CA2288481A1 - Flexible rotatable drive shaft for a row crop planting unit - Google Patents

Flexible rotatable drive shaft for a row crop planting unit Download PDF

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Publication number
CA2288481A1
CA2288481A1 CA002288481A CA2288481A CA2288481A1 CA 2288481 A1 CA2288481 A1 CA 2288481A1 CA 002288481 A CA002288481 A CA 002288481A CA 2288481 A CA2288481 A CA 2288481A CA 2288481 A1 CA2288481 A1 CA 2288481A1
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
drive shaft
seed
meter
row crop
gearbox
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Abandoned
Application number
CA002288481A
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Paul Reed Riewerts
Chad Eric Plattner
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Deere and Co
Original Assignee
Deere and Co
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Family has litigation
First worldwide family litigation filed litigation Critical https://patents.darts-ip.com/?family=22997289&utm_source=google_patent&utm_medium=platform_link&utm_campaign=public_patent_search&patent=CA2288481(A1) "Global patent litigation dataset” by Darts-ip is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Application filed by Deere and Co filed Critical Deere and Co
Publication of CA2288481A1 publication Critical patent/CA2288481A1/en
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A01AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
    • A01CPLANTING; SOWING; FERTILISING
    • A01C7/00Sowing
    • A01C7/06Seeders combined with fertilising apparatus
    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A01AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
    • A01CPLANTING; SOWING; FERTILISING
    • A01C19/00Arrangements for driving working parts of fertilisers or seeders

Landscapes

  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Soil Sciences (AREA)
  • Environmental Sciences (AREA)
  • Sowing (AREA)
  • Fertilizing (AREA)
  • Catching Or Destruction (AREA)
  • Pretreatment Of Seeds And Plants (AREA)

Abstract

The seed and chemical meter of a row crop planting unit are driven by a flexible rotatable shaft extending from a transversely extending main drive shaft for all planting units.
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 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.

Description

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. Esch 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 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 unifis.
Currently many farmers are practicing minimum tillage farming techniques, These techniques include planting directly into crop stubble, including com 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 rnay 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.
1t n another object of this invention to provide a drive assembly that can be readily retrofitted to exlstlng 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 tlexlble rotatable shaft extending between the transverse drive shaft on the toolbar and the s~ed 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 end the furrow opener. In some embodiments the row crop planting unit is also provided with a chemical hopper. chemical meter and a chemical applicator.
The seed meter and the chemical meter, if provided, are driven by a flexible rotatable 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 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 OrawinCls 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 tv 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 farmed 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 b~ 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 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 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 tv helical drive gear 46 which in turn drives helical driven gear 48. Tubular portions ag 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 an: provided with square apertures into which a square drive member 50 of a flexible rvtatable 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 th~r 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 linfcage 20 to the seed meter 2a. 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 50.
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 5a. 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 spuare drive member that rotates helical drive gear 56. The helical drive gear 56 in tum 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 82 extends between the second gear box 54 to a third 9 0 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 ~ear 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 '15 member of the second rotatable drive shaft 62. The second rotatable drive shaft 62 in tum 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 20 be limited solely to the claims that follow.

Claims (9)

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.
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 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 driving the flexible rotatable drive shaft.
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 chemicals to 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.
CA002288481A 1999-03-04 1999-11-03 Flexible rotatable drive shaft for a row crop planting unit Abandoned CA2288481A1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US26238899A 1999-03-04 1999-03-04
US09/262,388 1999-03-04

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA2288481A1 true CA2288481A1 (en) 2000-09-04

Family

ID=22997289

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA002288481A Abandoned CA2288481A1 (en) 1999-03-04 1999-11-03 Flexible rotatable drive shaft for a row crop planting unit

Country Status (10)

Country Link
EP (1) EP1158847B1 (en)
AR (1) AR022828A1 (en)
AT (1) ATE239351T1 (en)
AU (2) AU4287400A (en)
BR (1) BR0001000A (en)
CA (1) CA2288481A1 (en)
DE (1) DE50002075D1 (en)
EA (1) EA002466B1 (en)
ES (1) ES2199162T3 (en)
WO (1) WO2000051412A2 (en)

Cited By (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN103597231A (en) * 2011-04-14 2014-02-19 埃克特温特股份有限公司 Seed metering device drive system
CN104955321A (en) * 2012-09-11 2015-09-30 埃克特温特股份有限公司 Reversible seeder transmission and seeder drive apparatus
CN106879282A (en) * 2015-12-15 2017-06-23 重庆市瑰邦农业开发有限公司 A kind of corn drill
CN110118242A (en) * 2019-04-24 2019-08-13 长沙桑铼特农业机械设备有限公司 A kind of speed change gear and seeder
US11006566B2 (en) 2016-02-05 2021-05-18 Bw Elliott Mfg. Co., Llc Seed metering device drive system and method

Families Citing this family (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6715433B1 (en) * 2002-08-08 2004-04-06 Deere & Company Restraint for a flexible drive shaft gearbox
CN100584187C (en) * 2008-02-21 2010-01-27 东北农业大学 Interplant monomer between ridges with bidirectional profile modeling function
CN103053248A (en) * 2011-10-18 2013-04-24 华中农业大学 Rape-wheat direct sowing machine matched with hand tractor
FR2989746B1 (en) * 2012-04-24 2015-01-09 Ribouleau Monosem FLEXIBLE TRANSMISSION DEVICE COMPRISING RIGIDIFICATION MEANS ALONG A FIRST DIRECTION AND NOT ALONG A SECOND DIRECTION
BR102014012717B1 (en) 2014-05-27 2020-04-14 Semeato S/A Ind E Comercio flexible transmission system for application in agricultural machines and implements in general
CN104081914B (en) * 2014-06-19 2016-02-24 安徽农业大学 A kind of miniature seeding and fertilizer spreading machine

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2801833A (en) * 1955-01-19 1957-08-06 Ernest P Miller Sr Drive system for mixers and the like
US4623078A (en) * 1981-07-30 1986-11-18 Weeder Ralph E Planter population reduction drive unit
US4779471A (en) * 1987-03-26 1988-10-25 Deere & Company Flexible drive arrangement for an implement
US5802997A (en) * 1996-12-24 1998-09-08 Case Corporation Planting apparatus and related method

Cited By (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN103597231A (en) * 2011-04-14 2014-02-19 埃克特温特股份有限公司 Seed metering device drive system
CN103597231B (en) * 2011-04-14 2017-08-08 埃克特温特股份有限公司 Dispenser drive system
CN104955321A (en) * 2012-09-11 2015-09-30 埃克特温特股份有限公司 Reversible seeder transmission and seeder drive apparatus
CN108207252A (en) * 2012-09-11 2018-06-29 埃克特温特股份有限公司 Seeder speed changer and seeder driving equipment that can be reversed
US10076074B2 (en) 2012-09-11 2018-09-18 Actuant Corporation Reversible seeder transmission and seeder drive apparatus
CN106879282A (en) * 2015-12-15 2017-06-23 重庆市瑰邦农业开发有限公司 A kind of corn drill
US11006566B2 (en) 2016-02-05 2021-05-18 Bw Elliott Mfg. Co., Llc Seed metering device drive system and method
CN110118242A (en) * 2019-04-24 2019-08-13 长沙桑铼特农业机械设备有限公司 A kind of speed change gear and seeder
CN110118242B (en) * 2019-04-24 2024-04-26 长沙桑铼特农业机械设备有限公司 Speed change device and seeder

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
ES2199162T3 (en) 2004-02-16
WO2000051412A3 (en) 2000-12-21
EA002466B1 (en) 2002-04-25
AR022828A1 (en) 2002-09-04
ATE239351T1 (en) 2003-05-15
AU4287400A (en) 2000-09-21
BR0001000A (en) 2001-01-02
DE50002075D1 (en) 2003-06-12
AU2062400A (en) 2000-09-07
EP1158847A2 (en) 2001-12-05
EA200100942A1 (en) 2002-02-28
EP1158847B1 (en) 2003-05-07
WO2000051412A2 (en) 2000-09-08

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Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
EEER Examination request
FZDE Discontinued