CA1142490A - Manure spreader - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

The manure spreader includes a tank having inclined sides to retain liquid and semi-liquid manure therewithin. A longitiud-inally extending auger having a rearwardly increasing helix is positioned at the bottom of the tank to drive the liquid and semi-liquid materials through rear doors toward a spreader fan. The rear doors are adjustable to vary the opening between the tank and the fan in a manner to control the a common drive to provide a straight-through power path without interposed couplings and without the need for gear drives.

Description

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The invention relates generally to an improved manure spreader, and more particularly, is directed to a manure spreader suitable to handle both liquid and semi-liquid materials.

Manure spreaders are commonly employed in and about farms to utilize the fertilizer value oE manure from usual farm animals for example, dairy cattle, in an efficient and economical manner.
Prior workers in the art have developed v~rious types of spreaders for the produced manures. The flail type of spreader has commonly been employed for use with generally solid manures. Spray type spreaders have been utilized to distribute liquid manures. Both com-mon types of manure speading apparatus have achieved popularity and unction well to produce the desired results. However, each type of spreader has certain limitations and drawbacks, and accordingly, no single spreader developed to date can be utilized in all applications and without certain modifications.

Specifically, the spreaders designed for solid application, such as the flail type or spreader ~ype, have limited capacity due to the solid nature of the materials being spread. Also, in many designs, maintenance becomes a formidable problem because of wear created by the load characteristics which usually is evidenced as increased bearing wear, chain breakage, mechanical damage to metal-lic parts and the like.
In the case of the liquid spray spreaders, such devices incorporate tank type vehicles whIchare suitab~ ~n~ ~or the appli-cation of liquid manures. Accordingly, the waste materials must be pretreated prior to introduction into the tank of the spreader vehicle in order for the spray apparatus to function properly. None of the presently available equipment is capable of distributing either liquid or serni-liquid materials or combinations thereof.

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SU~IARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a liquid and semi-liquid manure spreader, and more particularly, is directed to a spreader utilizing improved storage and control apparatus to facil-itate spreading both liquid and semi-liquid manures.

The present invention includes a tank having an open top into which liquid and semi-liquid manures can be easily introduced using existing, readily available equipment. The tank is generally V-shaped in cross-sectional configuaration and includes a heavy duty, internal, chopper-type auger. The auger is longitudinally aligned at the bottom of the tank and is formed to a helix which increases in pitch from front to rear. The increase in the auger helix acts to speed up manure removal as the material is directed from the front to the rear of the tank.

The rear wall of the tank is provided with an opening through which the effluent from the auger is directed. A pair of horizontally sliding gates overfit the rear opening to control the volume of effluent therethrough. A double acting cylinder with suit-able linkage functions to simultaneously or individually horizontally move the gate doors to expose more or less of the rear opening for flow control purposes.

A spreader fan affixes to the auger shaft outwardly of the tank and rearwardly from the horizontally sliding gates and receives the effluent for spreading purposes. A deflector blade or spreader pattern control can be easily adjusted to regulate the spread of product from approximately 45' to approximately 60' outwardly from the tank vehicle.

Due to the ability of the apparatus to handle both liquid and semi-liquid materials, a manure spreader with greater pay load and easier maintenance can be developed. The apparatus operates 1 without the chains and requires only two bearings in the power transmission, one positioned near the front of the tank and the other near the rear. The top tank opening facilitates loading with usually available equipment, such as front endloaders or pumps without inter-ference.

In the preEerred embodiment, the auger and the fan are simultaneously rotated at the same speed by the same shaft. In this manner, only two bearings are required and the need for gear reduc-tion boxes, couplings and the like can be completely eliminated. The auger is fabricated to a helix of uniformly increasing pitch whereby the speed of the material will be increased as the liquid and semi-liquid manure is urged rearwardly towards the fan by the rotation of the auger. The auger is a chopper type construction including a plurality of helically oriented, outwardly projecting chopper blades.

The tank is preferably fabricated to a generally V-shaped configuration wi-th the auger being positioned at the bottom apex of the "V". The tank includes a rear opening in longitudinal align-ment with the auger that may be square in configuration and which is opened and closed by a pair of horizontally sliding gates that come together about the auger shaft. The opening of the gates controls the volume of manure effluent propelled out of the tank by the rota-tion of the auger~ A fan is rearwardly affixed to the auger shaft and is positioned to receive and disperse the material. The fan includes an enclosing housing and a plurality of blades which rotatively propel the effluent from the tank rear opening in a spreader pattern through a housing outlet opening. An adjustable position deflector receives the fan discharge and is capable of producing a spreader pattern of between forty-five feet to sixty feet of liquid or semi-liquid material, depending upon the angle of deflection, the speed of fan rotation, the consistency of the material being spread, etc.

~42~10 1 It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved manure spreader of the type set forth.

It is another object of the present invention -to provide a novel manure spreader which includes an open, V-shaped, manure retaining tank.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel manure spreader featuring an auger to move liquid and semi-liquid material from the tank to a spreader fan wherein the auger is designed with increasing pitch to speed up the flow of material toward the fan.

It is another object of the present inven-tion to provide a novel manure spreader including a fan and an auger which are di-rectly connected to the same shaft for simultaneous revolution upon connection to a rotary power source.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel manure spreader comprising a V-shaped retaining tank, a rearwardly positioned tail gate opening, an auger interiorly posi-tioned within the tank and aligned with the openiny and a fan con-nected exteriorly of the tank and aligned with the opening in posi-tion to receive a direct flow of material to be spread from the tankto the fan.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel manure spreader comprising a V-shaped retaining tank and a straight through power propulsion system which effectively func-tions without intermediate gear reduction boxes or bearings to pro-duce a direct connection from front to rear.

It is another object of -the present invention to provide a novel liquid and semi-liquid manure spreader that is simple in construction, rugged in design and trouble free when in operation.

1 Other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention will be had by referring to the following description and claims of a preferred embodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

BRIEF _ESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the invention, partially to disclose interior construction details.

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the spreader of Fig. 1, partially broken away to expose interior construction details.

Fig. 3 is an end elevational view looking from line 3-3 on Fig. 2 in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view taken along line 4-4 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view taken along line 5-5 of Fig. 2, looking in the directions of the arrows, showing the gates in the open position.

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5 showing the gates in the closed position.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EM~ODIMENTS OF THE_INVENTION

Although specific terms are used in the following descrip-tion for the sake of clarity, these terms are intended to refer only to the particular structure of the invention selected for il-lustration in the drawings and are not intended to define or limit the scope of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown a manure spreader generally designated 10 suitable to handle both liquid and semi-liquid manures which comprises generally a V-shaped, re-.

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1 taining tank 12 having an open top 14 to facilitate loading. Thetank 12 is portable in construction and is mounted upon a conventional chassis 16 which is provided with a plurality of wheels 18 as may be necessary to support and transport the load. A conventional hitch 20 ~orwardly extends from the chassis for connection to a usual prime mover, such as a tractor(not illustrated).

As best seen in Fig. 4, the tank 12 is generally V-shaped in configuration with an open top 14 to facilitate direct top load-ing by utilizing existing, conventional equipment(not illustrated) usually employed about a farm. rrhe tank sidewalls are generally similarly configured and are inclined to converge downwardly to direct the liquid and semi-liquid material(not shown) toward the bot-tom positioned auger 26. The lower sidewall areas 28, 30 immediate-ly adjacent to and above the auger 26 are inclined similarly at an angle of approximately thirty-eight to forty degrees from the hori-zontal. An angle as small as approximately thirty-five degrees can also prove satisfactory depending upon the consistency of the manure, but angles inclined less than thirty-five degrees would generally prove to be unsatisfactory inasmuch as too shallow a slope will result in the build up of the semi-solid materials along the sides 28, 30 whereby the tank retained materials will not fall by gravity to the auger Z6. A slope of up to forty-five degrees will generally prove to be satisfactory for most applications. However, if the lower sidewalls 28, 30 are sloped greater than approximately forty-five degrees, experience has shown that such an angular inclination is too steep and will result in loss of a great proportion of the capacity of the spreader 10. Additionally, if the sidewalls 28, 30 are sloped too steeply, it has been found that the semi-solid materials could have a tendency to bridge over the auger and thereby prevent proper functioning of the spreading apparatus. Accordingly, by designing the angular inclination of the lower sidewalls 28, 30 1 between thirty-five degrees and forty-five degrees from the horlzontal to facilitate proper functioning, the upper portions 22, 24 of the sidewalls can be angularly adjusted to desired height and width dimensions to custom build the retaining tank 12 to the capa-city requirements of each individual job.

Referring now to Figs. 1 and 2, it will be seen that the auger 26 is fabricated to form a helix about the operating shaft 32.
The operating shaft 32 is rotatively carried within the front and rear bearings 36, 38 and terminates forwardly in a coupling 34 and rearwardly at the fan 40. The shaft 32 forwardly connects at the coupling 34 to a conventional drive shaft 42 which extends forwardly for connection to a conventional drive a tractor or other apparatus suitable to provide rotative power at the forward coupling to rotate the auger 26 in conventional manner.

The auger 26, as best seen in Fig. 2, is formed with a plurality of individual, helically oriented, outwardly projecting blades or choppers 48 which may be welded or otherwise securely and rigidly affixed to ~he shaft 32 to be rotated when the shaft is ; rotated. It is a significant feature of this invention to arrange the blades 48 about the shaft 32 to form a helix 50 of uniformly increasing pitch from front to rear. In the preferred embodlment, the helix pitch at the forward end of the shaft 32 is approximately three inches. The helix pitch increases uniformly rearwardly to eight inches near the rearward bearing 38. By providing a helix 50 of pitch which uniformly increases from the front to the rear of the tank 12, smoother flow of the liquid and semi-liquid contents(not illustrated) can be as the material is move toward the rear. For example, for every revolution of the shaft 32, the manure engaged by the auger near the front bearing 36 is moved approximately three inches. For the same revolutions, the manure near the fan 98 will be moved approximately eight inches. The increasing helix of the auger 26 increases the travel speed of the manure towards the fan, 1 and this action, combined with the gravitational flow at the inclined sidewalls 28, 30 assures the smoother flow and removal of the manure products under all conditions of operation.

The tank 12 is provided with a rear opening 52 near the bottom in alignment with the auger 26 through which the liquid and semi-liquid contents(not illustrated) of the tank 12 are driven by the auger 26 upon rotation thereof. As best seen in Figs. 5 and 6, a pair of horizontally sliding doors or gates 54, 56 cover the rear opening 52 to control the flow therethrough. The gates 54, 56, the rear opening 52, the tracks 58, 60, cylinder 66, piston rods and gate operating linkage, and cylinder hydraulic lines all function in co-operation to form an adjustable exit means whereby volume control of the manure flow initiated by the auger 26 can be varied for spray control purposes. As illustrated, the gates 54, 56 horizontally slide within upper and lower tracks 58, 60 between the open position 62 as illustrated in Fig. 5 to the closed position 64 as illustrated in Fig. 6. A double acting hydraulic cylinder 66 is suitably affixed to the tank 12 and is powered to function opposed piston rods 68, 69 in opposite directions. Suitable hydraulic lines 72, 70 provide hydau-lic pressure in the usual manner. Hydraulic fluid for the lines 72, 2G 70 can be drawn from the tractor or o-ther vehicle(not illustrated) which is utilized to pull the manure spreader 10 by making the necessary hydraulic connections at the couplings 74, 76 in conven-tional manner.

Still referring to Figs. 5 and 6, ic will be observed that the respective piston rods 68, 69 attach to the inclined gate operat-ing links 78, 80 at the pivotal connections 82, 84. The inclined links 78, 80 are pivotal relative to the tank 12 about the medial pivots 86, 88 to horizontally urge the short gate operating links 90, 92 which are pivotally interconnected at the lower pivots 94, 96.
The short links 90, 92 respectively connect to the left and right ~z~

] gates 54, 56 in manner to horizontally urge the gates to either open or close the tan~ opening 52 upon activation of the cylinder 66. The geometry of the system is such that when the piston rods 68, 69 are urged outwardly, t.he inclined links 73, 80 will rotate about the respective medial pivots 86, 88 to urge -the gates 54,56 together along the upper and lower tracks 58, 60 to the closed position 64 as illustrated in Fig. 6. Similarly, when the cylinder 66 is funcitioned to pull the piston rods 68, 69 inwardly, the inclined links 78, 80 are pivoted respectively about the medial pivots 86, 88 to urge the short links 90, 92 and the attached gates 54,56 out-wardly along the upper and lower tracks 58, 60 to the open position62 as illustrated in Fig. 5. Accordingly, by controlling the quantity of hydraulic fluid introduced through the hydraulic lines 72, 70 to activate the cylinder 66, the gates 54, 56 can be closed entirely (Fig. 6), opened entirely(Fig. 5) or can be horizontally moved along the upper and lower tracks 58, 60 to positions intermediate thereof to thereby closely regulate the amount of liquid and semi-liquid material that can be expelled from within the tank 12 upon rotation of the auger 26.

A fan means 40 comprising a plurality of radial blades 98 is pinned, splined or otherwise affixed to the operating shaft 32 exteriorly of the tank 12 in position to receive the effluent propelled by the auger 26 through the tank opening 52. The fan means 40 is rotated by the operating shaft 32 and the fan blades 98 rotate within the space 100 defined between the foward and rearward fan housing plates 102, 104. The plates 102, 104 are spaced from each other and securely are affixed to the tank 12 by a plurality of suit-able, peripherally positioned, spacer bolts 106. Preferably, the rear bearing 38 is securely affixed to the rear fan housing plate 104 in a manner to rotatively support the rearward end of the operating shaft 32.

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l As illustrated in Fig. 5, the fan blades 98 rotate in a clockwise direction and move the liquid and semi-liquid effluent (not illustrated) rotatively within the cylindrical scroll 108 toward the discharge opening 110. A deflector plate or baffle 112 is pivotal at 114 and is positioned to receive the discharge from the fan 40 as it is propelled under centrifical force through the discharge openiny 110. By adjusting the length of the strut, 118, the eleva-tion of the discharge baffle 112 can be pivotally varied about the pivot 114 to thereby effectively vary the spray patternof the liquid and semi-liquid e~fluent. In the preferred embodiment, the spray can be varied from approximately forty-five feet to approximately sixty feet by adjusting the pivotal angular positlon of the deflec-tor plate 112 depending upon the consistency of the material being spread.

In use, the spreader chassis 16 is attached to a tow vehicle(not illustrated) at the trailer hitch 20. The drive shaft 42 is affixed to the usual driving mechanism(not illustrated) pro-vided in the tractor at the forward coupling 44. The drive shaft 42 rotatively drives the operating shaft 32 through the coupling 34 to rotate the auger 26 to propel the liquid and semi-liquid materials (not illustrated) within the tank 12 toward the rear opening 52.
The hydraulic lines 70, 72 are hydraulically connected to the conventional hydraulic connections(not illustrated) of the tow vehicle at the respective couplings 74, 76 to power the double acting cylinder 66. Upon function of suitable, conventional, cy-linder control apparatus(not illustrated), the doors or gates 54, 56 can be jointly or individuall~ functioned further or less apart as desired to expose more or less of the tank opening 52 to allow the auger to drive the tank effluent into the space defined by the fan scoll 108. Rotation of the operating shaft 32 also causes rotation of the fan blades 98 to propel the tank effluent(not il-lustrated) through the discharge opening 110 in a direction to ~14;~ 0 contact the underside of the discharge baffle 112. Upon adjust-ing the length of the strut 11~, the baffle 112 can be rotated about its pivot 114 to form the desired spray discharge patern.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the particular embodiments herein set forth, it is under-stood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of exam-ple and that numerous changes in the details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the inven-tion. Thus, the scope of the invention should not be limited by the foregoing specification, but rather only by the scope of the claims appended hereto.

Claims (13)

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. In a manure spreader suitable for spreading liquid, semi-liquid and semi-solid manure, the combination of:
a manure retaining tank having first and second ends, said tank having inclined sidewalls extending between the ends and defining a generally V-shaped cross-sectional configuration, at least one of the sidewalls comprising an inclined lower side-wall inclined at an angle greater than approximately about 35 degrees from the horizontal;
an auger longitudinally positioned with the tank and being adapted to rotate substantially at the bottom of the V-shaped configuration, said auger including a shaft and a plurality of separate individual chopper blades radially outwardly project-ing from the shaft and arranged in a helix of design suitable to propel portions of the manure toward said second end upon rota-tion of the auger, the chopper blades contacting the manure and being adapted to both propel the manure and to chop solid portions of the manure into smaller pieces;
adjustable exit means provided at the second end of the tank in alignment with the auger to regulate the quantity of manure flow propelled by the auger; and fan means receiving the manure flow through the adjust-able exit means, said fan means being adapted to spread the manure at a distance away from the tank.

2. The manure spreader of claim 1 wherein the tank comprises an open top and wherein at least some of the blades are planar in configuration to provide a flat surface to con-tact and propel the manure.

3. The manure spreader of claim 1 wherein at least one of the sidewalls comprises an inclined lower sidewall area immediately adjacent to and above the auger, the lower sidewall area being inclined at an angle between 35 degrees to 45 degrees whereby gravity fall of the manure to contact the auger is enhanced.

4. The manure spreader of claim 2 wherein the plurality of individual, helically oriented blades are generally rectangular in configuration.

5. The manure spreader of claim 1 wherein the blades define openings therebetween and wherein the helix of the auger is formed with increasing pitch from the first end of the tank toward the second end of the tank.

6. The manure spreader of claim 1 wherein the blades of the plurality of individual blades are defined one from the other by triangularly shaped openings.

7. The manure spreader of claim 1 wherein the adjust-able exit means comprise an opening in the second end in align-ment with the auger and a pair of gates adapted to be horizontally movable relative to the opening to vary the effective area of the opening for flow volume control purposes, each of the pair of gates comprising means to encircle part of the auger shaft, 3. The manure spreader of claim 7 wherein the adjustable exit means further comprises a hydraulic cylinder including a piston and linkage interconnecting each gate with the piston whereby the location of the gate relative to the opening can be changed upon activation of the hydraulic cylinder and whereby each gate can be moved fron an open position wherein the opening is unobstructed to a closed position wherein the opening is closed.

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9. The manure spreader of claim 1 wherein the fan means comprises a fan housing, a plurality of blades rotatable within the housing and an opening in the housing, whereby the manure flow is propelled by the fan blades through the said opening.

10. The manure spreader according to claim 9 wherein the fan means further comprises a discharge baffle positioned in the path of flow through the opening, the said baffle being adapted to deflect the flow of material.

11. The manure spreader of claim 10 wherein the baffle includes means to adjust the angle of the baffle relative to the fan to vary the spray pattern generated by the fan.

12. The manure spreader of claim 5 wherein the increase of the auger pitch is uniform from the said first end to the second end.

13. The manure spreader of claim 1 wherein the lower sidewall is inclined at an angle between approximately 35 degrees and 45 degrees whereby gravity fall of the manure to contact the auger is enhanced.