AU717761B2 - An air seeder metering unit - Google Patents

Description

1

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT Name of Applicant: Address for Service: SIMPLICITY AUSTRALIA PTY LTD 010 669 959) CULLEN CO., Patent Trade Mark Attorneys, 240 Queen Street, Brisbane, Qld. 4000, Australia.

o f Invention Title: AN AIR SEEDER METERING UNIT Details of Associated Provisional Application: No. P08890 filed 1 September 1997 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: 2 THIS INVENTION relates to an air seeder metering unit and to an air seeder apparatus incorporating such units.

Air seeder metering units are employed for delivering seeds in air separate streams usually with fertiliser or some other material entrained in the air streams delivered by a fan. It is necessary to control the quantity of seeds and fertiliser in each stream. Known metering units employ metering spools arranged within a chamber for delivering the product to a port plate assembly configured to provide a set pattern of distribution to a plurality of outlet tubes from which the material is conveyed to a cultivator or other equipment by air blown through the unit.

If a different distribution pattern is required from that provided by that particular port plate assembly partial disassembly of the unit was then carried out.

Disassembly was necessary to remove the port plate assembly and to install a different port plate assembly having the desired distribution pattern. Re-assembly was then necessary. It was not unusual for ten or more different port plate assemblies to be required for providing a reasonable range of desired distribution patterns.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an air seeder metering unit and an air seeder apparatus with such units which at least minimises the o: 20 disadvantages referred to above.

According to one aspect, the invention provides an air seeder metering unit having a main chamber with a plurality of metering spools mounted on a shaft for Oo rotation within the main chamber, a transfer chamber adjacent to the metering spools, delivery windows between the transfer chamber and the spools, 25 adjustable diverter members within the transfer air inlets extending into the transfer chamber and outlets extending from the transfer chamber whereby the diverter members are movable to control the distribution of material from the spools to the outlets so that material from two adjacent spools may be directed either exclusively to one or another of two adjacent outlets or to distribute proportions of material from adjacent spools between the two outlets.

The main chamber within the metering unit preferably consists of an upper 2(a) chamber and a lower chamber. The metering spools are preferably located in the upper chamber. A door may separate the two chambers from each other.

The adjustable diverter members are preferably pivotally mounted within the transfer chamber. The diverter members may comprise vanes pivotally 9 9 9 9999 9* 9 9 9 9 9e 9 .9 99 9 9 9 99 .9 99 9..

9* .9 9999 9 U 9 .9 99 999 j 9 9 9 p99..

i 9* 9 99 9 999* 9 999999 9 9 mounted within the transfer chamber. Each vane may be associated with a handle for pivoting the vanes to a desired position within the transfer chamber.

Although each metering unit may have any suitable number of adjustable diverter members, it is preferred that five such members be present in a six airstream metering unit or three be present in a four airstream metering unit.

Where the metering unit has five such members, these members are positioned between two adjacent delivery windows.

The metering unit has a plurality of air inlets. The inlets may be provided by inlet tubes. The inlet tubes are located along the lower chamber and extend into that chamber. Transfer passages are provided for each of the tubes and extend across the lower chamber. The transfer passages may be provided by transfer tubes. The transfer tubes allow the inlets to communicate with the transfer chamber. The number of inlets and transfer passages corresponds to the number of delivery windows. Thus, where there are six delivery windows, the metering unit has six inlets and six transfer passages.

The metering unit has a plurality of outlets. The outlets are present in a number corresponding to the number of delivery windows. The outlets may .comprise outlet tubes which communicate with the transfer chamber. The outlets may be located below the diverter vanes.

20 The metering spools are preferably present in a number corresponding to the number of delivery windows present in the metering unit. Thus, where there are six windows, six metering spools are present in the metering unit located at spaced locations on a shaft extending across the upper chamber.

The transfer chamber may have a trailing wall at least partially constructed of a removable door with transparent windows.

The lower chamber may have a door through which the chambers of the unit may be emptied if desired. The door may be movable between a closed and an open position by a linkage assembly. A parallelogram linkage assembly is used for this purpose.

The metering unit may be incorporated in an air seeder apparatus. Such an apparatus may have a plurality of chambers for material such as seeds, fertiliser or the like and a separate air seeder metering unit is associated with each chamber for metering material from the chambers and through the outlets of the metering units. The metering units function to allow adjustable quantities of material to be ejected from each of the outlets. The metering units in such an apparatus may be arranged in series.

The upper chamber may have agitators mounted within it for agitating material within the chamber. Drive for shafts on which the metering spools and agitators are mounted may be derived from ground engaging wheels on which the apparatus may travel over the ground.

A particular preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings in which: Figure 1 is a side view of an air seeder metering unit according to an embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a rear elevational view of the unit shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a side view of an air seeder apparatus incorporating two units like that shown in Figures 1 and 2; Figure 4 is a rear elevational view of the apparatus shown in Figure 3; and, Figure 5 is a plan view of the apparatus shown in Figure 4.

The air seeder metering unit 10 shown in Figures 1 and 2 has a seed hopper with an upper chamber 11 and a lower chamber 12. A clean out door 13 20 normally separates the chambers 11 and 12 from one another. Lever 15 has an end 16 coupled to the door and operation of the lever 15 allows the door 13 to be .5.5 moved from the position shown in full outline to the clean out position shown in *broken outline in Figure 1.

An agitator shaft 20 extends across the unit within the upper chamber 11.

A set of agitator vanes 21 are arranged in groups at spaced locations along the shaft 20. Rotation of the shaft 20 agitates the seeds within chamber 11. The *o°O.o upper chamber has an opening 14 through which seeds may be introduced into the hopper. A metering shaft 22 extends across the chamber 11 and is located rearwardly of shaft 20. A plurality of metering spools 23 are located at spaced intervals along the length of the shaft 22. Shafts 20 and 22 are adapted to rotate in a clockwise direction when viewed as shown in Figure 1. When the spools 23 are caused to rotate seeds are picked up by the spool and dispensed in a manner described below.

The chamber 11 has an inclined leading wall 26 and a vertical trailing wall 27. A short inclined wall portion 28 projects forwardly of the trailing wall 27. The clean out door 13 has a leading lip 30 and a trailing lip 31. Lip 30 abuts against an inner face of wall 26 when the door 13 is shut while lip 31 abuts against an outer face of wall portion 28 when the door 13 is shut.

Wall 35 forms a trailing wall of the unit and is parallel to and spaced from wall 27. The space 36 between walls 27 and 35 defines a seed transfer passage or chamber. Wall 27 has a plurality of seed delivery openings or windows 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42. Wall 35 has a plurality of transparent covers 43, 44 and through which the windows 37 to 42 are visible when the unit is viewed from the rear.

The lower chamber 12 has a plurality of air inlet tubes 50 to 55 extending into leading wall 57. A respective transfer tube 60 to 65 couples each inlet tube 50 to 55 to the seed transfer passage 36. Seed outlet tubes 70 to 75 extend from wall 35 and allow seeds to be conveyed from the seeder metering unit by the air passing from inlet tubes 50 to 55 through tubes 60 to The seed transfer passage 36 has a plurality of seed diverter vanes 80 to 84 pivotally mounted within it. Detail of vane 84 is shown in Figure 1. Vane 84 is 20 coupled to shaft 86 and vane adjustment handle 95 located outside of the unit may be moved to pivot the vane 84 to a desired position relative to adjacent seed delivery windows 41, 42. The vane 84 has an upper edge 100 just above the ***lower edge of the window 42 when the vane is in a vertical position. A vane adjustment notch plate 101 extends over a lower part of wall 35 and has an outwardly and rearwardly directed flange 102. Flange 102 has notches formed in it relative to which the handles 91 to 95 locate to retain the vanes 80 to 84 in selected positions.

and The metering unit 10 has a lower door 120 comprising a door frame 121 and a resilient pad 122. The door may be moved from the full outline closed position to the broken outline open position shown in Figure 1 by operation of lever 125. Lever 125 pivots about shaft 126.

Detail of a parallelogram door mechanism is shown in Figure 1. An 6 identical mechanism is located at the opposite end of shaft 126 on the other side of the unit 10. The mechanism includes a plate 127 pivotally connected at 128 to the door and having an adjustment block 128a at its other end. Two links 129 and 130 extend between fixed locations 131, 132 on the unit and shaft 126 and pivot location 133 on the door. A roller 140 is mounted to a fixed location on the unit and lever 125 has a hooked projection 141 which locates over the roller to hold the door 120 in its closed position. Block 128a carries an adjustment screw (not shown) which may be adjusted to extend between the block 128a and the door 120 to govern the degree to which pad 122 is compressed when the door is closed.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 show an air seeder apparatus 160 having a chassis 161 with a towing arm 162 extending from a leading end and a towing coupling 163 extending from a trailing end. A hopper 164 is mounted on the chassis 161 and is divided into two compartments by partition 165. Partition 165 divides the hopper into two chambers 166 and 167. Chamber 166 may be filled with seeds and chamber 167 may be filled with fertiliser. Two air seeder metering units are coupled to the apparatus. A blower 168 is mounted adjacent towing arm 162 .o and a series of air delivery tubes 169 couple the blower to air inlet tubes 50 of the leading unit 10. A plurality of air transfer tubes 170 extend between tubes 20 70 75 of the leading unit 10 to the air inlet tubes 50 55 of the trailing unit The apparatus has two wheels 175 from which a drive for the air seeder units is obtained via power take off units and gear boxes 176.

While the apparatus shown in Figures 3, 4 and 5 has only two chambers 166, 167 less than or more than two chambers may be present. A respective air seeder metering unit is associated with each chamber and adjacent units are interconnected by transfer tubes like tubes 170 shown in Figure 3.

In use, the apparatus 160 may be coupled to the rear of a towing vehicle or implement via towing arm 162. If desired an agricultural implement or the like may be coupled to towing coupling 163 and drawn behind the apparatus or the air seeder may be on top of or behind the agricultural implement.

Seeds, fertiliser or other material is allowed to enter the upper chamber 11 in each air seeder unit 10. As the apparatus is drawn over the ground, the agitator shaft 20 in each unit 10 is driven to allow the agitators 21 on the shaft in each unit to agitate the contents in each chamber. Blower 168 is coupled to the leading air seeder metering unit and air and entrained material such as fertiliser and seeds are conveyed through the units and out from the outlet tubes 70 and by tubes extending from them to a cultivator coupled to towing coupling 163.

Seeds or material are picked up by the metering spools 23 and propelled through the delivery windows 37 to 42. Vane adjustment handles 91 95 are set to desired positions to selectively direct desired quantities of material, seeds or the like from adjacent windows distributed in desired proportions to associated outlet tubes and the material is conveyed through the tubes by air entering the unit through the air inlet tubes. The distribution of material from the windows to the outlet tubes is readily and easily controlled by the vanes whose position is governed by the adjustment handles.

In the event that the units need to be emptied of material, handle 125 is pivoted to clear hook 141 from roller 140 to allow the parallelogram links to move the door 120 to the dotted outline position shown in Figure 1 and then handle is operated to open the clean out door 13.

After the material within the chambers 11 and 12 has been cleared, the handle 15 is operated to close the clean out door and then the door 120 is closed by returning the lever or handle 125 to its full outline position.

The adjustable vanes and the way in which they may be adjusted allows C easy distribution of material from the delivery windows to the outlet tubes. By having the units connected in series as shown in Figure 3, it is possible to readily control the distribution of fertiliser with one unit and entrain that fertiliser with seed distributed between the tube outlets of a unit located downstream of the unit used to distribute the fertiliser.

°ii

Claims (17)

1. An air seeder metering unit having a main chamber with a plurality of metering spools mounted for rotation on a shaft within the main chamber, a transfer chamber adjacent to the metering spools, delivery windows between the transfer chamber and the spools, adjustable diverter members within the transfer chamber, air inlets extending into the transfer chamber and outlets extending from the transfer chamber whereby the diverter members are movable to control the distribution of material from the spools to the outlets so that material from two adjacent spools may be directed either exclusively to one or another of two adjacent outlets or to distribute proportions of material from adjacent spools between two outlets.

2. The air seeder metering unit of claim 1 wherein the main chamber consists of an upper chamber and a lower chamber with the metering 15 spools being located in the upper chamber.

3. The air seeder metering unit of claim 2 including a door which separates ~the upper chamber from the lower chamber.

4. The air seeder metering unit of any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the diverter members are pivotally mounted within the transfer chamber. 20

5. The air seeder metering unit of any one of claim 1 to 4 wherein the diverter members consist of pivotally mounted vanes.

6. The air seeder metering unit of any one of claims 1 to 5 including a respective handle for pivoting each said diverter member to desired position with the transfer chamber. 25

7. The air seeder metering unit of any one of claims 1 to 6 including five said diverter members.

8. The air seeder metering unit of any one of claims 1 to 7 wherein the inlets are provided by inlet tubes extending into the main chamber and a respective transfer passage is associated with each of the inlet tubes and the transfer passages extend through the main chamber and communicate with the transfer chamber.

9. The air seeder metering unit of claim 8 including six said transfer passages.

The air seeder metering unit of any one of claims 1 to 9 wherein the 9 outlets are provided by outlet tubes which communicate with the transfer chamber and are located below the diverter members.

11. The air seeder metering unit of claim 10 including six said outlet tubes.

12. The air seeder metering unit of any one of claims 1 to 11 including six said metering spools, wherein the spools are located at spaced locations on the shaft and the shaft extends across the unit.

13. The air seeder metering unit of claim 2 wherein the lower chamber has a door through which the chambers of the unit may be emptied.

14. The air seeder metering unit of claim 13 wherein the door is movable between a closed and an open position by a linkage assembly.

An air seeder metering unit as defined in claim 1 and substantially as herein described with reference to the drawings.

16. An air seeder apparatus including the air seeder metering unit of any 15 one of claims 1 to oo

°17. The air seeder apparatus of claim 16 including a plurality of said air seeder metering units as defined in any one of claims 1 to 15 and wherein o said metering units are arranged in series with one another. DATED this 141 day of January 2000 SIMPLICITY AUSTRALIA PTY LTD 010 669 959) By their Patent Attorneys CULLEN CO. .:Olei 0**