GB2157142A - Spreader vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

Side delivery spreader vehicle, e.g. for agricultural use, has a body (10) provided with a horizontally sliding door (40) within the body coacting with a discharge opening (20) in a side wall (15) thereof. The door is actuated by a ram (50) on the exterior of said wall, connected to the door through a slot (54) in that wall so that the opening is unobstructed, the door overlying the slot by a substantial margin at all positions to prevent leakage. Preferably an overshot discharge rotor (21) immediately outside the opening coacts with an adjustable laceration plate (25) for better breakup and distribution of solids and liquids. <IMAGE>

Description

1 GB 2 157 142 A 1

SPECIFICATION

Spreader vehicles This invention relates to vehicles, particularly but not exclusively for agricultural use in the broadcast distribution of materials having a wide range of consistencies or of non-consistency, for example the spreading onto the land of all kinds of farm- yard manure, slurry or the like; andlor the dispensing of silage, fodder, bedding or like materials to livestock, and vehicles fulfilling these and similar functions are referred to herein as "spreader vehicles".

More specifically the invention relates to dis- charge apparatus forming part of a side delivery spreader apparatus forming part of a side delivery spreader vehicle, i.e. a spreader vehicle either trailed or self-propelled including a body for con taining and transporting a bulk of material and a feed rotor or other power driven feed means within the body for progressively shifting material to a region of the body from which discharge takes place, wherein the discharge apparatus operates to broadcast the material from at least one side of the body laterally of the direction of forward travel of the vehicle in use.

To provide maximum usage and adaptability and to minimise the capital cost of equipment needed to handle and spread various materials, for example free-flowing semi-liquid or liquid farmyard slurry of effluents, and sticky, compacted, and/or straw based non-freeflowing farmyard manures; or non-uniform mixtures of all these materials it is desirable that the vehicle provides regulated and 100 uniform discharge and spread of liquids and is ca pable of transporting the latter to the site of spreading, e.g. along public roads, without leakage or spillage; and that it will handle speedily and ef ficiently bulks of non-flowable materials in a regular and even broadcast distribution on portions which are small enough to be readily broken down and absorbed into the land without damaging growing grass or other crops.

The object of the invention is to provide a spreader vehicle with fulfills the above requirements and which is economical and reliable in use.

According to the invention there is provided discharge apparatus for a side delivery spreader vehi- cle as hereinbefore defined having some or all of the features defined by paragraph (a) following or that paragraph in combination with any of paragraphs (b) to (e). a) Discharge apparatus for a side delivery spreader vehicle as hereinbefore defined comprising a door mounted for horizontal sliding movement against the inner face of a side wall of the body for closure and selective control of the effective width of a discharge opening in said wall; and door actuating means comprising a connector formation carried on a portion of the door remote from its edges and projecting from the outer face thereof through a slot in said side wall, and an actuator linked to the connector formation operable to effect said move- ment of the door, the door overlying the slot by a substantial margin throughout the maximum extent of said movement. b) Conveniently the actuator is a double acting hydraulic ram mounted on a horizontal axis on the exterior of said side wall. c) Preferably the actuating means is positioned so as not to impinge on the area of the discharge opening at any position of the door throughout its range of movement.

d) Conveniently the discharge apparatus further includes a distributor rotor in immediate proximity to the discharge opening operatively driven for rotation about a horizontal axis and having radially extending impeller formations for radial or tangential broadcast projection of material fed through the effective width of the discharge opening in use. e) Preferably the last mentioned rotor is positioned and driven for overshot projection of said material, i.e. the latter passed from the opening upwards and over the axis of the rotor by the action of the impeller formations, and the apparatus further includes an elongate laceration formation operatively located at or adjacent the upper edge of the discharge opening across substantially the whole maximum effective width thereof and selectively adjustable upwardly and downwardly into close proximity to the envelope of revolution of the distributor rotar to coact with the impeller means in controlling the flow or pickup of liquid materials from the opening and/or to break down any substantial lumps or accumulations of non-free flowing material carried round by said means prior to projection from the vehicle.

An example of the invention is now more particulafly described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a spreader vehicle with some parts removed for clarity; Figure 2 is a sectional view on line 2-2 of Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a diagram of the operation of a sliding door of the spreader.

Referring firstly to Figures 1 and 2 a side delivery spreader vehicle for agricultural use in handling farmyard manures, slurry and similar materials for broadcast spreading on the land is shown. The vehicle is a trailer drawn by and powered from a tractor and comprising an open topped non-tipping body 10 mounted on a chassis 11 having a pair of land wheels 12 at its rear end. The body has vertical planar front and rear end walls 13, 14 and side walls major planar portions 15, 16 of which diverge upwardly from a floor 17 of the body to a rectangular top section 18. An auger type feed rotor 19 extends longitudinally of the lower portion of the body in close proximity to the floor 17 driven clockwise as viewed in Figure 2 to feed material forward and out through a rectangular discharge opening 20 defined in a lower forward end portion of side wail 15.

A rotatable driven distributor rotor 21 is mounted immediately outside opening 20 in a housing 22 projecting laterally from the forward part of body 10 (rotor 21 is shown in ghosted lines in Figure 1). The rotor is carried on a horizontal 2 GB 2 157 142 A 2 shaft 23 and is driven at a much higher speed than feed rotor 19 and in the opposite direction of rota tion, i.e. anti-clockwise as viewed in Figure 2)drive mechanism not shown) being powered from the tractor P.T.O.

Rotor 21 has an overshot action i.e. material passing through opening 20 is carried upwardly and over the rotor axis to be projected from an up per region of housing 22 and laterally of the for ward direction of travel of the vehicle. Housing 22 extends somewhat below the level of floor 17 to bring the axis of rotor 21 down to the level of a lower region of opening 20 so that the envelope of revolution of rotor 21 is closely adjacent to a major portion of the opening.

An adjustable and resiliently mounted laceration formation is provided in the form of a plate 25 mounted across the full width of the upper edge of opening 20 against the outer face wall 15 and con strained for vertical sliding movement. Plate 25 is 85 resiliently urged downwards by springs 26 carried on a pair of guid rods 27, the upper ends of which are received in slide blocks 28. These latter are car ried on lever arms 29 connected to a quadrant 30 at the front end of the body which can be selec- 90 tively adjusted to vary the vertical positioning of plate 25 relative to distibutor rotor 21.

While the resilient mounting of the laceration formation is not essential it is desirable in that up ward displacement of plate 25 is permitted is a stone or other obstruction should become trapped between rotor 21 and the lower edge of the plate which could otherwise cause damage.

Laceration plate 20 is generally tangential to the cylinder of revolution of rotor 21 in the zone of 100 said revolution in which material passed to the ro tor through opening 20 is being carried upwardly and outwardly before it is projected from housing 22. Any large lumps or mass of material being car ried round by rotor 21 will be broken down by coaction with plate 25, part of it may be thrown back or downwards to be acted on once more by the rotor and in this way the material is much more evenly divided to give a satisfactory and reg ular broadcast spread pattern. It has been found 110 that the most satisfactory spreading action with lumpy or semi-solid materials is achieved with the adjustable plate 25 set at a few centimeters spacing from the envelope of revolution of rotor 21.

When free materials such as slurry or other liq- 115 uids are being handled it is found advantageous to set plate 25 as close as possible to said envelope of revolution to assist in controlling and dispersing the material carried round by rotor 21 so that it is projected as a spray of globules or drops rather 120 than a continuous flow or jet.

Because of the presence of the laceration plate and the manner in which rotor 21 is mounted in close proximity to opening 20 there is a little or no clearance within housing 22 in the area of opening 125 for a door or door actuating means controlling the opening.

A horizontal sliding door 40 in the form of a planar rectangular metal plate is mounted for Ion gitudinal movement within body 10 in upper and 130 lower guides 41, 42 extending substantially the full length of side wall 15.

The height of door 40 is substantially greater than the height of opening 20 to give a margin for adequate sealing particularly with liquid materials at the upper edge when the door is fully closed (any small seepage of liquid from opening 20 will be trapped in the concave floor of housing 22 during transport).

The overall length of body 10 is about 3 metres while the width of opening 20 is about 0.9 metres and the overall length of door 40 is just over 2 metres i.e. more than twice the width of opening 20. The relationship between the door and opening is best shown by the diagram of Figure 3 where the door is indicated at an intermediate position by unbroken lines with its leading edge 43 (i.e. the edge which controls the effective width of opening 20) about half across the opening and the trailing edge 44 moved away from rear wall 14. Broken line 44a of Figure 3 indicates the position of the trailing edge when the door is fully closed while broken line 44b indicates the position when the door is fully open.

Not only is the door employed to close off opening 20 while materials are being tranported without spreading taking place but it is also used to selectively regulate the effective width of the opening to control flow of material from body 10 to be acted on by the distributor rotor 21. In particular this regulation is employed when liquid or semi-liquid materials are being spread, in which case door 40 is opened by a small amount, for example to the position shown in Figure 1, so as to establish a minimum width effective opening leading to the front end of housing 22 so as to permit a flow of liquid of substantial depth but narrow width which is particularly effectively acted on by the overshot action of rotor 21 in conjunction with the close setting of 105 the laceration plate 25 as referred to previously.

Door actuating means comprises a double acting hydraulic ram 50 having sufficient length of stroke to provide the full movement of door 40 by direct connection thereto which is mounted on the rear exterior of side wail 15 (Figure 1), its piston rod 52 extending forwardly. Rod 52 is connected at its forward end to a connector formation 53 in the form of a clevis mounted directly on a central region of door 40 to project through a longitudinal slot 54 in side wall 15 whose forward edge is immediately adjacent the rear end of housing 22.

In this way the door actuator in the form of ram 50 is mounted on the exterior of the body where is is readily accessible for maintenance and where it provides no obstruction to material within the body. It is also completely clear of opening 20 and the associated rotor 21 and laceration plate 25. Any substantial leakage or seepage of liquids through slot 54 is avoided by the dimensioning of door 40 to provide substantial marginal overlap with wall 15 around the slot at all positions of the door. In particular there is a substantial margin of about 11 or 12 cm between the trailing edge 44 of the door and the rearmost end of slot 54 as shown by broken lines 44a in Figure 3 when the door is fully 3 GB 2 157 142 A 3 closed, i.e. at the transport position.

So that the operator of the vehicle can readily see where door 40 is positioned and the extent of its movement under operation of the actuating means an indicator flag in the form of a vertical rod 60 (Figure 1) is provided which is mounted on a forward portion of door 40 within body 10 to project from the open top of the body.

Claims (10)

1. Discharge apparatus for a side delivery spreader vehicle as hereinbefore defined comprising a door mounted for horizontal sliding move- ment against the inner face of a side wall of the body for closure and selective control of the effective width of a discharge opening in said wall; and door actuating means comprising a connector formation carried on portion of the door remote from its edges and projecting from the outer face thereof through a slot in said side wall, and an actuator linked to the connector formation operable to effect said movement of the door, the door overlying the slot by a substantial margin through- out the maximum extent of said movement.

2. Apparatus as in Claim 1 wherein the actuator is a double acting hydraulic ram mounted on a horizontal axis on the exterior of said side wall.

3. Apparatus as in Claim 1 or 2 wherein the ac- tuating means is positioned so as not to impinge on the area of the discharge opening at any position of the door throughout its range of movement.

4. Apparatus as in Claim 1, 2 or 3 further including a distibutor rotor in immediate proximity to the discharge opening operatively driven for rotation about a horizontal axis and having impeller formations for radial or tangential broadcast projection of material fed through the effective width of the discharge opening in use.

5. Apparatus as in Claim 4 wherein the distributor rotor is positioned and driven for overshot projection of said material, i.e. the latter passes from the opening upwards and over the axis of the rotor by the action of the impeller formations.

6. Apparatus as in Claim 5 including an elongate laceration formation operatively located at or adjacent the upper edge of the discharge opening across substantially the whole maximum effective width thereof in close proximity to the envelope of revolution in the distibutor rotor to coact with the impeller means in controlling the flow or pickup of liquid materials from the opening and/or to break down any substantial lumps or accumulations of non-free flowing material carried round by said means prior to projection from the vehicle.

7. Apparatus as in Claim 6 wherein the laceration plate is selectively adjustable relative to said envelope of revolution.

8. Apparatus as in Claim 6 or 7 wherein the lac- eration plate is resiliently mounted to permit displacement if an obstruction is jammed between the rotor and the plate.

9. Discharge apparatus for a side delivery spreader vehicle substantially as hereinbefore de- scribed with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

10. A side delivery spreader including discharge apparatus as in any preceding claim.

Printed in the UK for HMSO, D8818935, 8185, 7102. Published by The Patent Office, 26 Southampton Buildings, London, WC2A lAY, from which copies may be obtained.