Agricultural Plough Actuator Mechanism for Depth Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing agricultural ploughs face challenges in efficiently adjusting the working depth of plough bodies during reversible operations, leading to potential false trips, semi-tripped states, and inadequate stone detection.
Innovation Solution
An actuator mechanism, such as a stone trip mechanism, is employed to control the bias force applied to the plough body, allowing it to maintain its working position while adjusting for reactive forces, thereby reducing false trips and improving stone detection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the plough body is rigidly attached to the main frame with fixed ground clearance, then the working depth remains constant, but the plough body cannot adapt to varying soil conditions and may cause false trips or inadequate stone detection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the plough body's position relative to the main frame adjustable rather than fixed. The plough body can be lowered onto stones or obstructions during operation, and the ground engaging member's depth can be modified independently of the main frame height, allowing the system to adapt to varying soil conditions and obstacles dynamically
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the depth control function into independent components: the main frame height, the plough body position relative to the main frame, and the ground engaging member depth. This segmentation allows each component to be adjusted independently, enabling the plough body to maintain reliable stone detection while adapting working depth to soil conditions
2Productivity
If the main frame is brought closer to the ground surface to increase working depth, then deeper soil penetration is achieved, but the plough bodies may penetrate too deeply in softer soils causing excessive resistance and potential damage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by allowing different parts of the plough system to have different depth settings. The ground engaging member can be adjusted to a depth appropriate for the local soil conditions, while the main frame maintains its overall height. This enables optimized local penetration depth that matches soil resistance characteristics without requiring the entire plough to be lowered
3Device complexity
If a single pivoting depth wheel is used for both configurations of a reversible plough, then the device complexity is reduced, but the depth wheel must be moved from one side to the other during reversal which increases operation time and may affect depth control precision
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing a depth control system where the ground engaging member depth adjustment mechanism serves both configurations of the reversible plough. The system can maintain appropriate depth control for both left and right configurations without requiring physical repositioning of depth wheels, as the depth control is integrated into the plough body structure itself
Data Source
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AI summary
An agricultural implement comprising: a ground engaging tool (322; 422); and an actuator mechanism (366; 466; 566). The actuator mechanism (366; 466; 566) is configured to provide a bias force to the ground engaging tool (322; 422) such that it is biased towards a working position. The agricultural implement also includes a controller (597) that is configured to automatically set the level of the bias force that is provided by the actuator mechanism (366; 466; 566) based on control-data (598).