Patent Application
20170000008
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to agricultural planters, and, more particularly, to agricultural planters having wings.
2. Description of the Related Art
Agricultural planters are commonly used implements to plant seeds in soil. An agricultural planter can include a chassis that carries one or more storage tanks full of seeds or other particulate that is to be spread on a field for planting, a hitch mechanism that attaches to a tractor or other implement pulled by a tractor, and a tool bar to which row units can be connected so that they are carried by the chassis. The planter can also include a pneumatic system carried by the chassis that supplies pressurized air to transport the seeds or other particulate from the storage tanks to the row units.
Each row unit of the agricultural planter places seeds in the field. Typically, the row units are laterally arranged along a length of the tool bar so that as the planter is pulled across the field, each row unit plants seeds at predefined intervals along the path it is pulled across. To plant seeds, the row units perform four main operations as they are pulled: opening a trench in the soil; placing a seed into the formed trench at appropriate intervals; closing the formed trench to put soil on top of the placed seed; and packing soil on top of the seed to provide desirable soil contact with the placed seed. To open a trench in the soil, a furrowing disc, also called an opening disc, presses into the soil and rotates, dislocating soil as it rotates to form the trench. Once the trench is open, a seed is placed in the trench by a metering device which receives seeds from the main storage tank(s) or a row unit storage tank and typically utilizes a combination of differential air pressure and gravity to place the seed in the trench at predefined intervals along the pulled path so that adjacent seeds in the row are not too close to one another. One or more closing discs carried behind the furrowing disc are pressed into the soil and also rotate as the planter is pulled to replace soil dislocated by the furrowing disc in the trench or dislocate adjacent soil into the trench to cover the seed placed in the trench with soil. Finally, a pressing wheel carried behind the closing disc(s) exerts pressure on the soil covering the seed to press the soil down onto the seed and provide good soil contact with the seed. By having multiple row units working in unison as the planter is pulled across a field, many seeds can be effectively planted in an efficient manner.
Agricultural planters, like other agricultural implements, are often very wide, in order to efficiently perform their function over a large area in a given pass by the implement. In order to accomplish this, and yet to be transportable by road, they are often built to be folded into a transport configuration and unfolded into a working configuration. In order to fold into the transport configuration, often a set of wing sections rotate forward about vertical hinges until they are parallel with a main hitch bar.
What is needed in the art is a way to simply and reliably hold the wing sections in their forward rotated position when in the transport configuration.
The present invention provides such a way to simply and reliably hold the wing sections in their forward rotated position when in the transport configuration.
The invention in one form is directed to an agricultural planter having a chassis with at least one wing section, which is operable to rotate forward about a vertical hinge to a transport configuration and to rotate outward about the vertical hinge to a working configuration. The agricultural planter has a telescoping hitch assembly made of an inner hitch bar and an outer hitch bar in a sliding relationship. A horsehead is attached to the at least one wing section and configured in such a way as to support the at least one wing section when in the transport configuration by resting upon the top of the outer hitch bar of the telescoping hitch assembly. The horsehead has a hook portion that partially wraps around the side of the outer hitch bar opposite from the at least one wing section when the at least one wing section is in the transport configuration in order to retain the at least one wing section in the transport configuration.
The invention in another form is directed to a method of providing an agricultural planter that is reconfigurable between a working configuration and a transport configuration, the method including several steps. The first step is providing a chassis having at least one wing section that is operable to rotate forward about a vertical hinge to the transport configuration and to rotate outward about the vertical hinge to the working configuration. The second step is providing a telescoping hitch assembly including an inner hitch bar and an outer hitch bar. The third step is providing a horsehead attached to the at least one wing section. The horsehead is configured to support the at least one wing section when it is in the transport configuration by resting upon the top of the outer hitch bar of the telescoping hitch assembly. The horsehead also has a hook portion that at least partially wraps around the side of the outer hitch bar opposite from its respective at least one wing section when the at least one wing section is in the transport configuration in order to retain the at least one wing section in the transport configuration.
An advantage of the present invention is that when the wing sections of the agricultural planter are folded forward into their transport configuration, the wing sections are hooked onto the outer hitch bar of the telescoping hitch assembly, rather than upon the inner hitch bar. In this way, the advantages of a telescoping hitch assembly are preserved, while providing increased stability and durability by supporting the folded wing sections from the non-extending portion of the telescoping hitch assembly. Thus, the outer hitch bar with its greater section modulus receives the weight of the folded wings, and further stress is not transmitted to the sliding joint between the inner hitch bar and the outer hitch bar of the telescoping hitch assembly.
A further advantage of the present invention is that the weight of the wing sections of the agricultural planter is transferred directly to the top of the outer hitch bar by the horseheads, so that the stress is transmitted evenly over the center axis of the outer hitch bar, as opposed to a configuration where the weight may be carried by a bracket attached to the side of the outer hitch bar, thereby introducing torsional stresses into the outer hitch bar. Such torsional stresses would be of further detriment to the sliding joint between the inner hitch bar and the outer hitch bar of the telescoping hitch assembly. The portions of the horseheads that at least partially wrap around the opposite side of the outer hitch bar from the respective wing sections transmit any force tending to separate the respective wing sections outwardly from the outer hitch bar directly to the side of the outer hitch bar, rather than relying upon any such bracket attached to the side of the outer hitch bar.
The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this invention, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the invention will be better understood by reference to the following description of an embodiment of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. The exemplification set out herein illustrates embodiment of the invention, in one form, and such exemplification is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.
Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to
The hitch assembly 12 can include a hitch 26 configured to be connected to a tractor or other agricultural implement (not shown) so that the agricultural planter 5 can be pulled in a forward direction of travel 110. The hitch assembly 12 may further be telescoping, such that it includes an outer hitch bar 28A and an inner hitch bar 28B. The hitch 26 can be integrally formed with or connected to inner hitch bar 28B. The inner hitch bar 28B is connected to the right hand wing section tool bar 14B and to the left hand wing section tool bar 14C by draft tubes 30. One or more folding cylinders 32 are attached to the hitch assembly 12 and to the right hand wing section 60 such that folding cylinders 32 are operable to fold the right hand wing section 60 forward about the right hand wing section vertical hinge 66 upon transitioning from the working configuration to the transport configuration. Similarly, one or more folding cylinders 32 are attached to the hitch assembly 12 and to the left hand wing section 80 such that folding cylinders 32 are operable to fold the left hand wing section 80 forward about the left hand wing section vertical hinge 86 upon transitioning from the working configuration to the transport configuration. When the agricultural planter 5 is thus folded from the working configuration to the transport configuration, the telescoping hitch assembly 12, made of the outer hitch bar 28A and an inner hitch bar 28B, extends as shown in
As can be seen, the agricultural planter 5 can also have various hydraulic, pneumatic, and electrical lines (unnumbered) throughout to support various cylinders and systems that are included on the agricultural planter 5. A marking device 36 can be connected to each outer end of the wing section tool bars 14B and 14C, and may be extendable so that a marking wheel 38 of the marking device 36 can create a line in the soil as the agricultural planter 5 is pulled along, which helps an operator in positioning the agricultural planter 5 to create subsequent rows. A stair assembly 40 may be mounted to the back of the agricultural planter 5 to allow an operator to access the storage tanks 18, 20 and 22.
The right hand wing section 60 is provided with a right hand wing section horsehead 64, which may be attached to the right hand wing section tool bar 14B, and which hooks over and rests upon the outer hitch bar 28A when the right hand wing section 60 is in its folded position, thereby securely holding the right hand wing section 60 in its folded configuration. Similarly, the left hand wing section 80 is provided with a left hand wing section horsehead 84, which may be attached to the left hand wing section tool bar 14C, and which also hooks over and rests upon the outer hitch bar 28A when the left hand wing section 80 is in its folded position, thereby securely holding the left hand wing section 80 in its folded configuration. Right hand wing section horsehead 64 and left hand wing section horsehead 84 are thusly named due to their shape, which approximates a long tapering shallow inverted hook. Each has a portion that at least partially wraps around and directly attaches to the respective wing section, a wide shoulder portion that serves to carry the weight of the respective wing sections, and a hook portion that actually rests on the top of the outer hitch bar 28A and at least partially wraps around opposite side of the outer hitch bar 28A from the respective wing section. The right hand wing section horsehead 64 and the left hand wing section horsehead 84 may be located at differing positions along the length of respective right and left hand wing sections 60 and 80, so that when in the folded configuration, the right hand wing section horsehead 64 and the left hand wing section horsehead 84 do not interfere with one another.
The right hand wing section 60 has at least one right hand wing section wheel 62, and the left hand wing section 80 has at least one left hand wing section wheel 82. The right hand wing section wheel 62 is connected to the end of a right hand wing section wheel trailing arm 72, which pivots about right hand wing section trailing arm mounting point 74. This right hand wing section trailing arm mounting point 74 may be integrated into the right hand wing section horsehead 64. A right hand wing section wheel lift cylinder 68 is connected to the right hand wing section wheel trailing arm 72 and to a right hand wing section wheel lift cylinder mounting point 70, and is operable to raise and lower the right hand wing section wheel 62. This right hand wing section wheel lift cylinder mounting point 70 may also be integrated into the right hand wing section horsehead 64. Similarly, the left hand wing section wheel 82 is connected to the end of a left hand wing section wheel trailing arm 92, which pivots about left hand wing section trailing arm mounting point 94. This left hand wing section trailing arm mounting point 94 may be integrated into the left hand wing section horsehead 84. A left hand wing section wheel lift cylinder 88 is connected to the left hand wing section wheel trailing arm 92 and to a left hand wing section wheel lift cylinder mounting point 90, and is operable to raise and lower the left hand wing section wheel 82. This left hand wing section wheel lift cylinder mounting point 90 may also be integrated into the left hand wing section horsehead 84. Both right hand wing section horsehead 64 and left hand wing section horsehead 84 may be provided with load distributing plates 76 and 96, respectively, in order to more effectively distribute weight over inner hitch bar 28B.
A control system 100 as shown in
The right hand wing section 60 and the left hand wing section 80 fold forward about the right hand wing section vertical hinge 66 and the left hand wing section vertical hinge 86, both of which are sufficiently flexible to allow the relative raising of the right hand wing section 60 and the left hand wing section 80 simultaneous with the lowering of the chassis 10 and hitch assembly 12. In this way, the right hand wing section horsehead 64 and the left hand wing section horsehead 84 pass above the outer hitch bar 28A during the folding procedure. Once the right hand wing section 60 and the left hand wing section 80 are fully folded parallel with the hitch assembly 12, the control system 100 takes the final steps of fully extending the main wheel hydraulic cylinders 44 and possibly raising the three point or similar hitch on the tractor, so that the chassis 10 and the hitch assembly 12 of the agricultural planter 5 is raised higher from the ground, and then retracting the right hand wing section wheel lift cylinder 68 and the left hand wing section wheel lift cylinder 88, so that the right hand wing section 60 and the left hand wing section 80 now rest on the top of the non-telescoping outer hitch bar 28A of the telescoping hitch assembly 12 through the right hand wing section horsehead 64 and the left hand wing section horsehead 84, respectively. The control system 100 continues to retract the right hand wing section wheel lift cylinder 68 and the left hand wing section wheel lift cylinder 88 so that the right hand wing section wheel 62 and the left hand wing section wheel 82 are lifted from the ground with sufficient clearance.
The non-telescoping outer hitch bar 28A of the telescoping hitch assembly 12 is better able to bear the weight and restraining forces of the right hand wing section 60 and the left hand wing section 80 due to its larger section modulus and because, unlike prior art systems wherein such weight was transferred to the sliding inner hitch bar, the weight does not result in further stress on the sliding connection between the outer hitch bar 28A and the inner hitch bar 28B of the telescoping hitch assembly 12. To further facilitate lower stress upon the outer hitch bar 28A, each of the right hand wing section horsehead 64 and the left hand wing section horsehead 84 is provided with load distributing plates 76 and 96, respectively. In this way, a more stable and durable agricultural planter 5 is provided when in the transport configuration, while preserving the advantages of an agricultural planter 5 having a telescoping hitch assembly 12.
Turning now to
In this way, the weight of the respective wing sections 60 and 80 is transferred to the top of the outer hitch bar 28A, directly over its center axis. Further, any force tending to separate the respective wing section 60 and 80 outwardly from the outer hitch bar 28A is transmitted directly to the side of the outer hitch bar 28A opposite to the respective wing section 60 and 80, so that the full section modulus is available to resist such separating force. In addition to providing this support, the right hand wing section horsehead 64 may also provide right hand wing section trailing arm mounting point 74 to which the right hand wing section trailing arm 72 is connected, and right hand wing section wheel lift cylinder mounting point 70 to which the right hand wing section wheel lift cylinder 68 is connected. In this way, actuation of right hand wing section wheel 62 is provided for. Load distribution plate 76 again distributes the weight of right hand wing section 60 over a larger area of the outer hitch bar 28A for lower stress.
While this invention has been described with respect to at least one embodiment, the present invention can be further modified within the spirit and scope of this disclosure. This application is therefore intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention using its general principles. Further, this application is intended to cover such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art to which this invention pertains and which fall within the limits of the appended claims.
