Planting – Drilling – Frame and planting-element arrangement
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-30
2001-10-30
Novosad, Christopher J. (Department: 3671)
Planting
Drilling
Frame and planting-element arrangement
C111S184000, C221S185000, C221S277000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06308645
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to the field of agricultural machinery and, more particularly, to an improved seed planting machine.
BACKGROUND
Seed planting machines have typically been equipped with one of two different systems for containing the supply of seeds on the machine and metering them to openers that place the seeds below the surface of the ground. In one system a large bulk container for the seed supply has a number of meters attached directly to the bottom of the container, as is typically found on grain drills. Seeds discharging from the meters pass through flexible hoses which are essentially empty except for the slow trickle of seeds coming out of the meters. The principal advantage of the bulk supply system is ease of filling and a large capacity so as to reduce the number of times the operator must stop to refill the seed container.
This system sometimes suffers from irregular seed spacing as the seeds are disturbed from their intended metered spacing by impinging against corrugations or bellows in the hoses that are there to permit the hoses to expand and retract to accommodate changes in the distance between the container and the opener as the opener moves over uneven terrain relative to the container. During such up and down movement of the opener, the hoses can also develop bends or slight curves, which position the internal hose surfaces at locations causing them to be impinged by the metered seeds, thus preventing their straight, unhindered drop to the openers.
Some machines have replaced the flexible hoses with telescoping, straight tubes between meters on the underside of the seed container and the openers. However, such arrangements do not address the problems of poor metering and irregular seed spacing caused by constant changes in the opener as it moves up and down relative to the container, such motion having the effect of constantly changing the distance a particular seed must travel from the meter to the soil.
A second type of system is one in which a small individual container of seeds is attached to each individual opener. In this system the seed metering device is attached to or built directly into the opener itself. This type of system is typically found on machines generically called “planters” in the industry.
In this type of machine the seeds travel from each individual container into a pool of seeds at the meter and then drop through the opener into the soil. This system tends to have improved seed spacing as the distance the seed must travel after leaving the metering device is constant relative to the soil. The distance the seed must travel is also usually much smaller than on a typical grain drill, leaving less opportunity for the seed drop to be disrupted as the machine moves across the field.
However, the multiple small containers typically have a much reduced overall volume than a bulk seed container as found on a grain drill, necessitating much more frequent stops while seeding to replenish the seed supplies in the individual containers. The many small containers spread across the width of the entire machine each come with their own lids which must be removed and replaced, making filling less convenient than with a central bulk container having only a single lid. Moreover, the individual small containers must typically be removed and inverted to empty excess seeds from them when changing from one crop to another, and when removing metering disks associated with the meters during service or for other purposes.
Furthermore these container/meter/opener units are typically much wider than the openers on grain drills, which prevents planters from achieving row spacing as narrow as that possible with drills.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, one important object of the present invention is to provide a seeding machine that achieves the benefits of the foregoing two different types of seeding systems without their attendant disadvantages. More particularly, an object of the present invention is to provide in a seeding machine the filling convenience and reduction in refill stops associated with a large central bulk seed container and the more precise seed spacing that results from having individual metering devices independently attached to each opener of the machine, rather than to the bottom of the seed container.
Another important object of the invention is to provide a highly versatile seed planting machine that is suitable for planting a variety of different crops.
In addition, an important object of the invention is to provide a relatively narrow profile design for an opener-mounted seed meter such that adjacent openers can be more closely spaced apart than would otherwise be the case, permitting the farmer to achieve narrower row spacing without sacrificing precision in the spacing of the individual seeds within each row.
A further important object is to provide for accurate and precise seed metering, including the singulating of seeds, by a metering device that does not require the use of positive pressure air or vacuum to carry out its metering function.
A further important object of the present invention is to provide away of insuring continuous flow of seeds from the bulk container to the individual metering devices as the openers move up and down over uneven or hilly terrain, to the end that seeds are always available to the individual metering devices.
In carrying out the foregoing and other important objects, the present invention contemplates a seeding machine in which one or more large bulk containers supply seeds to the individual openers of the machine through an independent metering device carried on each of the openers and movable therewith during up and down travel over uneven terrain relative to the seed container. Each metering device is gravity-fed and is strictly mechanical, requiring no positive pressure air or vacuum to assist in carrying out the metering function. In one preferred form of the invention, each meter is adapted for singulation of the seeds, while in another preferred form the meters can function to dispense seeds on more of a volume basis, but still with greater accuracy and precision than a conventional fluted metering wheel.
The heart of each meter is a metering wheel having a plurality of seed-receiving pockets about its outermost peripheral edge. Such edge may be provided with only a single row of pockets, or with multiple rows of pockets as may be necessary or desired, the width of the edge and thus the overall width of the meter itself being dependent upon the number of rows of pockets chosen to be included on the wheel. Stated otherwise, the fewer the number of rows of pockets, the thinner the edge of the wheel can be, resulting in a thinner overall metering device.
Seeds gravitating from the overhead container collect in a pool in the upper portion of the metering device. Preferably, this pool of collected seeds is no wider than the wheel itself so that the slim profile of the meter can be maintained. The chamber in which the pool collects is configured in such a way that there is an overhead portion directly above top center of the wheel, as well as a pair of side portions disposed along opposite upsweep and downsweep sides of the wheel, respectively. Best results have been obtained by having the upsweep portion of the chamber extend down to a point below a point of vertical tangency on the wheel, preferably almost to bottom center. On the other hand, the downsweep portion of the chamber desirably extends to a point slightly above a point of vertical tangency on the downsweep side of the wheel. This gives seeds in the pool more than 215° of the wheel surface to find a pocket to be received in before access to the wheel is cut off. The pockets pass beneath a retaining structure on the downsweep side of the wheel that keeps the seeds in the pockets until they reach the discharge outlet at the bottom of the metering device. Preferably, the retaining structure on the downsweep side of the wheel comprises a spring-loaded member biased toward the wheel and provided with an arcuate
Arnett Gregory W.
McClure J. Michael
Newkirk Kevin J.
Great Plains Manufacturing Incorporated
Hovey Williams Timmons & Collins
Novosad Christopher J.
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