Special drive system that provides automatic application control of granular material

Abstract

A special drive system that provides automatic and uniform application control of granular materials. It provides an automatic application control of a granular material from a granular material spreader and is comprised of (a) at least one electric motor for driving the conveyor and spinner at a speed, the said speed which determines a rate of discharge of the granular material; (b) a power source for the motor; (c) a means for controlling the power from the power source to the at least one motor; (d) a means for inputting a signal to the means for controlling the power; (e) a wiring harness with control and power electrical connectors; and (f) a means to mechanically mount the special drive system to the grain spreader wherein the result of the system is an accurately controlled rate of discharge and hence dispensing of the granular materials.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 454,035 filed Mar. 18, 211 by Michael D. and David A. Score and entitled “a special system that provides automatic application control of granular materials”.FIELD OF INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to a special drive system that provides automatic application control of granular materials. Particularly this system and device are related to dispensing of any type of granular material including but not limited to fertilizer, lime, seed, highway road salt, sand, and other broadcasted granular materials. These materials are currently dispensed by a system with less accurate means (mechanical ground wheels) or by a system considerably more complex and more expensive (hydraulic means).[0003]The special drive system is one that provides automatic application control of granular material. It describes an improved method of automatically controlling an accurat...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0029]Recall that typically 90% or more of all granular fertilizer spreaders continue to have press wheels that are ground driven. This is inexpensive, however there are draw backs to this design as was discussed above: control of the spreader from the tractor cab, wheel slip in wet conditions, mud build up on the wheel thus changing the effective radius of the driver and driven, and ease of changing the rate the fertilizer is applied with other information is presented.

[0030]There are several objects and advantages of the special drive system that provides automatic application control of granular materials. There are currently no known granular dispensing means that are effective at providing the objects of this invention.

[0031]The agricultural and road maintenance (ice and snow prevention / removal) fields have long needed a simple control means that is superior to the ground wheel mechanical drive of the dispenser. Hydraulic technology was tried and enabled some improvements, but at a cost that was economically unsatisfactory. With the modern abundance of information of all types as to field conditions, hopper / field locations, crop and fertilizer compatibilities as well as the farmer's own knowledge about the specific field receiving materials, the need to couple the information with the hopper control was ideal.

[0032]Typically ninety percent (90%) or more of all granular fertilizer spreaders continue to have press wheels that are ground driven. This is efficient and inexpensive, however there are four main draw backs to this design. One, it is more difficult to turn off the spreader from the tractor cab; and two, the wheel will slip in wet conditions; three, in muddy conditions the mud builds up on the wheel thus changing the effective radius of the driver and driven, and thus changing the rate the fertilizer is applied; and, four, other conditions such as fertilizer dispense rate, last year's yield, and the farmer's historical knowledge of the field is not easily included when setting the dispensing rates.

[0037]permits various factors that may impact yield such as location, soil conditions, last growing season's yield, etc.

[0038]Finally, other advantages and additional features of the present special drive system that provides automatic application control of granular material will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the full description of the device. For one skilled in the art of dispensing granular materials such as fertilizer, road salt, seed, sand and the like, it is readily understood that the features shown in the examples with this system are readily adapted to other types of dispensing systems and devices.

Problems solved by technology

None solve all the problems stated as does the current Score system.

However, it had no continuous control of distribution rate for the manure with the highly variable nutrient content.

It used the impeller method of a disk but had little control of distribution versus speed and ground terrain.

The design had much complexity while still being mechanically based in nature.

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