WO2005022973A1

WO2005022973A1 - A plough arrangement

Info

Publication number: WO2005022973A1
Application number: PCT/NO2004/000269
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jon HÅKEDAL
Original assignee: Haakedal Jon
Priority date: 2003-09-10
Filing date: 2004-09-09
Publication date: 2005-03-17
Also published as: NO20034005D0; NO20034005L; NO319464B1

Abstract

A combined plough and sowing machine for mounting on a tractor has a row of seed horns mounted on a carrier which extends obliquely with respect to the direction of motion of the tractor and via a frame is firmly connected to the carrying beam of the plough. The row of seed horns is preferably parallel to the plough carrier and is arranged near the plough bodies of the plough, whereby the seed horns plane the furrows after the plough bodies so that other forms of soil preparation before the sowing becomes unnecessary.

Description

A PLOUGH ARRANGEMENT

The present invention relates to a plough arrangement, comprising a plurality of plough bodies mounted on a carrying beam which during the ploughing forms an acute angle to the direction of movement of the plough, said plough being combined with a sowing machine to be able to plough and sow in the same operation, said sowing machine having a first set of seed horns arranged in at least one row which covers a width approximately equal to the ploughing width.

Such a combined plough and sowing machine is commercially available from the producer Kvaerneland under the trade name Kvaerneland Packomat Seeder. In this device, the seed horns are arranged staggered in two rows behind a soil packer which comprises a front harrow and a double ring roller ahead of the seed horns. The tool is suspended at the free end of a boom which is pivotably attached to the tower of the plough. The tool is pivotably supported about an axis parallel to the ploughing direction in order for the tool to adjust floatingly to the soil and, furthermore, maintain the correct orientation during turning if it is mounted on a reversible plough. The inner end of the boom is pivotably supported so that it may pivot about two orthogonal axes by means of hydraulic cylinders. This is necessary for adjustment of the packer with respect to the plough and for providing the packer with a working pressure which is substantially higher than its own weight. The location of the packer results in that it will not be able to work on the furrows made by the plough in the current pass, but works instead on the furrows laid up in the preceding pass . This means that the last furrows laid up by the plough must be driven over with the packer while the plough is raised, thus placing further demands on the movability of the packer boom. Consequently, this prior art tool becomes relatively expensive and complicated. The present invention aims at providing a combined plough and sowing machine which is simple and robust and reasonable to produce and which, in addition, provides a dependable, satisfactory result for most soil types.

This is obtained by a device of the type mentioned in the first paragraph above, which is characterized in that the seed horns are arranged in close proximity to the shares of the plough so that they prepare the furrows laid up by the plough shares concurrently with the sowing.

Preferably, the row of seed horns extends at an acute angle to the direction of motion of the plough, advantageously parallel to the carrying beam of the plough. By letting the seed horns be supported by a frame which is rigidly connected to the carrying beam, one obtains a simple and robust structure which, not withstanding its simplicity, surprisingly has turned out to provide a very satisfactory planing and soil preparing influence concurrently with the sowing function.

According to an advantageous embodiment, the seed horns are attached to the first carrier that is attached to the frame so as to be adjustable in height in order to adjust the relationship between ploughing depth and sowing depth. The carrier may advantageously be pivotable against a spring loading with respect to the frame in order to be able to give way to obstructions such as larger stones .

If the arrangement according to the invention is to be used together with a reversible plough, a second set of seed horns may be arranged, which set is mounted above the first set and faces in the opposite direction. The seed horns in the two rows may be arranged in pairs to share a common seed supply. This may be done by coupling together the seed supply tubes to the two horns by means of a T-tube, into which the seed is blown generally horizontally from the seeding unit. Due to gravity, the seed will fall down into the supply tube of the downwardly facing and active of the two seed horns .

The necessary working pressure of the soil preparing seed horns will automatically come from the plough carrying beam, but in undulating terrain the correct working depth may be ascertained by a combination of a resilient pressure and depth regulating seed horns, wheels or skids on the beam or frame of the seed horns .

For a better understanding of the invention, it will be described more closely with reference to the exemplifying embodiments which are shown in the appended illustrations , where

Fig. 1 is a schematic plan view of a tractor provided with an arrangement according to the invention,

Fig. 2 is a schematic elevational view of a pair of seed horns suitable for a reversible plough,

Fig. 3 is a view seen from behind of an arrangement according to the invention in use,

Fig. 4 is a view of the arrangement in fig. 3 seen from one side, and

Fig. 5 is a close-up view seen from behind of the arrangement in fig. 4.

Fig. 1 shows a tractor 1 which is provided with a plough 2 which has a plough carrying beam 3 with four plough beams 4 and appurtenant plough bodies 5.

A frame 6 is attached to the plough carrying beam, said frame supporting a carrier 7 for a row of seed horns 8. The carrier 7 extends substantially parallel to the plough carrier beam 3, while the seed horns 8 are aligned parallel to the direction of motion of the tractor. The seed horns are connected via a seed hose to a distributor head 10 of a sowing machine, to which seed is fed from a supply 11 mounted forward on the tractor.

Parts of the frame 6 are preferably rigidly connected to the carrying beam 3, e.g. by bolting or welding, and the parts are arranged such that they do not conflict with the plough beams or plough bodies of the plough when the rock releaser thereof is activated. It will be apparent that the seed horn carrier 7 is arranged in such a manner with respect to the plough carrying beam 3 that the rearmost seed horns in the row are located behind the rearmost plough body 5. This means that the row of seed horns, which also act like a soil preparation tool, will prepare and sow all the four furrows made by the plough. Thus, an extra pass will not be necessary only to sow the last furrows.

In the elevation in figure 2, is schematically shown a pair of oppositely directed seed horns 8 attached to a carrier 7 by means of spring attachments 12 in order for them to yield independently of each other. The seed supply pipe 13 of the seed horns are coupled together by means of a T- piece 14, the horizontal branch of which being connected to the seed hose 9. When seed is blown from the seed hose 9 into the T-piece 14, the seed will fall down in the downwardly directed seed horn 8. It will be understood that when one row of such opposed seed horns are mounted on a reversible plough where the distributor head 10 of the sowing machine is mounted on the tractor, the sowing machine can function regardless of the reversible position of the plough, provided that the plough reverses with the seed horn row upwards .

Fig. 3 shows a picture of a prototype of an arrangement according to the invention in use. Here, the distributor head of the sowing machine is mounted on the tractor so that the sowing machine may also be used for double seed horns as shown in fig. 2. It will be apparent that the seed horn row has prepared and levelled the plough furrows in a very even and fine manner, thus making any other preparation before the sowing completely unnecessary. This is assumed to be caused by the fact that the seed horns are arranged in a row which slants with respect to the pulling direction. This causes i.a. that the actual opening between the seed horns becomes larger than the distance between the furrows made by the seed horns. The possibility for soil lumps and rocks to escape laterally is also believed to be of importance for the surprisingly good results the invention has turned out to give.

Fig. 4 shows a picture shown from the side of the arrangement in fig. 3 in the parked position. Here, one may see the relatively good distance between the seed horns 8 and that the rearmost of the horns are located so far to the rear that they can prepare the furrow from the rearmost of the plough bodies 5. Fig. 4 also shows a spring 15 mounted between the frame 6 and the seed horn carrier 7 in order for the latter to resiliently yield when hitting e.g. a larger stone. This requires a pivotable connection between the frame 6 and the carrier 7. The carrier 7 is also adjustable in height (not visible) with respect to the frame 6.

Fig. 5 shows some details from fig. 4 on a larger scale.

Even though the arrangement according to the invention has been described above in relation to a prototype and a schematic embodiment, it will be understood that the skilled person can modify and vary the invention within the frame of the following claims. Thus, the seed horn row can be combined with other soil preparing tools if this should be desirable in special cases, and the seed horns may be arranged in a plurality of rows, even though the shown embodiment having a single row has proven to give a surprisingly good levelling effect without too much soil preparation and undesirable packing and without lugging and dragging along unwanted material, as is often done by tools arranged in a row perpendicular to the direction of motion.

Claims

C l a i m s

1. A plough arrangement, the plough comprising a number of plough bodies (5) mounted on a plough carrying beam (3) which during ploughing forms an acute angle to the 5 direction of motion of the plough (2) , said plough being combined with a sowing machine (8-11) in order to plough and sow in the same operation, said sowing machine having a first set of seed horns (8) arranged in at least one row which covers a width approximately equal to the ploughingo width, characterized in that the seed horns (8) are arranged in close proximity to the plough bodies (5) so that they prepare and plane the furrows laid up by the plough bodies concurrently with the sowing. s

2. An arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that said at least one row of seed horns (8) extends at an acute angle to the direction of motion of the plough.

3. An arrangement according to claim 2,o characterized in that said at least one row is substantially parallel to the plough supporting beam (3) .

4. An arrangement according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the seed horns (8) are supported by a5 frame (6) which is firmly connected to the plough supporting beam (3) .

5. An arrangement according to claim 4 , characterized in that the seed horns (8) are attached to a first carrier (7) which is attached to the frame (6) in ao height adjustable manner and preferably are pivotable against a spring loading (15) with respect to the frame.

6. An arrangement according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that a second set of seed horns (8) is mounted above the first set and faces in the opposite direction.

7. An arrangement according to claim 6 , characterized in that the seed horns (8) in the two rows share in pairs a common seed supply (9) .

8. An arrangement according to claim 7, wherein each seed horn has a seed supply tube (13) which in the working position is substantially vertical, characterized in that the seed supply pipes (13) in each oppositely directed pair of seed horns (8) are connected to each other via a T-pipe (14) into which seed is blown into substantially horizontally from the sowing machine, whereby the seed falls down into the lower of the seed horns.

9. An arrangement according to one of the claims 4 to 8 , characterized in that the frame (6) or carrier (7) is provided with depth regulating seed horns, support wheels or skids .

10. An arrangement according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the rearmost seed horns (8) in the row are located behind the rearmost of the plough bodies of the plough.