Spreading machines with improved controls
AssigneeE.D. Etnyre & Co.
InventorsEric A. Carreon, Tyler Braun
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle for distributing a fluid or a solid material on or into the ground has one or more axles for supporting the vehicle on the ground, a vessel for holding the material to be spread on or into the ground, and a plurality of valves for controlling the lateral extent of distribution of the material on or into the ground. The vehicle may have a plurality of control switches for controlling the lateral extent of distribution of material and operative to control the opening and closing of different valves or different groups of valves of the plurality of valves. The vehicle may have an indicator for each valve or group of valves, the indicator operative to provide different indications for a plurality of different statuses for the corresponding valve or valves.
Claims20
A vehicle for distributing a fluid or a solid material on or into the ground, the vehicle comprising:
- one or more axles for supporting the vehicle on the ground;
- a vessel for holding the material to be spread on or into the ground;
- a plurality of valves for controlling the lateral extent of distribution of the material on or into the ground;
- and
- a control panel for controlling the lateral extent of distribution of material, the control panel having a plurality of dedicated switches, each of the dedicated switches having an open position and a closed position, which are operative to respectively control the opening and closing of different valves of the plurality of valves, the dedicated switches plugged into an electronic bus on a circuit board,
- the vehicle further comprising a taper switch operative to control the opening of an outermost closed valve of the plurality of valves and the closing of an outermost open valve of the plurality of valves to incrementally increase or decrease the lateral extent of distribution while overriding the dedicated switches, wherein repeated operation of the taper switch to increase the lateral extent repeatedly increasing the lateral extent of distribution until a maximum lateral extent of distribution is achieved on one side of the vehicle.
A vehicle for distributing a fluid or a solid material on or into the ground, the vehicle comprising:
- one or more axles for supporting the vehicle on the ground;
- a vessel for holding the material to be spread on or into the ground;
- a plurality of valves for controlling the lateral extent of distribution of the material on or into the ground;
- and
- a control panel for controlling the lateral extent of distribution of material, the control panel having a plurality of dedicated switches, each of the dedicated switches having an open position and a closed position, which are operative to respectively control the opening and closing of different valves of the plurality of valves, the dedicated switches plugged into an electronic bus on a circuit board, the vehicle of further comprising an elongated hopper having a lateral length to affect the maximum lateral extent of distribution when all of the valves are open, each valve comprising a gate at the bottom of the elongated hopper.
A vehicle for distributing a fluid or a solid material on or into the ground, the vehicle comprising:
- one or more axles for supporting the vehicle on the ground;
- a vessel for holding the material to be spread on or into the ground;
- a plurality of valves for controlling the lateral extent of distribution of the material on or into the ground;
- and
- a control panel for controlling the lateral extent of distribution of material, the control panel having a plurality of dedicated switches, each of the dedicated switches having an open position and a closed position, which are operative to respectively control the opening and closing of different valves of the plurality of valves, the dedicated switches plugged into an electronic bus on a circuit board, wherein the dedicated switches are replaceable by unplugging an existing dedicated switch and plugging in a new dedicated switch in its place.
A vehicle for distributing a fluid or a solid material on or into the ground, the vehicle comprising:
- one or more axles for supporting the vehicle on the ground;
- a vessel for holding the material to be spread on or into the ground;
- a plurality of valves for controlling the lateral extent of distribution of the material on or into the ground;
- a plurality of control switches for controlling the lateral extent of distribution of material and operative to control the opening and closing of different valves or different groups of valves of the plurality of valves;
- and
- an indicator for each valve or group of valves, wherein there are a plurality of indicators, the indicators operative to provide different indications for a plurality of different statuses for the corresponding valve or valves, the indications comprising an indication for material being distributed through the corresponding valve or valves, and an indication that the corresponding valve or valves are open, but there is no flow of material from the vessel to the valves.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.