GB2053632A

GB2053632A - Soil Working

Info

Publication number: GB2053632A
Application number: GB7915844A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1978-05-10
Filing date: 1979-05-08
Publication date: 1981-02-11
Also published as: CH641317A5; AT364658B; DE2820407A1; ATA342079A; GB2053632B

Abstract

Soil working apparatus behind a tractor is used in a first run over the land to loosen soil in a strip which is narrower than the width of the tractor. The apparatus is then adjusted to be of a width to loosen the soil in the wheel tracks of the tractor and the apparatus is run over the land for a second time.

Description

SPECIFICATION Working process and device for loosening the soil and/or preparing seed beds The object of the present invention is a working process for loosening the soil and/or preparing seed beds and a device for the performance of the said process, in which process a strip of ground is in each case loosened or pulverized in a first run of which said strip the width is smaller than the total width of the tractor, by the side of which another strip of ground remains unworked in the said run but can be loosened, if necessary, in a second run, so that a number of adjacent strips of ground loosened in different runs will form, afterthe last run, a worked bed of which the over-all width is equal to or greater than that of the tractor.The known processes and working apparatus for loosening the soil, such as heavy grubbers, layer grubbers orthe like, suffer from the drawback that they necessitate comparatively powerful tractors if their working width is at least equal to the over-all width of customary tractors ortho the working width of customary drilling machines and particularly when dry soil is to be loosened to as great a depth as necessary.

In order to enable apparatus of this kind to be used even with small or medium-sized tractors for the purpose of loosening the soil, without prior ploughing, which for various reasons is disadvantageous, attempts have already been made to equip a socalled layer grubber with two loosening bodies which are situated behind the wheels of the tractor and of which each one is intended to loosen, for example, a strip of ground of 40-70 cm in width. The strip situated between this loosened field strip*, i.e.

between the wheel tracks of the tractor, at first remained unworked. It was later to be loosened together with a further strip, adjacent to one of the loosened strips, by a second tractor "run" which was to overlap its first wheel tracks. Each to-and-fro run of the tractor was thus intended to loosen a bed of which the width was equal to or greater than the over-all width of the tractor itself. This method, however, suffers from the drawback that the strip left unworked in each first journey was wholly or partly covered over with fine soil coming from the adjacent and comparatively narrow worked strips.

To read "between these loosened field strips'? Translator.

The tractor driver therefore found it difficult to recognize the track in his second run. It was also difficult, particularly on damp or hilly ground, to drive the tractor accurately over the comparatively narrow unworked strips. It was practically inevitable for the tractor to slide continually from the unworked strip into one which had already been worked and prepared for seeding, thus continually destroying the seed bed prepared.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a process for loosening the soil and/or preparing seed beds strip-wise, which will also be practicable with small or medium-sized tractors and enable the soil loosening operation and seed bed preparation to be carried out reliably and neatly, in such a manner that the tractor driver can always clearly recognize the tracks over which he is required to drive and adhere accurately to the required tracks even on sticky or hilly ground.

A further purpose is to construct a seed preparation apparatus in such a way that it can be used either for working the entire area of a bed or for working it in strips without any time-consuming conversion.

An additional aim ofthe invention is to provide a seed bed preparation apparatus, which, if desired, can be used for the hoeing of row crops, such as maize, potatoes, beet, vegetables etc. The invention achieves this purpose as a result of the fact that the wheel tracks of the tractor remain unworked in the first run and are covered once again in all further runs, the strips enclosing these wheel tracks not being loosened until the final run.

The total width of the bed loosened in two or more runs is preferably equal to the working width adopted in drilling.

The total width of the bed loosened in at least two runs can with advantage be made equal to twice the clear distance between the rear wheels of the tractor.

In the device for the performance of the process the tools of the soil loosening apparatus built onto the tractor can be affixed to the frame of the working apparatus in a laterally adjustable manner, so that they can be fitted between the wheel tracks ofthe tractor in the first run and behind the said wheels in the last run, being thus enabled to loosen a strip of ground enclosing the wheel track of the tractor. The working widths of the soil loosening tools are delimited by the ground in the vertical plane in the direction of travel by means of ploughshares or knives.

A further apparatus, for the preparation of seed beds, is preferably mounted behind the soil loosening apparatus, of which said further apparatus the working tools can be set to a greater height in the first run than in the second run.

The seed bed preparation apparatus is preferably provided with at least one tool carrier tube of a kind known per se, situated underneath a frame, mounted in brackets connected to the said frame and fitted with prongs or hoeing blades subdivided into at least two groups by vertical separating plates.

The separating plates can be clamped to the frame of the working apparatus in a laterally adjustable manner and at least partly surround the tool carrier tube.

Between the separating plates protective flaps are provided which are pivotable about shafts transversal to the direction of travel and by which the soil thrown up towards the rear by the tools is intercepted and deposited between the separating plates.

The prongs or hoeing blades are preferably arranged in groups in such a way that between the said groups of prongs or hoeing blades sections of The drawings originally filed were informal and the print here reproduced is taken from a later filed formal copy.

the tool carriertube are presentwhich are not fitted with such prongs or hoeing blades and which are laterally separated by separating plates from those sections which are provided with prongs.

Easily detachable protective flaps can with advantage be provided between the separating plates delimiting the sections without prongs or hoeing knives, so that the apparatus can also be used for hoeing the intermediate spaces between rows of plants.

An example of the invention is shown by the drawings consisting of Figs. 1-8, any characteristics illustrated in or described in conjunction with one diagram being transferable to other diagrams.

The diagrams are as follows: Fig. 1: a schematic plan view of a field to be worked showing the first "run".

Fig. 2: a schematic plan view of the same field during the second "run".

Fig. 3: a schematic front view (opposite to the direction of travel) of an example of an apparatus for the preparation of seed beds.

Fig. 4: a schematic lateral view, partly cut open, corresponding to Fig. 3.

Fig. 5: a schematic rear view, partly cut open, corresponding to Fig. 3.

Fig. 6: a front view, corresponding to Fig. 3, of another example.

Fig. 7: a schematic lateral view, partly cut open, corresponding to Fig. 6.

Fig. 8: a schematic rear view, partly cut open, corresponding to Fig. 6.

As shown in the diagram, a field 30, with heavy or very dry soil, to be loosened to an ample depth by light or medium tractors, is worked strip-wise as fol lows.

In a first run a number of loosening bodies 32 of the kind knownperse, e.g. two such bodies, belonging to a soil loosening apparatus 33 not shown in the drawing, are provided between the wheel tracks 34 of the tractor 31. They first of all loosen the strip of ground 35 which is situated between the wheel tracks 34 of the tractor 31 and which can be pulverized on the surface by a seed bed preparation apparatus 36 attached to it and shown schematically in the drawing. This is preferably done in such a way that the said apparatus is set to such a moderate working depth that the points of its rotating tools 5, in their lowest position, will in each case just touch the surface of the unloosened ground. The earth raised from the strip of ground 35 bythe loosening bodies can therefore be pulverized on the surface by the prongs 5.The wheel tracks of the tractor and a strip ground 37 adjacent to each one ofthem will at first remain unworked. The working apparatus 36 for the preparation of seed beds consists of a frame 1, two outer bearings 2, and gearing 3 and a tool carrier tube 4.

The tool carrier tube 4 can be fitted with prongs or hoeing blades 5 either over its entire length (i.e. the working width of the seed bed preparation apparatus 36) or in the zone of the strip of ground 35 to be worked.

If the prongs or hoeing blades 5 are mounted in the known manner on the tool carrier tube 4 and connected to the latter so that they cannot rotate in relation thereto, the simplest way of achieving this object is to replace a number of the prongs 5 by spacer bushings 6.

After the tractor 31 has moved over the entire field in this way, with the wheel tracks 34 certain distances apart, and all the strips of ground situated between the respective wheel tracks 34 of the tractor 31 have been loosened, the two loosening bodies 36, as shown in Fig. 2, are moved outwards to the distance required to ensure that they will likewise he able to loosen the hitherto unworked strips of ground 37, including the wheel tracks 34 (over which the tractor is to run a second time).

The built-on seed bed preparation apparatus 36 isset to a greater working depth in this second run, so that it can prepared, forseeding, the strips of ground 35 and 37 which have been loosened in the two runs.

The strips of ground 35 and 37 together form a bed 38 of which the working width at least corresponds to the over-all width ofthetractor and preferably also to the working width of the drilling machine. In this second run, therefore, the drilling operation, can, if necessary, be carried out at the same time.

In order to ensurethatthe strip 37 left unworked in the first run will remain visible over its entire length, i.e. will not be covered over by earth coming from the worked strip of ground 35, separating plates 7, hanging downwards approximately in the vertical plane, are clamped onto the frame of the seed bed preparation apparatus 36. These plates are provided with a slit 8 which at least partly surrounds the tool carrier tube 4 and enables the separating plates 7 to be introduced at any desired point in the frame 1 and to be clamped to the said frame 1.

The clamping device 46 consists of threaded bolts 9 provided on the separating plate 7, angles 10 and plates 11. The separating plate 7 is clamped onto the front of the frame 1 by means of a clamping plate 12.

At the rear it is clamped by means of a clamp strap 13 to an angle bar 14, resting by means of rings 15 in curved holders 16 of the frame 1. By means of clamping pieces 17 the angle bar 14 can be clamped to the frame 1. In the zone behind the tool carrier tube 4 protective flaps 18 and 19 are suspended, between the separating plates 7 and above the strip of ground 35 which has just been worked, on hinged bars 20 and 21 which are situated transversally to the direction of travel and by which the earth thrown up towards the rear by the tools is intercepted and deposited downwards.

When the ground is being worked strip-wise as shown in Figs. 1-5 protective flaps 18 and 19 of this kind are provided between all separating plates 7 and also between the brackets 2 and the separatingy plates 7 adjacent to them. If the seed bed preparatìon apparatus 36 is also to be used for hoeing between rows of plants, the tool carrier tube 4 is not provided with prongs 5 which continue the whole way, i.e.

which are evenly distributed over the entire working width of the apparatus 36, but only with individual groups of prongs or hoeing blades 5. Which are provided at a distance from and only between the rows of plants, e.g. maize, potatoes, beet* * Translator's Note. Presumably this sentence should have followed onto the previous sentence, at the end ofwhich the full stop should have been a comma.

Above each of these rows the tool carrier tube has a zone without tools, such zones being separated from the adjacent groups of tools by separating plates 7. In this case the protective flaps 18 and 19, provided in the intermediate space between the separating plates 7 delimiting those sections of the tool carrier tube which are not fitted with tools, will be removed.

The distance between the respective separating plates 7 delimiting the groups of tools can be adapted to the stage of development reached by the rows of plants by adjusting the said plates in the lateral direction.

Claims

1. Process for loosening the soil and/or preparing seed beds with working apparatus which are built onto a tractor and which in each case, in a first run, loosen or pulverize a strip of ground ofwhich the width is smaller than the total width of the tractor, by the side of which another strip of ground remains unworked in the said run but can be loosened, if necessary, in a second run, so that a number of adjacent strips of ground loosened in different runs will form, after the last run, a worked bed of which the over-all width is equal to or greater than that of the tractor, characterized by the fact that wheel tracks 34 of the tractor 31 remain unworked in a first run but thatthetractormovesoverthem once again in all further runs, and that a strip of ground 37 including these wheel tracks is only loosened in the final run.

2. Process in accordance with Claim 1, characterized by the fact that the total width of the bed 38 loosened in at least two runs is equal to the working width adopted in drilling.

3. Process in accordance with Claim 1 or2, characterized by the fact that the total width of the bed 38 loosened in at least two runs is equal to twice the clear distance 39 between the rear wheels 40 of the tractor 31.

4. Device for the performance of the process in accordance with one of the claims 1-3, characterized by the fact that the loosening bodies 32 of the soil loosening apparatus built onto the tractor are affixed to the frame of the working apparatus in a laterally adjustable manner, so that they can be fitted between the wheel tracks 34 of the tractor in the first run and behind the tractor wheels 40 in the second run, thus being enabled to loosen a strip of ground 37 enclosing the wheel track of the tractor.

5. Device in accordance with Claim 4, character izedbythe fact that the working widths of the soil loosening tools are delimited by the ground in the vertical plane in the direction of travel by means of ploughshares or knives 41.

6. Device for the performance ofthe process in accordance with one of the Claims 13, characterized by the fact that a further apparatus 36, for the preparation of seed beds, is preferably mounted behind the soil loosening apparatus 33, of which said further apparatus the working tools can be set to a greater height in the first run than in the second run.

7. Device in accordance with Claim 6, character sized bathe fact that the seed bed preparation apparatus 36 is preferably provided with at least one tool carrier tube 4 of a kind knownperse, situated underneath a frame 1, mounted in brackets 2 connected to the said frame and fitted with prongs or hoeing blades 5 subdivided into at least two groups 42, 43 by vertical separating plates 7.

8. Device in accordance with Claim 7, character izedbythe fact that the separating plates 7 are clamped to the frame 1 of the working apparatus in a laterally adjustable manner and at least partly surround the tool carrier tube 4.

9. Device in accordance with one of the foregoing claims, characterized by the fact that between the separating plates 7 protective flaps 18, 19 are provided which are pivotable about hinged bars 20, 21, transversal to the direction of travel and by which the soil thrown up towards the rear by the tools 5 is intercepted and deposited between the separating plates 7.

10. Device in accordance with one of the foregoing claims, characterized by the fact that the prongs or hoeing blades 5 are preferably arranged in groups in such a way that between the said groups 42,43 of prongs or hoeing blades sections 47 of the tool carrier tube 4 are present which are not fitted with such prongs or hoeing blades and which are laterally separated by separating blades 7 from those sections 42, 43 which are provided with prongs.

11. Working apparatus in accordance with one of the foregoing claims, characterized by the fact that the protective flaps 18, 19, provided between the separating plates 7 delimiting the sections without prongs or hoeing knives are easily removable, so that the working apparatus can also be used for hoeing the intermediate spaces 44 between rows of plants 45.

New claims or amendments to claims filed on 1.8.80.

New or amended claims:

12. Apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.