AU2062400A

AU2062400A - Flexible rotatable drive shaft for a row crop planting unit

Info

Publication number: AU2062400A
Application number: AU20624/00A
Authority: AU
Original assignee: Deere and Co
Current assignee: Deere and Co
Priority date: 1999-03-04
Filing date: 2000-03-03
Publication date: 2000-09-07
Also published as: EA002466B1; WO2000051412A2; BR0001000A; DE50002075D1; WO2000051412A3; AR022828A1; EA200100942A1; EP1158847A2; CA2288481A1; AU4287400A; ES2199162T3; EP1158847B1; ATE239351T1

Description

Our Ref:7464138 P/00/011 Regulation 3:2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT

C

Applicant(s): Address for Service: Invention Title: Deere Company One John Deere Place Moline Illinois 61265-8098 United States of America DAVIES COLLISON CAVE Patent Trade Mark Attorneys Level 10, 10 Barrack Street SYDNEY NSW 2000 Flexible rotatable drive shaft for a row crop planting unit The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:- 5020 FLEXIBLE ROTATABLE DRIVE SHAFT FOR A ROW CROP PLANTING UNIT Background of the Invention 1. Field of the Invention: The invention is directed to a row crop planting unit wherein the seed meter and the chemical meter are driven by a flexible rotatable drive shaft.

2. Description of the Prior Art: Row crop planters as their name suggests are used to plant agricultural crops in rows. These planters typically comprise a transverse toolbar on which is mounted a plurality of row crop units. The individual row units are coupled to the transverse toolbar by a parallel linkage, so they are free to vertically float, up and down. Each row crop unit is provided with a seed reservoir, a seed meter, a furrow opener and a seed tube extending from the seed meter to the seed planting furrow opened by the furrow opener. Each individual row crop unit may also be provided with a chemical hopper, a chemical meter and a chemical 15 applicator for applying the chemicals to the field. The seed meter and chemical meter are driven by a chain drive extending from the meters to a transverse drive shaft attached to the toolbar. The transverse drive shaft drives all the row crop units.

Currently many farmers are practicing minimum tillage farming techniques. These techniques include planting directly into crop stubble, including corn stalks. During harvesting of corn, the corn ear is stripped from the stalk and the stalk and roots remain in the field. Depending on conditions these stalks may project upwardly from the field. As row crop planters pass over the stalks, these stalks may sometimes penetrate the row crop unit and dislodge the chain drive for the seed meter and chemical hopper of an individual row planting unit. The farmer is normally alerted to this condition by a seed monitor that fails to detect seed passing through the seed tube because of the undriven seed meter. The farmer would then have to stop the tractor, get out of the tractor, to replace the chain on the sprockets before he could start seeding again. Since some row crop planters are provided with thirty-one planting units, maintenance required by the current chain drive systems can be time consuming and labor intensive. Guards and deflectors have been used to overcome this problem, but they have not been entirely successful.

Flexible rotatable shaft drives have been used in agricultural applications. They have been used to remotely adjust the sieves on a combine. In addition, they have also been used in seeding applications.

Summary of the Invention It is an object of the present invention to provide a drive assembly for a row crop planter that is more secure from stalk dislodgement than a chain drive.

It is another object of this invention to provide a drive assembly that can be readily retrofitted to existing row crop planters and that is easily assembled.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a drive assembly that can allow individual planting unit to float vertically relative to the toolbar and still function correctly.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a drive assembly for a row crop planter that requires very low maintenance.

It is a feature of the present invention that the drive assembly is a flexible rotatable shaft extending between the transverse drive shaft on the toolbar and the seed and chemical meters on individual row units.

The row crop planter of the present invention is a conventional seeding machine having a transverse toolbar on which are mounted a plurality of planting units. Each planting unit is provided with a seed hopper, a seed meter, a furrow opener and a seed tube extending between the seed meter and the furrow opener. In some embodiments the row :i crop planting unit is also provided with a chemical hopper, chemical meter and a chemical applicator.

*15 The seed meter and the chemical meter, if provided, are driven by a flexible rotatable S- shaft extending from the transversely extending drive shaft to the meters. A first gearbox is drivingly coupled to the transversely extending drive shaft and is used to drive the flexible rotatable shaft. A second gearbox, opposite the seed meter, is coupled to the flexible rotatable shaft and is used to drive the seed meter. A third gearbox, opposite the chemical 20 meter, is coupled to the flexible rotatable shaft and is used to drive the chemical meter. The drive couplings between the gearboxes and the meters are identical to those used on a conventional planting unit.

Brief Description of the Drawings S 2 Figure 1 is a side view of a row crop planting unit mounted to a transverse toolbar.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the drive assembly of the present invention in a row crop planting unit.

Figure 3 is a side detail cross sectional view of the first gearbox.

Description of the Preferred Embodiment Figure 1 is a side view of a row crop planter 10 showing a single row crop planting unit 12. It should be noted that a row crop planter would comprise a number of identical planting units. Each of the planting units plants an individual row as it passes over the ground. The planter 10 comprises a plurality of row crop planting units 12 that are mounted to a transverse toolbar 14. The toolbar 14 can be quite long and have folding mechanisms to simplify transport of the row crop planter 10. The planting units are coupled to the toolbar 14 by U-bolts 16. Each planting unit 12 is provided with a frame 18 which is coupled to the transverse toolbar 14 by a parallelogram linkage 20. The parallel linkage 20 allows the individual row units 12 to move vertically, up and down. Seed is stored in seed hopper 22 and directed to seed meter 24. From the seed meter 24 the seed is dropped into seed tube 26 which directs the metered seed into the planting furrow formed by furrow opener 28.

Gauge wheels 30 control the depth of planting and closing wheels 32 close the planting furrow.

Pesticides and/or fertilizer can be stored in a chemical hopper 34 which is mounted to the planter unit frame 18. A chemical meter 36 directs metered chemicals to a chemical applicator 38. The chemical applicator can be used to apply a variety of chemicals including insecticides and/or herbicides.

The seed meters 24 and the chemical meters 36 of the plurality of row units are driven by a transversely extending drive shaft 40 that is rotatively mounted to the transverse toolbar. Transversely extending drive shaft 40 can be ground driven through a suitable 15 transmission or can be driven directly by a motor. The drive shaft 40 is a hex shaft that passes through a first gear box 42 that is mounted to the stationary plate 44 of parallelogram linkage 20. The first gearbox 40 can be mounted to the stationary plate 44 as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, or it can be mounted to the transverse toolbar 14 directly. However, in the preferred embodiment the first gearbox 40 is mounted to the stationary plate 44. The first 20 gear box 40 is provided with a helical drive gear 46 through which the drive shaft 40 passes.

The drive shaft 40 is drivingly coupled to helical drive gear 46 which in turn drives helical driven gear 48. Tubular portions 49 of the helical driven gear extend outwardly therefrom and can rotate in bearings located in the casing of the first gearbox 40. The tubular portions 49 are provided with square apertures into which a square drive member 50 of a flexible o 25 rotatable drive shaft 51 is inserted. Therefore rotation of the driven gear 48 rotates its tubular portions 49 in turn rotating the square drive member 50 and thereby the rotable drive shaft 51. The flexible rotatable drive shaft 51 is housed in a flexible non-rotating casing 52 that protects the drive shaft 51 from the elements. The flexible rotatable drive shaft of the present invention is of the type marketed by Elliott Manufacturing of Binghamtom, New York.

The flexible rotatable drive shaft 51 extends rearwardly past the parallel linkage 20 to the seed meter 24. The end of the flexible rotatable drive shaft remote from the first gear box 40 is also provided with a square drive member identical to the square drive member Opposite the seed meter 24 the square drive member 50 is inserted into the second gearbox 54 so that driving rotation can be transferred from the flexible rotatable drive shaft 51 to the second gearbox 54. This arrangement is essentially identical to the arrangement used with the first gear box 42 and illustrated in Figure 3. The second gear box 54 is provided with a helical drive gear 56 having tubular portions 57 provided with square apertures for receiving the square drive member that rotates helical drive gear 56. The helical drive gear 56 in turn drives helical driven gear 58 that is operatively coupled to transversely extending pins 60 for driving the seed meter 24. The transverse pin drive coupling for the seed meter 24 is identical to the drive coupling used on existing planter units so that these units maybe easily retrofitted to use the flexible rotatable drive shaft 51 of the present invention.

A second rotatable drive shaft 62 extends between the second gear box 54 to a third gear box 64 which is located opposite the chemical meter 36. Again the ends of this drive shaft are provided with square drive members which engages the two gearboxes. This arrangement is essentially identical to the arrangement used with the first gear box 42 and illustrated in Figure 3. The third gear box 64 is provided with a helical drive gear 66 having tubular portions 67 that are provided with a square aperture for engaging the square drive 5 member of the second rotatable drive shaft 62. The second rotatable drive shaft 62 in tumrn o drives the helical drive gear 66 which drives helical driven gear 68. Helical drive gear 68 is drivingly coupled to drive coupling 70. Drive coupling 70 is identical to the drive coupling used on existing planter units so that these units can be readily retrofitted.

.The invention should not be limited to the above described embodiment, but should o 20 be limited solely to the claims that follow.

S••..Throughout this specification and the claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise", or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or step or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or step or group of integers or steps.

Claims

1. A row crop planter comprising: a transversely extending toolbar; a transversely extending drive shaft rotatively coupled to the toolbar; a plurality of row crop planting units being coupled to the toolbar, each row crop planting unit having a seed hopper for holding seed to be planted, a seed meter for metering seed from the seed hopper, a furrow opener for forming a seed trench, and a seed tube extending between the seed meter and the furrow opener for directing seed from the seed meter to the seed trench, a flexible rotatable drive shaft extending from the transversely extending drive shaft to the seed meter for driving the seed meter, the flexible rotatable drive shaft is drivingly coupled to the transversely extending drive shaft and the seed meter for transmitting rotational motion from the transversely extending drive shaft to the seed meter for driving the seed meter. 15

2. A row crop planter as defined by claim 1 further comprising a first gearbox drivingly located between the flexible rotatable drive shaft and the transversely extending drive shaft for rotating the flexible shaft from the rotating transversely extending drive shaft.

3. A row crop planter as defined by claim 2 further comprising a second gearbox drivingly located between the flexible rotatable drive shaft and the seed meter for driving the 20 seed meter from the flexible rotatable drive shaft.

4. A row crop planter as defined by claim 3 wherein the first gear box is provided with a drive gear that engages the transversely extending drive shaft, the first gearbox is also provided with a driven gear that meshes with the drive gear in the first gearbox for S 2 driving the flexible rotatable drive shaft. t.

5. A row crop planter as defined by claim 4 wherein the second gearbox is provided with a drive gear that engages the flexible rotatable drive shaft, the second gearbox is also provided with a driven gear that meshes with the drive gear in the second gearbox for driving the seed meter.

6. A row crop planter as defined by claim 1 wherein each row crop planter unit further comprises as second hopper for holding chemicals, a chemical meter is used to meter the chemicalsto a chemical applicator, wherein a second flexible rotatable drive shaft extends between the seed meter and the chemical meter for driving the chemical meter.

7. A row crop planter as defined by claim 3 wherein each row crop planter unit further comprises as second hopper for holding chemicals, a chemical meter is used to meter the chemicals to a chemical applicator, wherein a second flexible rotatable drive shaft extends between the second gearbox for driving the seed meter and a third gearbox for driving the chemical meter.

8. A row crop planter as defined by claim 1 wherein the flexible rotatable drive shaft is housed in a flexible stationary casing.

9. A row crop planter as defined by claim 6 wherein the flexible rotatable drive shaft and the second flexible rotatable drive shaft are housed in a flexible stationary casing. DATED this THIRD day of MARCH 2000 Deere Company By its Patent Attorneys DAVIES COLLISON CAVE f