GB2235117A - Manure spreader - Google Patents

Abstract

A tractor-drawn manure spreader has a pair of feed augers (2) feeding the manure along the floor (7) of the spreader into a rotor chamber (28) where it is disintegrated. An agitator auger (10) positioned approximately centrally above the augers (2) produces a flow of manure in the reverse direction. The augers (2) terminate a short distance from the rotor (4) so as to permit stones to clear the ends of the augers (2) before coming into contact with the rotor (4). The manure spreader may have a bar of T-section between the rotors (4), and externally operable flaps hinged to the inside walls of the body, to control the initial flow of manure. The rotor paddles may be attached by pivot bolts and secured by shear pins. Plates attached to the inside of the rotor casing hold back lumps or long straws. Liquid manure may be pumped on to a splash plate. <IMAGE>

Description

MANURE SPREADER The invention relates to a manure spreader for spreading manure, which may be solid or liquid, on agricultural land.

Manure spreaders have to traverse flat, sloped and undulating terrain and when in use are usually towed and powered by a tractor. It is important therefore, in terms of stability and safety, that the unit has as low a centre of gravity as possible.

Further, the spreaders available to date have single auger feeds which deliver the manure to the spreading rotor by a sideways flow movement which is induced by the use of flat plates on the auger centre tube. This type of sideways delivery results in an intermittent feed of manure to the rotor with the effect that spread on the field is uneven and throw is erratic.

The present invention, is aimed at providing a manure spreader which has a low centre of gravity, and is therefore stable, and which provides a more uniform throw of the manure, and hence a more even spread.

The invention, therefore provides a manure spreader having a pair of feed augers arranged so that in operation their rotation feeds the manure along the floor of the spreader into a chamber containing a rotor where it is disintegrated by rotor blades and ejected sideways to the ground.

The use of two augers allows the base of the spreader container to be much broader than conventional single auger machines and this has the effect of altering the geometry of the manure container with a resulting lowering of the centre of gravity of the whole unit.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a side view, in part section, of a manure spreader according to the present invention; Figure 2 is a plan view of the manure spreader of Figure 1 of the drawings; Figure 3 shows the front end rotor of the manure spreader of Figure 1 of the drawings in elevation and in'section; Figure 4 shows the rear end of the manure spreader of Figure 1 of the drawings in elevation and in section; Figure 5 is a transverse section through the manure spreader of Figure 1 of the drawings taken part way along its body; Figure 6 is a section showing the arrangement of the auger drive sprockets; Figure 7 is a transverse section through a modified form of manure spreader according to the invention, taken part way along its body;; Figure 8 shows a modified form of the front end rotor of a manure spreader according to the invention, in elevation and in section; Figures 9, 10 and 11 are respectively right, left and front elevations of a further modified manure spreader according to the present invention.

Referring now to the drawings the manure spreader comprises an open-top manure container designated 1 which is mounted on a wheeled chassis and drawbar 3 and which has a floor, or bottom plate 7, on which ride a pair of rotating augers 2. An agitator auger 10 is also positioned substantially centrally and above the augers 2. The augers 2 are to induce forward flow of manure along the floor 7, through chamber 28, towards and into a rotor housing 5 and then into a rotor 4. The use of two augers 2 allows the base 7 to be wide and this, with the sloped walls 6 and the top central agitator 10, prevents bridging of the drier manures above the augers 2 and therefore ensures a constant flow of manure to the rotor 4.The augers 2 can be powered to move the manure either in a forward or rearward direction in the container 1 and consequently the rotor 4 and its housing 5 can be located on either of the wall plates 8 or 9. Conventionally the rotor 4 is mounted forward. The pair of augers 2, which comprise a helical flight 17, a centre tube 18 and a rear drive shaft 19, can be considered to be floating on the floor 7 and restricted to rotational motion within the confines of floor 7 which comprises two semi-circular sections connected at their inner longitudinal edges by a plate 40, as may be seen more clearly in Figure 5. The front end of augers 2 terminate a short distance from the face of the rotor 4 in chamber 28 so as to permit stones, and other hard foreign bodies, to clear the ends of the augers 2 before coming into contact with the rotor blades 12.

A chamber 28 between container 1 and rotor housing 5 comprises a top plate 15, a bottom plate 16 and side plates 60. An aperture in plate 60 on the feed-out side is closed by a hinged door 14, which can be opened to remove stones and other foreign bodies. An aperture in front plate 9 the full cross-section area of chamber 28 and a similar aperture in the rear rotor hous ing plate 33 allow manure to pass through the chamber 28. As regard the comminuting side of the machine the rotor housing 5 is positioned at the front of chamber 28, substantially central between the augers 2, with the lower part of the rotor 4 completely covering the opening sin chamber 28. Rotor housing 5 comprises a front plate 20 which carries the rotor bearing 22 and on the other side there is a rear plate 23 with opening to chamber 28. This plate carries the other rotor bearing 24.The curved plate 25 completes the housing 5 and is shaped to provide an aperture 27 which allows the manure to be ejected from the housing 5 onto the land.

In the first embodiment of the invention the chamber 28 is provided with slide guides 30 into which an adjustable sliding plate 32 an be fitted; this plate 32 functions as a closed sluice when liquid manure or slurry is being transported from the farm to the field and as a proportionating penstock, to control the rate of flow of liquid manure to the rotor 4 when working in the fields. For the more solid types of manure the slid ing plate 32 need not be fitted.

As can be seen in Figure 3, the rotor assembly 4 comprises a central drive shaft 41 which is fixed to flanged hubs 42. Radially mounted channel iron paddles 43 are bolted between the hub flanges 42 with two bolts; a larger bolt 44 towards the centre of the hub flange and a smaller shear bolt 45, towards the outer edge of the hub flange, to give an arrangement which permits the channels 43 to pivot backwards, shearing the small bolt 45, should an obstruction be fed into the rotor 4 thus preventing damage to the drive mechanism. Additional shear bolt holes are provided in the hub flanges 42 which allow the rotor channel iron paddles 43 to be positioned at various angles to suit the materials being spread. Shredding or cutting blades 12 are bolted to the flanges of the channels 43.

Referring now also to Figure 5, the top central agitator 10 comprises a drive shaft 37, a central tube 38 and a series of flat plates 39 which are angled on the tube 38 and equally spaced radially around and along its surface. The agitator 10 is mounted on bearings 48 on the plates 8 and 9 and driven from the side drive shaft 47 by the sprocket 34 to the sprocket 36 which is on the drive shaft 37. The plates 39 are shaped on their inner edge to fit the tube 38, are curved on their outer edge so that they will lift the manure when rotated, and are angled on the tube 38 so that they direct manure rearwards when rotated.

The power transmission is by means of chains, sprockets and a front drive shaft 46 which is mounted in bearings 31 to the plates 33 on the chassis drawbar 3. The shaft 46 is driven by a Cardan shaft from a tractor power take-off shaft. Rotor 4 is driven by a sprocket 21 on the front drive shaft 46 to the sprocket 26 on the rotor shaft 41. A drive shaft 47 extends down the full length to the machine at one side and carries a sprocket 35 which drives a sprocket 29 on the rear end of the rotor shaft 41, as shown in Figure 3.

The agitator 10 is driven at the front of container 1 from the side drive shaft 47 by the sprocket 34 to sprocket 36 on the agitator shaft 37.

The augers 2 are driven via a reduction chain drive 13 from the rear of the side drive shaft by the sprocket 59 as depicted in Figure 4.

In practice the chain reduction train 13 reduces the speed of the augers to a value of 1 to 40 'revolutions per minute but this range can be extended to suit the coherent qualities of the manure being spread.

In handling all types of manure it is important, from the standpoint of convenience and cleanliness, that at no time is it required to manually empty the container 1 because of mechanical or drive faults which immobilise the feed augers 2. Assurance that such break-downs are not likely to happen has been built into the drive system of this embodiment.

Referring now to Figure 6, the rear shafts 19 of the augers 2 are driven from the chain reduction train 13 by a double chain sprocket 50 and a drive chain 51 to a single chain sprocket 52. The chain sprockets 50 and 52 are mounted on hubs 53, the hubs 53 being fitted with drive keys 54 which engage on the shafts 19.

These chain sprockets 50 and 52 have shear pins 55 which pass through the hubs 53 and couple the sprockets 50 and 52 to the hubs 53. The chain sprockets 50 and 52 are also fitted with bearings 56. In this arrangement, if a blockage occurs in one of the augers 2 its shear pin will break, but the other auger will continue to rotate, being still coupled to power by its shear pin, so it is therefore possible to continue spreading the manure and hence empty the container 1 by mechanical, rather than manual, means.

The presence of bearings 56 prevents the sprockets 50 and 52 seizing onto the shafts 19 when a shear pin 55 is broken and the sprocket 50 or 52 is left rotating on the hub 53. In practice, circlips 57 are fitted to locate the hubs 53 on the shafts 19 and to locate the sprockets 50 and 52 on the hubs 53. It can also be seen that, when low application rates of manure are required, it is possible to remove one of the shear pins 53 and so drive only one auger, a cover plate being fitted over the other.

When in use the machine, according to the described embodiment, is loaded with manure and towed to the fields where the operator engages the tractor's power take-off shaft. The tractor and spreader then move forward, and manure commences to be fed forward by the augers 2 along the floor 7 of the container 1 and thence through the intermediate chamber 28 to the moving rotor 4, where it is disintegrated by the moving blades, lifted, and then ejected to the fields through the aperture in the rotor housing 5. If liquid manure is to be used the embodiment can be fitted with a gate or penstock between the manure container 1 and the rotor housing 5 so that the forward flow of slurry can be controlled.

Various modifications may be made in the manure spreader described above. For example the feed-out, or ejection rotor can be housed at the rear of the container, although in practice the operator, on his tractor, usually prefers to have it housed at the front for supervision purposes. Also the augers 2 can be arranged to rotate in opposite directions, so that a stirring action occurs in the container 1, with manure circulating on the floor 7 of the container 1. A number of flat triangular plates 58, shown in Figure 3, may be provided across the floor 7 and sides of chamber 28 to prevent lumps and long straws being pulled into the rotor blades 12, thereby giving a finer chop of the manure. The plates 58 could be made adjustable nearer to or farther from the rotor blades 12 to suit the type of manure being spread.

In those cases where the expense can be justified it is advantageous to provide a variable speed drive or speed change device to the augers 2 as this allows complete optimization of the machine functions to the character of the manure, be it either dry, damp or liquid.

As shown in Figure 7, a bar 160 of T-section may be positioned between the augers 2, and is preferably made adjustable in height. This provides cavities below the cross-arms of the bar 160 which accommodate foreign objects or excess material, help to prevent jamming and reduce the surge of material on starting.

In a further modification, also shown in Figure 7, a pair of flaps 61, operated by externally mounted hydraulic rams 62, are mounted on the inside of the spreader body. The flaps 61 are extended when the manure spreader is loaded to prevent a surge of material on first starting, and are retracted as spreading progresses, allowing the container to eventually be completely emptied.

Figure 8 shows an alternative pattern of rotor 4 which may be employed. This consists of two or more sets of narrower paddles 64. These may be protected by shear pins in the manner already described.

In this case the paddles 64 are arranged in two rows, each row having three paddles. However, any number of paddles can be fixed in each row and extra rows can be added. This arrangement will produce a finer, more consistent spread as the manure paddles will lift smaller amounts of manure in each pass, leaving the surplus material for the following paddle.

The outlet aperture 65 of the rotor housing 5 is positioned at the top of the housing 5. Over this is fitted an adjustable spout 66 which can be rotated to achieve the desired spreading pattern. One or both of the adjustable deflector plates 67 and 68 can be fitted to the spout 66 for the finer adjustment of the spread pattern when spreading liquid manure.

A wider more consistent spread pattern for liquids may be obtained with the rotor 4 acting as a centrifical pump and pumping the liquid to the rear of the machine onto a splash plate 69 which will distribute the liquid evenly over the field. The liquid is forced out through the rotor housing aperture 27 under pressure into an adaptor 70, which is coupled to the spout 66 through a flexible pipe 71 which is coupled to the main pipe 72 around the bend 73 and down onto the splash plate 69. Alternatively the spout 66 can be removed and the adaptor 70 mounted directly onto the rotor housing aperture 70.

Where expense can be justified an independent spreading system can be incorporated for handling liquid manure. This comprises a high capacity centrifical pump 74 mounted to the side of the container 1 with an aperture into the container 1 at floor level together with a sluice gate to prevent solids entering the pump when not in use. The pump 74 can be positioned either at the front or rear of the machine. The pump 74 is powered by shaft 75 which is driven by a chain drive 80 from a dual output gearbox 76 arranged to disengage the drive to the main rotor 4 and augers 2 and engage the drive to the pump 74 or vice versa. The pump 74, which is gravity fed, pumps the liquid to the splash plate 69 at the rear of the machine via a pipe 77. To reduce cost the gearbox 76 can be replaced with two reception shafts, 78 and 79. Shaft 78 drives the main rotor 4 and augers 2, and shaft 79 drives the pump 74.

The Cardan shaft can be fitted to either of the reception shafts to achieve the desired function. The reception shafts can either be fitted side by side as shown or fitted centrally, with 78 above 79.

Finally, the drive can be transmitted to the rear of the machine via the agitator 10, and the bottom augers 2 can be driven via a chain drive by two intermeshed gear wheels which replace sprockets 50 and 52, one of the gear wheels having a chain sprocket attached similar to 50 to receive the drive. The agitator 10 can also be driven from the rotor shaft 41 via an epicylic gear arrangement 81 as an alternative to the reduction chain drive.

The invention is not limited by or to the specific embodiments described which can undergo considerable variation without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims (14)

CLAIMS:

1. A manure spreader having a pair of feed augers arranged so that in operation their rotation feeds the manure along the floor of the spreader into a chamber containing a rotor where it is disintegrated by rotor blades and ejected sideways to the ground.

2. A manure spreader according to Claim 1 the floor of which is of double part-cylindrical section to conform to the outline of the augers.

3. A manure spreader according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 having an agitator positioned approximately centrally above the augers and arranged by its rotation to induce a flow of manure in the reverse direction to that due to the augers.

4. A manure spreader according to any preceding claim in which the augers terminate a short distance from the rotor so as to permit stones to clear the ends of the augers before coming into contact with the rotor.

5. A manure spreader according to any preceding claim in which a bar of T-section is adjustably positioned between the rotors forming a cavity on either side to allow excess material or foreign objects to clear the augers.

6. A manure spreader according to any preceding claim having externally operable flaps hinged to the inside walls of the spreader body and which are extendible on loading to control the initial flow of manure and retractable during spreading to allow the spreader to be completely emptied.

7. A manure spreader according to any preceding claim in which the rotor comprises paddles attached to hub flanges by pivot bolts and secured against rotation about the pivot bolts by shear pins, whereby on the paddle meeting an obstruction a shear pin can shear and allow its paddle to pivot backwards.

8. A manure spreader according to Claim 7 in which the hub flanges have additional holes for the shear bolts to allow the angle of the rotor blades to be changed to suit the material being spread.

9. A manure spreader according to any preceding claim in which the augers and the rotor are driven by gears or sprockets through shear pins.

10. A manure spreader according to any preceding claim having plates attached to the inside of the rotor casing to hold back lumps or long straws from being pulled into the rotor.

11. A manure spreader according to any preceding claim in which the rotor is arranged to act as a centrifugal pump with a spout coupled to the outlet of the rotor housing directing the liquid on to a splash plate.

12. A manure spreader according to any of Claims 1 to 10 provided with an independent centrifugal pump for pumping liquid manure.

13. A manure spreader substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Figures 1-6 of the drawings.

14. A manure spreader substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Figures 7-11 of the drawings.