Soil sampler for analysis for fertilizer determination
AssigneeIboco, Inc.
InventorsAndrey V. Skotnikov, Vladimir Pisarchik, Gennady Valjushkevich
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automatic soil sampler (10) removes soil samples (65) at known locations and transfers the samples to a packaging station (23) where the samples are packaged and identified. The packages (87) are left in a strip and moved to a container (168). The sampler (10) repeats the sampling function at identifiable intervals measured by an odometer (11A) and permits the sampling and packaging to be completed rapidly.
Claims15
An automatic soil sampler for providing a plurality of soil samples along a selected path of movement comprising a frame, a container on the frame, a probe assembly mounted on said frame, said probe assembly being adaptable for insertion in the soil to remove a core of soil comprising a soil sample in a first probe assembly position, a transporter for moving said probe assembly repeatedly to and from a second position adjacent the container, a packaging assembly for receiving said soil sample from the probe assembly and including a series of individual packages, each individual package receiving and soil sample from the probe assembly, a package drive for moving the individual packages in sequence in response to movement of the probe assembly to the second position;
- wherein said packaging assembly includes sealable sheet portions of material, said sheet portions of material merging in a bight portion, said probe assembly being positionable adjacent the bight portion for ejecting the soil sample carried thereby into the bight portion, and means for sealing the sheet portions together around the soil sample to form an individual package for each soil sample.
An apparatus for providing individual soil samples for testing for components in the soil individually, comprising a mobile frame, a probe operable to remove a soil sample at each of a plurality of sampling locations from the soil as the mobile frame is moved along a desired path, control means to operate the probe to remove soil samples at desired intervals along the path, a soil sample packaging assembly mounted on the frame, a transport device for moving the probe to the packaging assembly, each soil sample being ejected from the probe at a location to be placed into a package formed by the packaging assembly, the packaging assembly individually packaging each of the soil samples from each sampling location, each package being correlatable to each sampling location for subsequent analysis, and wherein said packaging assembly includes a pair of sealable sheet portions of material, said sheet portions of material merging in a bight portion, said probe being positionable adjacent the bight portion for ejecting the soil sample into the bight portion, and means for sealing the sheet portions together around the soil sample received in the bight portion to form an individual package for each soil sample.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.