Agricultural spraying apparatus
AssigneeBlumhardt Manufacturing Co.
InventorHarold Blumhardt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Sprayer apparatus for agricultural applications is disclosed. The sprayer apparatus disclosed includes spring-biased, damped booms having an inner portion with a parallelogram form. The individual booms have two points of articulation and they are spring-biased to a center position to permit breakaway. A linkage is provided which tends to list the outer section of each boom during breakaway.
Claims14
Boom apparatus for agricultural applications, comprising:
- (a) a cantilevered boom structure suitable for mounting of sprayer heads;
- (b) means mounting said boom structure to a drive vehicle, said mounting means permitting rotation of said boom about a generally vertical axis to permit said boom to yield in response to obstruction contact;
- and
- (c) spring-biased centering means, connected to said boom structure to maintain said boom structure oriented generally transverse to said drive vehicle in normal position, and to recenter said boom structure to said transverse position absent obstructive forces thereon, said centering means comprising a Y-shaped spring linkage including a base portion interconnected to two diverging top portions, said Y-shaped spring linkage connected at two points at the top portions to said mounting means and at one point along the base portion to said boom structure, said spring-biased centering means including means which lift the outboard end of said boom structure as said boom structure moves away from its normal position to allow said structure to overcome obstacles or lift from ground contact, said boom structure including a parallelogram linkage normally biased into a substantially rectangular position by said centering means.
A suspension system suitable for use in maintaining a sprayer boom at a reasonably constant height over a ground surface, comprising:
- (a) an outer boom arm adapted to receive and mount sprayer heads;
- (b) an inner boom arm including a parallelogram linkage connected along a first side thereof to said outer boom arm, said linkage being in a plane generally parallel to said sprayer boom;
- (c) means for mounting said linkage to a drive vehicle along a second side of said linkage opposite said first side;
- and
- (d) means spring-biasing said linkage to provide support to hold said outer boom arm above a ground surface when said system is mounted to a vehicle.
Boom apparatus for agricultural applications, comprising:
- (a) a cantilevered boom structure suitable for mounting of sprayer heads, said boom structure including an inboard end portion and an outboard end portion, said outboard end portion being articulately interconnected to said inboard end portion for movement in a generally vertical plane with respect to said inboard end portion;
- (b) means for mounting said boom structure to a drive vehicle, said mounting means permitting rotation of said boom about a generally vertical axis to permit said boom to yield in response to obstruction contact;
- (c) spring-biased centering means, connected to said boom structure to maintain said boom structure oriented generally transverse to said drive vehicle in its normal position, and to recenter said boom structure to said transverse position absent obstructive forces thereon;
- and
- (d) said spring-biased centering means also including means for lifting said outboard end portion of said boom structure independently of said inboard end portion as said boom structure moves away from its normal position to allow said structure to overcome obstacles or lift from ground contact.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.