conveyor being fitted so as to feed the dung collected from the base to the transfer conveyor, by means of which the dung can be guided onto a dung collector wagon constituting a part of the dung removing machine.

It is a drawback of the prior-art dung removing machines that by their means it is only possible to clean a relatively linear free space. For example, the supporting pillars or poles of the pen shelters used at fur farms for the breeding of foxes are, however, owing to the element construction, located" so that their footings are located within the area which, if the footings were not there, could be cleaned directly by driving through the area by means of the dung removing machine. Out of the said reason, a strip of a width of about 60 cm remains between the subsequent footings and has to be cleaned non-mechanically.

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the said drawback, and the dung removing machine in accordance with the invention is mainly characterized in that both the collector-conveyor part and the transfer conveyor are fitted as one entire unit so as to be shifted in the horizontal direction perpendicularly to the direction of running of the dung removing machine and that the collector-conveyor part consists of a screw conveyor whose rear part, viewed in the direction of running, is protected by a plowing wing, the end portion of the said screw con¬ veyor, viewed in the direction of feeding, being

surrounded by a feeder pipe passing to the transfer conveyor.

The invention comes out in more detail from the following description and from the attached drawing, which is a schematical perspective view of one exempli¬ fying embodiment of the dung removing machine in accord¬ ance with the present invention.

In the example case of the illustration, the dung removing machine has been constructed in the form of a trailer to be coupled to a tractor. At the front of ^' the frame 15 of the dung removing machine, there is the fastening point 16 for coupling to the tractor. At the rear part of the frame 15, there is a dung col¬ lector wagon 3 that can be dumped rearwards, ϋnder- neath the longitudinal beams of the frame 15, a trans¬ verse rod or shaft 9 is attached, to which the collector- conveyor part 1 is connected by means of brackets 11 and 12 so that it glides in the longitudinal direction of the rod 9. The collector-conveyor part 1 consists of a screw conveyor 5, which is rotated by means of a hydraulic motor 13. Around the screw conveyor 5, at its rear, there is a plowing wing 4, whose bottom edge extends to the level of the base. The feed direction of the screw conveyor 5 is towards the transfer con- veyor 2, and the final end of the screw conveyor 5 is completely enclosed in a feed pipe 6. One end of the feed pipe 6 is connected to the plowing wing 4, and the other end is connected to the pipe 7 of the trans¬ fer conveyor 2 passing up to the collector wagon 3. Inside the pipe 7, there is a screw conveyor 8, which is, in the example case of the illustration, rotated by a hydraulic motor 14 fitted at the outlet end of the pipe 7.

The collector-conveyor part 1 and the trans- fer conveyor 2 constitute one single unit, which can be shifted by means of a cylinder-piston device 10 in the lateral direction of the dung removing machine,

i.e. in the direction transverse to the running direc¬ tion, along the shaft 9. Moreover, the collector-con¬ veyor part 1 and the transfer conveyor 2 can be pivoted around the shaft 9 forwards for the time of dumping of the collector wagon 3. During operation, the transfer conveyor 8 is supported in the inclined position shown in the drawing, however, so that the support permits shifting of the collector-conveyor part 1 and of the transfer conveyor along the shaft 9 by means of the cylinder-piston device 10. The hydraulic motors 13 and 14 as well as the cylinder-piston device 10 receive their operating power from the hydraulic pump of the tractor.

When the dung removing machine is used, it is attached to the rear of the tractor at such a height position that the collector-conveyor part 1 is at the level of the ground surface, i.e. that both the screw conveyor 5 and the bottom edge of the plowing wing 4 are at the level of the base. Behind the plowing wing 4 , at its ends, supporting wheels may be attached, by means of which the height position of the collector- conveyor part 1 relative the base can be adjusted. Such supporting wheels must, of course, additionally be freely turning so that they do not prevent the move- ment of the collector-conveyor part 1 in the longitu¬ dinal direction of the shaft 9. The screw conveyor 5 in the collector-conveyor part 1 is most appropriately rotated so that, viewed from the left side of the dung removing machine, its sense of rotation is anticlock- wise. Normally, when the base is being cleaned of dung, the collector-conveyor part 1 is in the pro¬ jecting position shifted out to the right side of the dung removing machine. The machine moves as hauled by a tractor, and the screw conveyor 5 feeds dung from underneath the pens of the fur animals into the feed pipe 6. Since the final end of the screw conveyor 5 extends into the feed pipe 6 , it forces the dung fed

OMPI

further into the pipe 7, along which the screw con¬ veyor 8 transfers the dung through the discharge opening at the top end of the conveyor 8 into the collector wagon 3. When the outer end of the collector-conveyor part 1 meets an obstacle, such as the vertical poles related to the pen elements at fox farms, the collector- conveyor part 1 and the transfer conveyor 2 are shifted as a single unit along the shaft 9 by means of the cylinder-piston device 10 to the left, relative the direction of running of the dung removing machine, so that the obstacle can be by-passed linearly, without changing the driving direction. The necessary lateral shifting of the collector-conveyor part 1 is in practice about 60 cm. When the collector-conveyor part 1 has by-passed the obstacle, it is shifted again to the right to its extreme outward position. When the transfer conveyor 2 follows the movements of the collector-con¬ veyor part 1 , this gives the advantage that the collector wagon 3 is filled more evenly. Of course, the construction of the equipment may differ even considerably from the example case shown in Fig. 1, within the scope of the invention. The transfer conveyor 2 may also be some other con¬ veyor, in stead of a screw conveyor. The devices of control of the lateral shift of the conveyors may also be accomplished by means of many other sorts of con¬ structions, different from that described herein. Of course, in stead of hydraulic motors, the conveyors may also be operated in other ways.