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US 6,581,535 B2Granted
Agricultural seed meter
AssigneeKinze Manufacturing, Inc.
InventorsAlan F. Barry, Russell A. Hagen, Richard J. Vokoun
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An agricultural seed meter is disclosed including a seed selection mechanism in the form of a belt or a drum having pockets and moving through a seed reservoir area for loading seeds into the pocket. A cut-off brush is movable between a singulating position and a volume metering position so that the meter may be used either as a singulating meter or for volume metering without changing, deleting parts or adding parts. In either mode, seed release is accurate and repeatable through the use of a retainer brush for holding the seeds in their associated pocket until the pocket, in a downward, curving path, passed beyond the end of the retainer brush, thereby releasing the seeds into a discharge conduit.
Claims24
An agricultural seed meter comprising;
- a housing providing an inlet for receiving seeds and a discharge opening for delivering seeds;
- a seed carrying member in the form of an endless carrier having a plurality of seed pockets and adapted to be driven in a closed path to receive seeds in said pockets adjacent said inlet opening and delivering seeds to said discharge opening;
- a cut-off brush having bristles with free ends, said cut-off brush being positionable in a singulating position when seeds of a relatively larger size are in said inlet, said free ends of said bristles engaging said carrier to remove excess seeds not seated in said pockets away from said carrier while permitting seeds seated in said pockets to pass to said discharge opening, said cut-off brush being further positionable to a volume metering position for seeds of a relatively smaller size, wherein said bristles of said cut-off brush are spaced from said seed carrying member to permit seeds to pass beneath said cut-off brush;
- and
- a retaining wall between said cut-off brush and said discharge opening and located to engage said carrier and cover said pockets to retain seeds in said pockets.
2 more elements
An agricultural seed meter including;
- a housing having an inlet opening for receiving seed, an outlet opening for discharging seed and a generally upright wall between said inlet and outlet openings;
- a drive sprocket journalled in said housing for rotation about a horizontal axis;
- at least one idler sprocket below said drive sprocket and above said discharge opening;
- a belt having a plurality of seed pockets and entrained about said drive sprocket and said idler sprocket to provide a generally downward delivery section transporting seeds between said drive sprocket and said idler sprocket to deliver seeds to a location above said discharge opening;
- and
- a retainer brush mounted to said housing and having bristles extending in the direction of movement of said belt and engaging said belt to retain seeds seated in said pockets as said belt moves along said delivery section.
3 more elements
An agricultural seed meter comprising:
- a housing defining an inlet opening for receiving seeds and a discharge opening;
- first, second and third sprockets rotatably carried by said housing;
- an endless conveying member defining a plurality of seed pockets and entrained about said first, second and third sprockets;
- said first, second and third sprockets spaced to define a triangle including a seed loading section communicating with said inlet opening, a delivery section extending upstream of said discharge opening, and a return section extending from said discharge opening to said loading section;
- one of said sprockets adapted to be driven in rotation and to drive said conveying member;
- a brush engaging said conveying member adjacent the location between said loading section and said delivery section to displace from said conveying member seeds not seated in said seed pockets;
- and
- a flexible member forming a retaining wall along at least a portion of said delivery section of said conveying member to retain said seeds in said pockets and defining a release location for said seeds to be deposited above said discharge opening.
5 more elements
An agricultural seed meter comprising;
- a housing defining an inlet opening for receiving seeds and a discharge opening lower than said inlet opening for discharging seeds;
- a seed carrying member having a plurality of seed pockets spaced about said member, said member adopted to be driven in a closed path to move said seed pockets in a generally vertical plane such that each of said pockets moves sequentially and repeatedly from a location adjacent said inlet opening to a location adjacent said discharge opening and thence to said location adjacent said inlet opening;
- a first brush at a first position, said first brush having bristles engaging said seed carrying member adjacent said inlet opening and extending generally normal to the direction of travel of said seed carrying member at said first position;
- and
- a second brush located between said first position and said discharge opening, said second brush having bristles extending in the direction of movement of said seed carrying member and engaging said seed carrying member to retain seeds in said pockets as said pockets moves from a location adjacent said first brush to said discharge opening.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.