Fertilizer meter with motor control and method thereof
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsCristian T. Prado, Brandon M. McDonald, Donald K. Landphair
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An agricultural implement for distributing fertilizer to a plurality of rows includes a fertilizer container, a plurality of fertilizer metering units, and a plurality of motors. The fertilizer containers are used for storing the fertilizer prior to the fertilizer being distributed to the soil. The plurality of fertilizer metering units each include a housing and a metering device positioned in the housing. The housing has an inlet configured to receive fertilizer from the fertilizer container and an outlet. The plurality of motors are each drivingly coupled to and configured to rotate at least one metering device to distribute fertilizer to a row of the plurality of rows.
Claims12
An agricultural implement adapted to be moved over soil and distribute fertilizer to a plurality of rows, the agricultural implement comprising:
- a fertilizer container;
- a plurality of fertilizer metering units each configured to distribute fertilizer to one of the plurality of rows and including (i) a housing having an inlet configured to receive fertilizer from the fertilizer container and an outlet, and (ii) a metering device positioned in the housing and configured to rotate to move fertilizer through the outlet of the fertilizer metering unit in response to being driven by a first drive shaft of a plurality of drive shafts, wherein the metering device includes a metering auger having a spiral shaped to move fertilizer in a rearwardly direction through the housing toward the outlet of the housing;
- and
- a plurality of motors each drivingly coupled to a corresponding drive shaft included in the plurality of drive shafts and each configured to rotate the spiral of at least one metering device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.