Planter with cup belt meter
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsTerry Lee Snipes, Brian Lee Heston, Marco Antonio da Silveira Bochi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A seed belt cup planter includes seed-intercepting indexing pocket structure facing an adjacent cup on the downward run of the belt towards a furrow for orienting the seed released from the adjacent cup relative to the furrow. In one embodiment, the indexing pocket structure is located on the underside of the cups and receives and orients a cylindrically shaped seed such as a short sugar cane billet. The seed pickup side of the cup is shaped to efficiently receive cylindrical seeds as well as round and oval seeds of differing sizes from a seed puddle. A divider located in the seed hopper between adjacent columns of cups helps channel the seed to the cups and limits pressure on the seed puddle.
Claims16
A seed planter for planting seeds in a trench in the ground, the seed planter comprising a seed hopper for receiving round and cylindrically shaped seeds, an upright endless belt supported for movement along a path and including an upward portion adapted for upward movement through the hopper and a downward portion adapted for movement downwardly towards the ground, a plurality of vertically offset cups attached to the endless belt for movement along the path, the cups opening upwardly into the hopper on the upward portion and opening downwardly to release the seeds towards the ground on the downward portion, adjacent cups each adapted to receive an individual seed as the cups moves upwardly with the belt through the hopper, the improvement comprising:
- a concave upwardly seed-intercepting indexing pocket facing one of the upward adjacent cups in the downward portion of the path, the indexing pocket orienting the seed released from the adjacent cup relative to the trench.
A seed planter for planting seeds in a trench in the ground, the seed planter comprising a seed hopper for receiving the seeds, an upright endless belt supported for movement along a path and including an upward portion adapted for upward movement through the hopper and a downward portion adapted for movement downwardly towards the ground, a plurality of vertically offset cups attached to the endless belt for movement along the path, the cups including a seed pickup surface concave upwardly on the upward portion, the cups opening downwardly to release the seeds towards the ground on the downward portion, the upward movement of the upward portion singulating the seeds in the cups, the improvement comprising:
- the cups having an underside including a seed-intercepting orientation pocket concave upwardly towards an upwardly adjacent cup on the downward portion, the pocket orienting the seed released from the upwardly adjacent cup relative to the trench.
A seed planter moveable in a forward direction over the ground for planting seeds in a trench in the ground, the seed planter comprising a seed hopper for receiving the seeds, an upright endless belt supported for movement along a path and including an upward portion adapted for upward movement through the hopper and a downward portion adapted for movement downwardly towards the ground, a plurality of vertically offset cups attached to the endless belt for movement along the path, the cups including a seed pickup surface opening upwardly on the upward portion, the cups opening downwardly to release the seeds towards the ground on the downward portion, the upward movement of the upward portion singulating the seeds in the cups, the improvement comprising:
- the cups having an underside including an upwardly concave cylindrical orientation pocket opening upwardly towards an upwardly adjacent cup on the downward portion, the pocket orienting the seed released from the upwardly adjacent cup relative to the trench.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.