Planting – Drilling – Having depositor feature
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-04
2001-07-31
Novosad, Christopher J. (Department: 3671)
Planting
Drilling
Having depositor feature
C111S174000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06267067
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 system cooperable 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 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, for example, corn and soybean. 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 obtain adjustment for different seeds, 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.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide a nurse receiver header cooperable with a nurse induction system for use with planters requiring singulation of the seeds for planting in the ground.
It is a feature of this invention that the nurse induction system enables the use of an existing air cart for nursing seeds to individual planter units in a passive manner.
It is another feature of this invention that a small amount of seed is held in a receiver at the planter.
It is an advantage of this invention that the small amount of seed retained at the planter facilitates the clean-up of the planter.
It is another object of this invention to enable a singulating planting mechanism to be used in conjunction with an air cart.
It is another 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 a vent is provided to dissipate the air stream delivering seed particles from the air cart so that the seed particles can drop by gravity into the receiver for the planting mechanism.
It is still another advantage of this invention that the vent can be formed as part of the receiver structure or the structure of the receiver header.
It is still 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 plugging of the lines.
It is yet another advantage of this invention that the air usage required by the nurse induction system is reduced, so that the existing fan on the air cart can be used for both nursing and the application of particles from the other air cart hopper.
It is still another feature of this invention that the wings of the planter unit can be folded without the need to empty particles out of the planter hopper first.
It is yet another advantage of this invention that the planter 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 still 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 used in dryland farming.
It is yet another feature of this invention to provide a hood for the vent to keep rain and contaminants from entering the vent.
It is still a further advantage of this invention that the small supply of seed at the receiver is kept clean.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide nurse receiver header for an agricultural planting 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 receiver header for an agricultural planting implement is cooperable with a nurse inductor mechanism that conveys a stream of seeds entrained in an air stream from a central hopper. A receiver is positioned at the planting mechanism to receive the seeds entrained in the air stream and accumulate a supply of the seeds for utilization by the associated planting mechanism. Either the receiver header or the receiver structure includes a vent for dissipating the air stream when receiving the seeds for distribution to the receiver. The vent is provided with a sheltering device to keep contaminants from entering the vent and passing into the planting mechanism. The receiver header is positioned so that an appropriate supply of seeds for the planting mechanism fills the tube between the receiver header and the receiver, resulting in a decreased velocity for the air stream and a diminished ability for the nurse inductor mechanism to convey seeds. The receiver header can be configured to service multiple receivers. The receiver header is mounted at an angle inclined to the vertical when in an operating position such that the receiver header can be rotated through an angle in the range of 70 to 110 degrees to a transport position without inverting the receiver header, thereby retaining the seeds accumulated in the receiver.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3490654 (1970-01-01), Fischer
patent: 3964639 (1976-06-01), Norris et al.
patent: 4060121 (1977-11-01), Grataloup
patent: 4393791 (1983-07-01), Suderman
patent: 4493273 (1985-01-01), Gauchet et al.
patent: 5156102 (1992-10-01), Andersen
patent: 5161473 (1992-11-01), Landphair et al.
patent: 5392722 (1995-02-01), Snipe et al.
patent: 5915312 (1999-06-01), Meyer et al.
Engen Ronald N.
Hundeby David R.
Mayerle Dean J.
Flexi-Coil Ltd.
Miller Larry W.
Novosad Christopher J.
Stader J. William
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