Vacuum seed meter and dispensing apparatus

A rotatable vacuum drum for a seed meter, said rotatable vacuum drum comprising:

• a substantially circular first wall adjacently spaced from and a substantially circular second wall;
• a substantially V-shaped annular rim sealingly attached to an outer circumferential periphery of said first and second substantially circular first and second walls;
• a first row of equally spaced apertures disposed circumferentially along a first side of said substantially V-shaped annular rim;
• a second row of equally spaced apertures disposed circumferentially along a second side of said substantially V-shaped annular rim and radially offset from said first row of apertures;
• wherein, said first and second substantially circular walls and said substantially V-shaped annular rim define a drum having a vacuum chamber therein, said drum adapted to be rotatably disposed in the seed meter housing, and further wherein said vacuum chamber of said drum is in communication with a vacuum source.

An improved agricultural seed planter having a main frame operably supporting a vacuum source and a plurality of spaced row units, each row unit having a row unit frame operably supporting a seed hopper containing a supply of seeds, a furrow opening assembly, and a furrow closing wheel assembly, the improvement comprising:

• a) a seed meter, comprising:
• i) a housing defining a seed supply reservoir, a seed singulation area and a seed discharge area;
• ii) a rotatable drum disposed within said housing, said rotatable drum further having an annular circumferential periphery with at least one row of circumferentially spaced apertures therein and wherein at least a portion of said circumferential outer periphery rotates through said seed supply reservoir, said rotatable drum further having an interior vacuum chamber in communication with the vacuum source such that a suction force draws air through said apertures into said vacuum chamber;
• iii) a seed release disposed in said vacuum chamber and having a portion biased against an interior surface of said annular circumferential periphery such that at least said portion of said seed release substantially covers at least one of said apertures at a time as said drum rotates;
• b) a feed tube to communicate the supply of seeds from the seed hopper to the seed reservoir of said seed meter;
• whereby, as said drum rotates, said suction force through said apertures causes the seeds disposed in said seed supply reservoir to be entrained over said apertures as said apertures rotate through said seed supply reservoir, and further, whereby as said entrained seeds on said drum rotate towards said seed discharge area of said housing, said suction force entraining the seeds over said apertures is substantially cut-off thereby releasing said seeds one at a time from said apertures.

An improved agricultural seed planter having a main frame operably supporting a vacuum source and a plurality of spaced row units, each row unit having a row unit frame operably supporting a seed hopper containing a supply of seeds, a furrow opening assembly, and a furrow closing wheel assembly, the improvement comprising:

• a) a seed meter, comprising:
• i) a housing defining a seed supply reservoir, a seed singulation area and a seed discharge area;
• ii) a rotatable drum disposed within said housing, said rotatable drum having:
• A) a substantially circular first wall adjacently spaced from and a substantially circular second wall;
• B) a substantially V-shaped annular rim sealingly attached to an outer circumferential periphery of said first and second substantially circular first and second walls;
• C) a first row of equally spaced apertures disposed circumferentially along a first side of said substantially V-shaped annular rim;
• D) a second row of equally spaced apertures disposed circumferentially along a second side of said substantially V-shaped annular rim and radially offset from said first row of apertures;
• wherein said substantially circular first and second walls and said substantially V-shaped annular rim define a vacuum chamber in communication with the vacuum source;
• b) a feed tube to communicate the supply of seeds from the seed hopper to the seed reservoir of said seed meter;
• whereby, as said drum rotates, the vacuum source creates a suction force through said apertures causing seeds disposed in said seed supply reservoir to be entrained over said apertures as said apertures rotate through said seed supply reservoir.