Planting – Drilling – Having depositor feature
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-04
2001-07-03
Novosad, Christopher J. (Department: 3671)
Planting
Drilling
Having depositor feature
C111S170000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06253693
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to air seeders for planting seeds in the ground in an agricultural environment and, more specifically, to a nurse inductor system co-operable with a planter mechanism to feed seed or other particulate material to a planting mechanism for insertion of that material into the ground.
As the size of agricultural implements continues to grow, the versatility of such implements becomes more significant. Large air seeders have become increasingly popular for the planting of seeds, fertilizer and other product without strict regard for the exact placement of the seeds particles. For crop planting operations that require seed singulation, nurse systems are used to feed seed or other particles from larger hoppers into smaller reservoirs located at the singulators. A nurse inductor system enables an air cart typically used for dryland farming, (cereal crops, etc.), to be adapted for use in row crop planting applications, such as corn and soybean, though not limited to soybean and corn. A nurse inductor system can be used to enable a farmer to singulate on-row, with one central hopper filling location, and to plant more acres before having to stop to fill the central hopper again, resulting in quicker planting and less labor, while maintaining the precision spacing available by on-row singulation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,473, a nurse system is disclosed which works off a specialized cart. The air comes into the seed delivery area coaxial with the seed tube that takes the air and seed to the row units. With this system substantial energy is used to nurse the seed since the air changes direction abruptly. This particular nurse system provides a dedicated fan to feed the 12 rows to be planted from the nurse system. This system requires the adding or removing of shims to adjust line length, which is difficult and inconvenient to accomplish. U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,102 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,181 teach other nurse embodiments.
It would be advantageous to provide an nurse inductor adapter that would be usable in conjunction with existing air carts to convert the existing metering mechanism to a nurse mechanism.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide a nurse inductor system operable for use with planters requiring singulation of the seeds for planting in the ground.
It is a feature of this invention that the nurse inductor system enables the use of an existing air cart for nursing seeds to individual planter units in a passive manner.
It is an advantage of this invention that the nursing system would not require the addition of active controls for the nurse induction mechanism, the system being self-regulating without any external electronic control systems being necessary.
It is another feature of this invention that replacement of existing components on a conventional air cart with nurse induction components, to convert the standard air cart without requiring permanent modifications to the cart.
It is another advantage of this invention that the induction of seed or other particulate product is accomplished more evenly and consistently, thereby reducing the possibility of a plugging of the lines.
It is yet another feature of this invention that bridging in the hopper side of the induction unit is avoided by increasing the room for particulate material to flow.
It is still another advantage of this invention that the air pressure and flow required by the nurse induction system is reduced, so that an existing fan on an air cart can be used for both nurse induction of seeds and the application of particles from one of more other air cart hopper(s) at the same time.
It is still another feature of this invention that the wings of the planter toolbar can be folded vertically without the need to empty particles out of the planter seed reservoir before folding.
It is yet another advantage of this invention that the planter toolbar can be folded with the wings pivoted closer to the first row unit on the wing section of the planter row unit without interference between the planter seed reservoirs.
It is yet another advantage of this invention that more than one planter singulator can be fed with one nurse inductor line, thus enabling the development of a wider planter toolbar with substantially more planter units than previously available.
It is a further advantage of this invention that the nurse inductor mechanism can be used on an air cart that may also be used in dryland farming.
It is still another object of this invention to provide an adapter mechanism that can be mounted on a conventional air cart in place of a conventional meter mechanism to convert the air cart into a nurse inductor apparatus.
It is yet another feature of this invention that the adapter mechanism utilizes the conventional air source from the air cart without requiring a separate air flow mechanism.
It is still a further advantage of this invention that the nurse adapter mechanism can be installed on a conventional air cart hopper without requiring the entire meter box to be removed from the hopper.
It is yet a further advantage of this invention that the use of a common air source enables the air cart to both nurse seed particles and meter fertilizer to a planting mechanism simultaneously.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide nurse adapter mechanism for an agricultural seeding implement which is durable in construction, inexpensive of manufacture, carefree of maintenance, facile in assemblage, and simple and effective in use.
These and other objects, features and advantages can be accomplished according to the instant invention by a nurse adapter mechanism for an agricultural seeding implement in which the nurse adapter mechanism converts an air seeder meter box into a nurse inductor box to convey seed particles to the singulator of a planting mechanism. The nurse adapter mechanism is detachably mounted on the meter box of the air seeder to receive a supply of seed particles therefrom and utilizes the normal air flow for the metering mechanism to effect a nursing of seed particles to a planting mechanism. The nurse adapter mechanism diverts the stream of air into engagement with a pile of seed particles and induce the entrainment of the seed particles for conveyance thereof to the remote planting mechanism. A partition wall divides the nurse induction mechanism into a seed side and an air side. The seed side receives the supply of seed particles from the hopper and allows the seed to pass through a passageway into the air side for engagement by the stream of air. Divider walls are provided to isolate each discharge tube from the other discharges tube so that the planter mechanisms can provide a continuous supply of seed particles. The discharge tubes pass through the seed side of the nurse adapter mechanism in a stacked pair, modular configuration with the respective discharge tubes being adequately separated to permit the passage of seed particles therebetween.
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patent: 5161473 (1992-11-01), Landphair et al.
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patent: 5915312 (1999-06-01), Meyer et al.
patent: 5979343 (1999-11-01), Gregor et al.
Engen Ronald N.
Hundeby David R.
Mayerle Dean J.
Flexi-Coil Ltd.
Miller Larry W.
Novosad Christopher J.
Stader John William
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