On December 1, 2023, pursuant to Article 24 and Article 52 of the Act of June 30, 2000. Industrial Property Law (Journal of Laws of 2023, item 1170), the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland, having examined the application numbered P.440215 filed on 2022-01-25, granted a patent for the invention named: Wrapping machine, the co-inventor of which is Łukasz Domański, M.Sc., a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of the University of Siedlce, in the discipline of Agriculture and Horticulture. The doctoral student is a co-inventor of industrial designs, utility models and inventions, on which he is working together with his supervisor Prof. Dr. Marek Gugała, employees of the Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture at the UwS, as well as researchers from many Polish scientific centers.
The latest patented invention - a wrapper - is specifically designed for straw heaps. Recently, the demand for biomass for energy purposes, especially straw, has been increasing. The main parameter determining the quality of biomass is moisture content, which is problematic from the point of view of storage, as it requires the construction of large-scale storage facilities or the wrapping of individual bales. These solutions carry an increase in storage costs, and in the case of wrapping individual bales - additionally large amounts of film for disposal. There are known methods of stacking straw bales in a so-called pyramid and covering them with a tarpaulin, however, the efficiency and cost intensity of covering them is also high. In addition, it requires the involvement of a minimum of several people, and windless weather during covering.
The wrapping machine consists of a three-segment mast which allows it to work independently from the ground of the heap location to the top of the heap, providing smooth regulation of wrapping, a double-sided hydraulic cylinder, a support beam for mounting a roll of film, a hydraulic screen regulating the distance and pressure of the wrapped heap, also regulating the distance and pressure of the support beam with a roll of film, and is mounted on a three-point suspension system of a tractor, so it is fully mobile and does not require any source of drive