Method and apparatus for opening fiber bales

DETAILED DESCRIPTION What is claimed is: 1.
In a method of opening fiber bales by a bale opener having a tower for travel along a series of fiber bales in a direction of travel; a detaching device supported by the tower and movable vertically relative thereto and angularly about a horizontal axis oriented perpendicularly to said direction of travel; said detaching device including a rapidly rotating detaching roll; the bale opener further including a bale transporting device for advancing the fiber bales in a horizontal feed direction; the bale transporting device including a conveyor belt and first and second end rollers supporting the conveyor belt; the first end roller being situated downstream of the second end roller as viewed in said horizontal feed direction; the method including the steps of propelling the tower back and forth along the bale series to execute consecutive working passes; detaching fiber tufts from an inclined top surface of the fiber bale series by the detaching roll such that a minimum height of the surface is downstream of a maximum height of the surface as viewed in said horizontal feed direction; said surface having a downstream end at said minimum height and an upstream end at said maximum height; and stepwise advancing the fiber bale series in the horizontal feed direction, whereby simultaneously a predetermined vertical feed, increasing a depth of penetration between the detaching roll and the bale surface, is achieved; the improvement comprising the following step: during advancement of the fiber bale series in the horizontal feed direction and during detachment of fiber tufts from the inclined top surface, positioning said detaching device above said downstream end roller at a sufficiently small distance from said conveyor belt so as to prevent fiber material from passing in a downstream direction through a gap defined between the detaching device and the conveyor belt.
2.
The method as defined in claim 1, wherein said step of positioning includes the step of maintaining the detaching device stationary during the step of advancing the fiber bale series in the horizontal feed direction