A distributor device for an agricultural machine for spreading granular material and such an agricultural machine

Description of equivalent WO 03071856 A1

0001A distributor device for an agricultural machine for spreading granular material and such an agricultural machine

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

0003The present invention relates to a distributor device for an agricultural machine for spreading granular material, such as a seed drill or a fertiliser drill, comprising an at least partly circular housing with an inlet member arranged to be associated with a hopper for granular material, a plurality of outlet members arranged about the pe- rimeter of the housing, wherein the outlet members are arranged to be associated with coulters, and a closing off device comprising a driving device for closing off at least one of the said outlet members.

0004The present invention also relates to such an agricultural machine.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

0006Such a distributor device and such an agricultural machine are known through EP-A-0 674 830, wherein a plurality of different closing members are described. However, those are disadvantageous, since they require complicated arrangements for moving the closing members.

0007Other distributors having closable outlet means are known from WO 97/21338, EP-A-0 687 406, EP-A-0 803 177, US-A-3 515 315, EP-A-0 309 608, DE-U- 9313779.6, US-A-4 989 784, US-A-4 489 892, EP-A-0 328 858, DE-A-2 603 088, EP-A-0 252 348, DE-A-4 004 685 and DE-A-195 42 057.

0008An arc-shaped distributor device having closable outlet members is known from SU-A-1 457 836. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

0009One object of the invention is to improve the closing off device in the existing distributor device and in the existing agricultural machine, respectively. This has been achieved by the closing off device comprising a closing member adapted to be moved in the direction of the perimeter of the housing and essentially across the direction of flow of the outlet members. Alternatively, the closing off device comprises two or more closing members.

0010Hereby, a simplified design of the closing off device is achieved, which allows for simpler and more reliable adjustment. Above all, the risk is reduced, compared to in previously known distributor devices, that the function of the closing member is disrupted by the granules as such. A closing member can of course be used to close off two or more neighbouring outlet members. However, closing off outlet members at even intervals around the perimeter of the housing avoids an unequal flow in the distributor device.

0011Suitably, the inlet member and the outlet member are arranged at the housing in such a way that an airflow created by an air flow source is allowed to simultaneously flow from said inlet member towards said outlet members.

0012The driving device may be adapted to close a predetermined number of said outlet members and to simultaneously keep a predetermined number of said outlet members open. For this purpose, the closing off device comprises a plurality of closing members adapted to be moved in the direction of the perimeter of the housing and essentially across the direction of flow of the outlet members.

0013The closing member is preferably placed at least partly between two outlet members when the closing member is not closing the outlet member. The closing member thereby does not interfere with the flow. The closing member is suitably arranged within the housing. Alternatively, the closing member is arranged outside the housing in such a way that the closing member is in the outlet member in the closed position and essentially outside the outlet member in the open position.

0014The closing off device advantageously comprises a carriage member adapted to carry the said closing members, wherein the carriage member is associated with the said driving device. In cases where two or more closing members are used, the closing off device may be provided with one or more further carriage members. Hereby, one or more closing members may be arranged on one carriage member while the others are arranged on the other carriage member or carriage members. Alternatively, all closing members may be arranged on one and the same carriage member.

0015The carriage member is preferably pivoted in the centre of the housing. Alternatively, the carriage member is pivoted at the perimeter of the housing. In cases where two or more closing members are used, one or more carriage members may be pivoted centrally while the other or others are pivoted peripherally. Alternatively, both or all carriage members are pivoted centrally or peripherally.

0016The closing members are preferably adapted to close off a predetermined number of outlet members, placed along the perimeter of the housing at predetermined positions. Hereby, an adjustment of the distribution of seed and/or fertiliser can be made.

0017Advantageously, the closing members are evenly distributed about the perimeter of the housing and are connected to a common control device adapted to simultaneously move the closing members to an essentially closed position to essentially close off every second outlet member simultaneously. Half the flow can thereby be closed off from delivery of seed or fertiliser, e.g. where only half the machine width is to be used, which occurs when the width of the field is not evenly divisible by the width of the agricultural machine.

0018The carriage members are arranged relative to each other in such a way that the closing members occur at different radii from the centre of the housing. The closing members can hereby be placed in front of each other in the idle position, i.e. when they are not located in front of an outlet member. Alternatively, the carriage members are arranged relative to each other in such a way that the closing members occur at essentially the same radius from the centre of the housing. The closing mem- bers can hereby be placed beside each other and thus form a wider barrier wall.

DRAWING SUMMARY

0020In the following, the invention is described in more detail with reference to the attached drawings in which:

0021Figure la is a perspective view of an agricultural machine with three distributor devices for granules, plus tubes and coulters,

0022Figure lb is an enlargement of the section in Figure la and viewed from the oppo- site direction,

0023Figure 2 illustrates schematically the agricultural machine in Figure la viewed from above, and with hoppers for different types of granules, such as seed and fertiliser,

0024Figure 3 illustrates schematically how the tubes in Figure la are connected to the respective seed and fertiliser coulters,

0025Figure 4 is an exploded view of a distributor device connected to a feed pipe and provided with a plurality of closing members, Figure 5 illustrates a distributor device with an annular carriage member with closing members,

0026Figure 6 illustrates a distributor device with two annular carriage members with closing members,

0027Figure 7a and 7b illustrate a distributor device with two star-shaped carriage members,

0028Figure 8 illustrates a distributor device with an annular carriage member and with the closing members arranged outside the housing of the distributor device,

0029Figures 9a and 9b are top views of distributor devices having an arc shape, and

0030Figure 10 is a flow chart regarding control of feed of granules.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

0032Figure la shows an agricultural machine 2 drawn by a tractor 4. In the agricultural machine, there are three devices in the form of distributor heads 6a, 6b, 6c for gran- ules, such as seed or fertiliser. The distributor head 6a is also shown in the enlargement sketch in Figure lb. A substantially vertical feed pipe 8 supplies the distributor head centrally from below with granules borne by a stream of air from an air stream source, such as a fan 7a, while distributor heads 6b and 6c are supplied by the air stream from an air stream source, such as a fan 7b.

0033A plurality of tubes 10 are connected at one end to individual outlet members 12 on the distributor head and at the other end to individual coulters 14, e.g. a seed coulter or a fertiliser coulter. Figure 2 shows schematically the agricultural machine 2, which comprises a first hopper 16 for seed, a second hopper 18 for seed and a third hopper 20 for fertiliser.

0034In the first and the second hopper 16, 18 there is a feed wheel 22 for feeding the granules to the feed pipe 8. In the third hopper there is instead an auger feed 24 for this purpose, at the rear end of which is applied a stream of air for transporting the granules up to the distributor head 6a.

0035In Figure 3 is shown schematically how the tubes 10 are connected between the dis- tributor heads 6a, 6b and 6c and the coulters 14, respectively. For the same machine width 25, distributor head 6a is used for dispersal of fertiliser, while two distributor heads 6b and 6c are used for dispersal of seed. The reason for this is that the seed coulters are more densely arranged than the fertiliser coulters. For example, the distance between two neighbouring seed coulters is 125 mm, while the distance be- tween two neighbouring fertiliser coulters is 250 mm. This means that the distributor head 6a with its twenty-four outlet members 12 is adequate for one machine width 25 as regards fertiliser, while it is necessary to have two distributor heads 6b and 6c with twenty- four outlet members 12 for seed. This means in turn that when only half the machine width 25a or 25b is to be used, e.g. when the width of a field does not correspond to an integer of machine widths 25, it is sufficient as regards seed output to shut off one of the distributor heads 6b or 6c (also called half machine shut-off).

0036A more complicated form of shut-off is used to shut off half the machine width 25c or 25d as regards distributor head 6a. Here, it is suitable to close off every second outlet member 12 to maintain an even flow of air and granules through the distributor head 6a. This means that the tubes 10 connected to alternate outlet members 12 lead to one half 25c of the row of fertiliser coulters 14 (see upper part of Figure 3), while the other tubes 10 lead to the other half 25d of the row of fertiliser coulters 14. How the outlet members 12 are closed off will be described below. Figure 4 shows the distributor head 6a comprising an essentially cylindrical housing 26 with a lid 27, a base 28 in which an inlet member 32 receives the feed pipe 8, and a wall 29. The housing is concentric around the inlet member 32 along the axis of the extension of the feed pipe 8. The housing 26 thus forms an essentially annular space 30 around the inlet member 32. Around the perimeter of the housing, i.e. in its wall 29, are twenty-four outlet members 12 arranged in pairs.

0037For the above-mentioned half machine shut-off there is a closing off device 33, comprising 12 closing members 34 in the form of angle plates arranged inside the housing 26. The closing members 34 are connected to the lid 27, which also constitutes a carriage member 36 for these. The lid 27 or the carriage member 36 is equipped with an arm 38 for power transmission from a driving device in the form of a power source (see reference numeral 42 in Figure 5). The power source 42, the arm 38, the carriage member 36 and the closing members 34 thus together constitute the closing off device 33. The power source may be an electric or pneumatic motor or the like.

0038When the arm 38 turns the lid 27, the plates 34 will be caused to slide about the pe- rimeter of the housing, i.e. the carriage member 36 is pivoted on the inside of the perimeter of the housing but it can also be pivoted in the centre of the lid.

0039Figure 5 shows an alternative embodiment where the carriage member 36 is constituted by a ring to which are mounted the closing members 34, i.e. the carriage mem- ber 36 and lid 27 (not shown in Figure 5) constitute separate entities.

0040The closing members 34 are shown in their idle position 40, i.e. when the outlet members 12 are open. When every second outlet member 12 is closed, the power source 42 is activated, and it influences the arm 38 to rotate the ring 36 until the closing member 34 abuts a neighbouring stop member 44. The outlet member 12 is thereby blocked off.

0041When one half of the machine width, e.g. 25c, is to be shut off, the carriage member 36 is rotated e.g. clockwise until the closing member 34 abuts a neighbouring stop member in the direction of rotation, while if the other half of the machine width 25d is to be shut off, the carriage member 36 is rotated anticlockwise until the closing member 34 abuts the other neighbouring stop member 44.

0042Figure 6 shows two carriage members 36a and 36b in the form of concentrically arranged rings, each of which is provided with closing members 34. The rings 36a, 36b are each connected to individual arms 33, which in turn are connected to the power sources 42. The rings 36a, 36b are fitted with closing members 34, likewise concentrically arranged so that they can bypass each other. In this way, selected groups of outlet members 12 can be closed off. Furthermore, the closing members 34 can be placed in front of each other, or beside or in front of outlet members 12. The number of closing members 34 on ring 36a is typically half that of the outlet members 12 to allow half machine shut-off, while ring 36b is fitted with two, four, six or eight closing members 34 to allow so-called tramline marking, i.e. markings intended to help the tractor driver in subsequent passes with fertiliser spreader or crop sprayer.

0043Alternatively, the closing members 34 can be arranged so that they lie on the same radius, although still with concentric rings. However, this requires that the idle po- sitions of individual closing members do not coincide, since they cannot be placed in front of each other.

0044Of course, closing off of the outlet members 12 can also be achieved in accordance with the principles described in relation to Figure 5, by means of the carriage mem- ber in the embodiment of Figure 6. Figure 7a shows an alternative embodiment where the carriage members 36a, 36b are star-shaped. In the figure, however, several have been omitted for the sake of clarity. The carriage member 36a is situated above the carriage member 36b and they are pivoted about a central pivot 46 and are rotated around this by their individual power sources 42. Similarly to the above, power is transferred to the respective carriage member 36a, 36b by means of an arm 38, which forms an integral part of one of the closing members 34. All closing members on the respective carriage members 36a, 36b are arranged at the same radius from pivot 46. In the figure, the closing members are in the idle position, i.e. the outlet members 12 are open.

0045In Figure 7b, one of the carriage members 36a has been rotated anticlockwise, while the other carriage member 36b has been rotated clockwise, so that two neighbouring outlet members have been closed off, while two other neighbouring outlet members 12 have been left open. This type of shut-off is appropriate for certain types of crops.

0046Of course, closing off of outlet members 12 can also be achieved in accordance with the principles described in relation to Figures 5 and 6 above, by means of the car- riage members in the embodiment of Figure 7.

0047Figure 8 shows the distributor 6a with alternative outlet members 12 in which each one is fitted with a slot 48 to receive the closing member 34. The carriage member 36 is arranged outside the perimeter of the housing and is connected to the power source 42 via arm 38. The closing members 34 on carriage member 36 are shown in their closed positions in every second outlet member for the accomplishment of half machine shut-off, e.g. 25c (see Fig. 3). For shut-off of the other half of the machine 25d, the closing members 34 are inserted into the respective slots 48 of other outlet members 12. In the idle position, i.e. when all outlet members are open, closing members 34 remain in the spaces between the outlet members 12 arranged in pairs. Figures 9a and 9b show arc-shaped distributors 6. Alternate outlet members 12 can be closed by the closing off device 33, comprising the closing off members 34 arranged on the carriage member 36, which is pivotable about the pivot 46 by means of the power source 42 via arm 38.

0048In the embodiment shown in Figure 9a, the granules are borne by air through the substantially vertical feed pipe 8 to the distributor device 6, whereas in the embodiment of Figure 9b, the granules are likewise borne by air, however through a sub- stantially horizontal feed pipe 8. Of course, the feed pipe 8 may be inclined or curved instead.

0049Figure 10 shows a control unit 50 which controls the power source 42 for the respective carriage members 33, likewise a motor 52 for each feed wheel 22 that feeds the granules to the feed pipe 8 leading to the distributor heads 6b and 6c, and a motor 54 for the auger feed 24 that feeds the granules to the distributor head 6a via feed pipe 8. A user interface 56 is provided e.g. in the tractor 4 cab for entering control directions, which are executed by the control unit 50.

0050For half machine shut-off, i.e. when half of the outlet members 12 on the distributor head 6a are closed off, the speed of the motor 54 is reduced so that the auger feed 24 rotates at half the speed, which in turn results in that it delivers half the amount of granules compared to when the distributor head is fully open. The air stream delivered by the fan 7a remains constant. At half machine shut-off of distributor heads 6b and 6c, i.e. when either of these distributor heads is shut off, the control unit 50 stops one of the motors 52 that drive the feed wheel 22. The air stream remains unaltered through both feed pipes 8.

0051Of course the outlet members 12 can be arranged around the perimeter of the distri- bution housing at equal intervals. However, this requires a distributor head with a greater diameter to provide space for the closing members 34 between outlet members 12.

0052The number of carriage members is of course not limited to one or two, but more can be used, e.g. one per closing member. Each carriage member can thereby be connected to a separate power source, which provides the potential for individual control of opening and closing of each outlet member 12.

0053The driving member 42 in Figure 5, likewise the driving members 42 in Figures 6, 7a and 7b, have been described as being connected to the carriage members radially outside the perimeter of the housing. Alternatively, they may be connected to the pivot 46.

0054It has certainly been stated above that the distributor head 6a is to be used for fertil- iser, while distributor heads 6b, 6c are used for seed, but if necessary distributor head 6a can instead be used for seed and distributor heads 6b, 6c for fertiliser.

0055Of course, the different embodiments of the closing off devices 33 of figures 4 to 8, are also applicable to the distributor devices of Figures 9a and 9b, respectively.

0056It should be noted that any combination of alternate closing off of the outlet members is possible in all of the above described embodiments.