GB2031701A - Dressing seed in a seed drill - Google Patents

Abstract

A seed drill box comprising a storage container 1, a stirring device 7 provided above and extending across outlet openings 3 in the lower region of the container, a dressing distributor 8 which has a receiving container 9 having outlet openings 10, and driven dosing devices 12 for conveying the dressing material in the container to an air flow moved within pipes 14, the pipes being provided with outlet openings 20 distributed uniformly over the container. Alternatively, Fig. 4, the dressing container 27 may be housed within the seed container and air directed along pipes 31 to the outlet openings 30 of the dressing container. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Drill box The present invention concerns a drill box for seed drills comprising a storage container having a stirring device above and extending over outlet openings thereof located in a lower area thereof, and comprising a dressing material distributor which has a receiving container having at least one outlet opening, and a driven dosing device for conveying the dressing disposed in the receiving container into an air flow directed by guide or duct means whilst the duct means are provided with a number of outflow openings uniformly distributed over the storage container.

German Auslegungschrift 2701 958 discloses a drill box wherein it is possible to use the much cheaper undressed seed and to dress this seed in the storage container during the sowing operation.

On the other hand, this drill box has the disadvantage that, due to the introduction of the dressing into the air flow before said flow is divided into the component flows issuing from the outlet openings of the guide means, a uniform percentage of the dressing distributed over the quantity of seed in the storage container is not guaranteed even with a homogeneous division of the dressing in the air flow. This necessarily results in the fact that even with correct dosage, the dressing issues from some of the outlet openings of the storage container over or under (excessively or insufficiently) treated to the position of said dressing and is conveyed to the soil.

It is an object of the present invention therefore to provide an improved drill box wherein the entire seed material in the storage container may be uniformly dressed.

According to the present invention there is provided a seed drill box comprising a storage container, a stirring device provided above and extending across outlet openings in the lower region of the container, a dressing distributor which has a receiving container having an outlet opening, and a driven dosing device for conveying the dressing material in the container to an air flow moved within guide ducting means, the guide ducting means being provided with a number of outlet openings distributed uniformly over the container, characterised in that before the location at which dressing is to be added the ducting means for the air flow is divided into a number of pipe lines of the same capacity and which enclose or entrain the component streams; said pipe lines corresponding to the number of outflow openings.

As a result of these features, the same quantity of dressing flows into each of the pipe lines provided for guiding or ducting the air flow to which, due to the uniform distribution of the outlet openings in the storage container, the same partial quantities of seed are then conveyed and, due to the stirring device, are rubbed against the individual grains of seed.

The invention also proposes that the receiving container of the dressing distributor should be provided with a plurality of other openings in a manner known from German offlenlegungsschrift 2507025 and the dosing device should have an equal number of dosing elements, whilst a dosing member is disposed in front of each outlet opening and externally of the receiving container, the number of outlet openings corresponding to the number of outflow openings and the dosing members being enclosed in a hood to which a pipe line is connected in each case.Irrespective of whether the receiving container and the dosing device of the dressing distributor are outside (as in the case of the abovedescribed drill box) or, are inside the dressing container (as in the case of the drill box according to German offenlegungsschrift 2507025) an exact and uniform supply of the same dressing quantity is achieved thereby in each pipe line provided for the air flow or partial flows.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the receiving container of the dressing spray is again arranged, in the manner known from German offenlegungsschrift 2707025, within the storage container and above its stirring device and extends over the area of the outlet openings disposed in the storage container.

The hoods enlarge downwardly from their connection with the receiving container as well as extending below the dosing members and are open at the bottom. This embodiment is characterised in that the vortex is located directly in or above the seed material to be dressed so that the dressing is thereby immediately fed to a comparatively large quantity of seed and is very rapidly distributed in the seed. In addition, even with a full container, the seed remains in the region of the dosing members on the lower edge of the hoods, with the result that it cannot be engaged by the dosing members and an uninterrupted flow of dressing from the container is ensured.

For the rapid distribution of the dressing in the seed, it is sufficient for the number of outlet openings in the dressing distributor to correspond to approximately at least half the number of outlets in the storage container and for the outflow openings in the pipe lines to be arranged above the centre region of each two adjacent outlets in the storage container.

This results in the additional advantage of substantial simplification of the dressing distributor.

Such a rapid distribution of the dressing in the seed is achieved in a seed box in which the container and the dosing device of the dressing distributor are located externally of the container of the seed box in that the pipe lines or pipes projecting into the container are each fitted at their outlet end with a downwardly enlarging hood-like extension open at its lower end.

Finally, the present invention proposes that the dosing device of the dressing distributor be connected, in a manner also known from German offenlegungsschrift 2507025, in driving engagement with a sowing shaft of the seed box, whilst the transmission ratio between the dosing device and the sowing shaft is variably adjustable. The delivery quantity of the dressing distributor can be adapted by these features to the particular nature and effectiveness of the dressing, whilst, with each adjustment however, a definite and invariable ratio independent of the working speed of the seed box is obtained between the delivery quantity of the dressing and the quantity of seed delivered. Thus constant uniform dressing of the seed is therefore ensured in the particular intensity prescribed during the entire sowing process.

The invention will be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a plan view of a seed box incorporating an external (mordant) dressing distributor; Figure 2 is an enlarged cross-section through the seed box of Fig. 1; Figure 3 is a longitudinal section of the same seed box, but with a dressing distributor in the storage container; and Figure 4 is a cross-section through the seed box of Fig. 3.

A seed box is shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and is provided with the storage container 1 which has outlet openings 3 in its lower portion and arranged in uniform spaced relationship with each other and closed by means of slides 2 whereby said openings are adjustable in their width of opening. Seed flowing out of the openings 3 during the operation of the seed box and reaching seed housing 4, is fed to a sowing tube 6 in adjustable quantities by the metering sowing wheels 5, being introduced by said tubes into the soil by means of drill sowing shares in a known and therefore not described manner. The container 1 is also provided with stirring device 7 above the outlets 3. The wheels 5 are driven by the wheels of the seed box by way of a known and not described regulating mechanism whilst the stirring device 7 receives its drive from the tap shaft of the tractor pulling the seed box.

A mordant or dressing distributor 8 is disposed in front of the container 1 and its receiving container 9 for the particular dressing is provided with a number of outlets 10 which corresponds to half the number of the outlets 3 of the storage container 1. A dosing device 11 includes wheel-like dosing members 1 2 which engage in the outlets 10 and are surrounded by hoods 13, and the dosing device 11 is disposed below the receiving container 9. Each of these hoods 1 3 communicates with respective pipes 14 which are connected by way of the distributor 1 5 to a blower 1 6 thus forming a guide 1 7 of the air flow indicated by the arrow 1 8.

Out of the hoods 1 3, the pipelines 14 are introduced into the storage container 1 and provided at their outlet ends with the hoodlike and downwardly extending enlargements 1 9 uniformly distributed over the storage container 1, the outlet openings 20 of which are disposed above the centre area of two relatively adjacent outlet openings 3.

The dosing device 11 is driven via chaindrives 21 and 22 by the seed shaft 23 carrying sowing wheels 5. In addition, the stirring shaft 25 which is fitted with stirring pins 24 and is in driving engagement with the dosing device 11, is disposed in the receiving container 9 above its outlet openings 20.

During operation, the dressing supplied by the dosing members 1 2 from the receiving container 9 flows into the individual pipes 14 where it is engaged by component streams (indicated by the arrows 26) of the air flow 1 8 produced by the fan 1 6 and conveyed to the seed in the storage container 1 to above the stirring device 7 and added by means of the stirring device to the individual grains of seed.

in the embodiment shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the entire dressing distributor 27 is arranged in the storage container 1 and above its stirring device, whilst its receiving container 28 extends above the area of the outlets 3. In addition, the number of outlets 10 of the receiving container 28 corresponds to the number of outlets 3 in the storage container 1, so that an outlet opening 10 of the receiving container 28 is disposed above each outlet opening 3. A dosing device 29 is provided below the outlet openings 10 and the wheellike dosing members 1 2 of which device 29 engage in the outlet openings 10. Each of these dosing members 1 2 is enclosed by a hood projecting downwardly over said elements and enlarging downwardly and open at its lower end. Connected to these hoods 30 are respective pipes 31, the outlet openings 32 of which are below the dosing eiements 1 2 and which in turn are connected to the air channel 33 of the fan 1 6. This results in a further division into the component flows 26 of the guide 1 7 enclosing the airflow 1 8.

A stirring shaft 34, fitted with the pins 24 is journalled to rotate in the receiving container 28 above the dosing device 29; said shaft 34 being in driving engagement wit,.

the dosing device 29 by means of gear wheels 35 and 36. The dosing device 29 is turn intermittently driven by way of the lever 37 secured to the seed sowing shaft 23-struts 38 and free wheel 39 being con nected to dosing device 29 and represented in Fig. 4 by broken lines. At the same time, lifting arm 40 of the free wheel 39 is provided with slot 41 in which the strut 38 can be locked in various positions. In this manner the delivery quantity of dressing from the receiving container 28 to the delivery quantity of the pickled seed material from the storage container 1 can be varied, whilst, however, a certain ratio of both delivery quantities to each other is obtained in each position of the strut 38 on the arm 40.

Claims (7)

1. A seed drill box comprising a storage container, a stirring device provided above and extending across outlet openings in the lower region of the container, a dressing distributor which has a receiving container having an outlet opening, and a driven dosing device for conveying the dressing material in the container to an air flow moved within guide ducting means, the guide ducting means being provided with a number of outlet openings distributed uniformly over the container, characterised in that before the location at which dressing is to be added the ducting means for the air flow is divided into a number of pipe lines of the same capacity and which enclose or entrain the component streams; said pipe lines corresponding to the number of outflow openings.

2. A drill box as claimed in Claim 1, in which the container of the dressing distributor is provided with a plurality of outlet openings and the dosing device has an equal number of dosing members--one dosing device being disposed in front of each outlet opening and externally of the receiving container, in which the number of outlet openings corresponds to the number of outflow openings, and in which the dosing members are enclosed by a hood to which a pipe line is connected.

3. A drill box as claimed in Claims 1 and 2, in which the receiving container of the dressing distributor is arranged within the storage container and above its stirring device, whilst it extends above the region of the outlet openings in the storage container, and in which the hoods enlarge downwardly from their connection with the receiving container as well as extend below the dosing members and are open at the bottom.

4. A drill box as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the number of outlet openings for the dressing distributor corresponds at least approximately to half the number of outlet openings of the storage container and in which the outflow openings of the pipe lines are arranged above the centre region of each two adjacent outlet openings of the storage container.

5. A drill box as claimed in Claim 1, in which the receiving container and the dosing device of the dressing distributor are disposed externally of the storage container of the drill box, characterised in that the pipe lines extending into the storage container are each provided at their outflow end with a downwardly enlarging hoodlike inverted funnel-like member open at its lower end.

6. A drill box as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5, in which the dosing device of the dressing distributor is connected to the drill shaft of the drill box in driving enagement therewith whilst the transmission ratio between the dosing device and the drill shaft is adjustable.

7. A drill box substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.