Seed Drill Depth Gauge Wheel with Resilient Ring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing seed coulters face challenges in maintaining consistent depth and operation in difficult soil conditions, such as wet and sticky soils, due to blockages and siltation caused by flexing depth control wheels, which require expensive and complex scrapers for cleaning.
Innovation Solution
A seed coulter with a depth control wheel featuring a resilient ring with a contoured peripheral surface that vibrates and creates a fine-crumb soil structure, reducing soil adhesion and eliminating the need for scrapers, and allowing adjustable coulter pressure for varying soil conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If flexible rubber or plastic depth control wheels are used, then flexibility and adaptability to soil conditions are improved, but blockages and soil adhesion occur on wet and sticky soils
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter of the depth control wheel from flexible rubber/plastic to rigid metal, which fundamentally alters how the wheel interacts with soil. The rigid metal construction prevents soil adhesion and blockages while maintaining depth control functionality through a different mechanism - the metal wheel's smooth surface and structural rigidity prevent sticky soil from adhering, thus resolving the contradiction between adaptability and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The depth control wheel is constructed as a composite structure combining a rigid metal wheel body with a resilient ring element. This composite design allows the wheel to maintain its rigid structure for preventing soil adhesion while the resilient ring provides some flexibility for soil adaptation, thus balancing both requirements.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If scrapers are attached to depth control wheels to remove adhering soil, then soil adhesion is reduced, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the scraper component entirely by changing the fundamental design of the depth control wheel to a rigid metal construction that inherently resists soil adhesion. Instead of adding a cleaning mechanism to a flexible wheel, the solution removes the need for scrapers by choosing a material and structure that prevents soil adhesion in the first place.
Solution Approach 2:
The rigid metal depth control wheel serves its own cleaning function through its inherent properties - the smooth, non-porous metal surface and rigid structure cause soil to slide off rather than adhere, making the wheel self-cleaning and eliminating the need for external scraping mechanisms.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If rigid depth control wheels are used, then soil adhesion is reduced, but flexibility and adaptability to varying soil conditions decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamics to the rigid wheel system through the resilient ring that can flex and adapt to varying soil conditions. The rigid metal wheel body provides the non-adhesive surface, while the resilient ring component adds the necessary flexibility and adaptability, allowing the system to maintain both properties simultaneously.
4Productivity
If depth control wheels operate in wet and sticky soils, then seed distribution continues, but siltation occurs in the areas over which the wheels pass
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the surface parameter of the depth control wheel from flexible rubber/plastic to rigid metal, which fundamentally alters soil interaction. The metal surface creates a different contact dynamics with wet soil, preventing the soil from adhering and subsequently siltating in the wheel's path, thus enabling continuous operation without siltation problems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables universal and permanent use in challenging conditions without blockages or siltation, improving self-cleaning and reducing soil movement, thus ensuring consistent seed distribution and reduced wear on components.
Implementation Method 1
the ring is designed as a resilient ring which executes vibrations, the vibration amplitude of which is induced by a coulter pressure which can be variably changed by means of an adjusting device
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
Figure 2A
AI summary
Disclosed is a seed drill coulter (10) having a coulter holder (26) to which at least one rotatably mounted coulter disc (36) is attached and to which at least one likewise rotatably mounted depth gauge wheel (12), arranged next to the at least one coulter disc (36), is attached, wherein, next to or behind the at least one coulter disc (36) or spatially assigned to the seed drill coulter (10), at least one seed tube for guiding agricultural distribution material in the direction of a seed furrow created by means of the at least one coulter disc (36) and/or by means of a furrowing tool is attached. In order to create a seed drill coulter (10) that can be used universally and durably even under difficult use conditions, provision is made for the depth gauge wheel (12) to have a ring (22) at its circumference or as a circumferential surface, the width of said ring (22) being greater than the height thereof.