Mobile material distribution system

Apparatus for controlling the delivery of particulate material from a vehicle at a rate proportional to the ground speed of the vehicle to thus maintain a constant mass per unit of area comprising a distributor, a conveyor for delivering particulate material to the distributor, means situated between the conveyor and the distributor for measuring the rate of mass flow of particulate material delivered from the conveyor to the distributor and producing a signal proportional thereto, means for measuring the ground speed of the vehicle and producing a signal proportional thereto, means for comparing the signals and means responsive to said compared signals to change the speed of the conveyor so as to compensate for changes in the ground speed of the vehicle.

Apparatus for controlling the delivery of material from a vehicle at a rate proportional to the speed of the vehicle to thus maintain delivery at a selected mass per unit of area comprising a distributor, a hopper for holding a quantity of material, a conveyor supported with its receiving end below the hopper, an inclined deflector supported with its upper and adjacent the discharge end of the conveyor, an inclined sensor pivotally supported adjacent the lower end of the deflector in a position such that the material sliding down the deflector is deposited onto the sensor substantially at the pivot axis, said sensor being inclined in the direction opposite that of the deflector and being supported with its lower end directly above the distributor, means operable by the sensor in response to a predetermined rate of mass flow to produce a predetermined signal, means operable by the speed of the vehicle to produce a signal, a motor for driving the conveyor and a comparator operable in response to both said signals to change the speed of the motor to increase the speed of the conveyor with an increase in the speed of the vehicle and to decrease the speed of the conveyor with a decrease in the speed of the vehicle.

Apparatus for controlling delivery of material from a hopper to a distributor comprising means for delivering material from the hopper to a flow path for gravitational delivery to the distributor means including an inclined support surface situated in said flow path which measures only the dead weight of the gravitationally flowing mass on said support surface for producing a signal substantially proportional only to the mass of material flowing on said support surface and hence the rate of mass flow at any given instant, said signal being produced in a manner which is substantially independent of impact forces of said material on said sensing means, and means operable by said signal to change the rate at which the means for delivering the material delivers material to maintain a predetermined selected flow of material along said flow path.

The method of distributing material in an uniformly thick layer comprising gravitationally depositing the material onto the surface of a motor-driven conveyor, receiving the material from the discharge end of the conveyor and applying it on a downwardly inclined plate such that it slides gravitationally downwardly thereon onto a distributor, sensing only the dead weight of the mass flowing on the downwardly inclined plate and hence the rate of mass flow at any given instant substantially independent of the impact forces of said material received on said downwardly inclined plate and sending a signal proportional to said dead weight to the motor-driven conveyor to change its speed in a manner to maintain a controlled rate of mass flow of material.

The method of distributing the material in a uniformly thick layer comprising gravitationally depositing the material onto the surface of a motor-driven conveyor, receiving the material from the discharge end of the conveyor onto a first fixed downwardly inclined plate along which it slides, depositing material from said first plate on a second pivoted downwardly inclined plate substantially at the pivot axis, passing said material by sliding along said second plate to be discharged from the lower end thereof onto a distributor, sensing the displacement force of said second plate relative to its pivot axis due substantially only to the dead weight of the mass sliding downwardly thereon and sending a signal which is proportional to the sensed displacement force on said second plate to the motor driven conveyor to change the speed thereof in a manner to maintain a constant mass of material on the downwardly inclined second plate.

The method of distributing a constant mass of material from a moving vehicle comprising, while the vehicle is moving, gravitationally depositing a mass of material to be distributed onto a motor-driven conveyor mounted on the vehicle, receiving the material from the discharge end of the conveyor on a downwardly inclined plate also mounted on the vehicle such that it slides downwardly thereon onto a distributor mounted on the vehicle, sensing the weight of the mass on the downwardly inclined plate as it slides downwardly thereon, sensing the speed of the vehicle, combining said signals and sending the resulting signal to the motor-driven conveyor to change the speed of the conveyor in a manner to maintain a selected rate of mass flow on the downwardly inclined plate regardless of the speed of the vehicle.

Apparatus for controlling the delivery of material from a vehicle at a rate proportional to the ground speed of the vehicle to thus maintain a constant mass per unit area comprising a distributor, a conveyor for delivering the material to the distributor, means situated between the conveyor and distributor for measuring the rate of mass flow of material delivered by the conveyor to the distributor and producing a signal proportional thereto, said means comprising an inclined deflector plate supported adjacent the conveyor with is upper end at the delivery end of the conveyor, an inclined sensing plate supported in an inclined position adjacent the lower end of the deflector plate in a position such that the lower end of the deflector plate gravitationally delivers material onto the sensing plate, a sensor comprising servo means operable to produce a signal proportional to the mass of material sliding downwardly on said sensing plate to the distributor, means for producing a signal proportional to the ground speed of the vehicle, means for comparing the two signals and means responsive to the output of said last means for changing the speed of the conveyor so as to compensate for changes in the ground speed of the vehicle.

Apparatus for monitoring the flow of particulate flowable material as it is delivered to a receiving station comprising a supporting structure embodying a container of bulk particulate flowable material, means for delivering said particulate material from the container to flow by gravity through a flow path to said receiving station, sensing means interposed in said flow path, said sensing means having an inclined support surface situated in said flow path of said particulate material over which said particulate material slides by gravity flow for sensing a quantity substantially representative of the mass of said material sliding on said support surface and hence the rate of mass flow along said path at any given instant, said sensing means being responsive to measure variable flow rates and substantially insensitive to impact forces due to said flow, and utilization means for the sensed quantity representing the rate of mass flow.