Smooth Seed Tube with External Optical Sensor
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional seed sensors in agricultural planters often cause seed spacing issues due to imperfections that alter the seed trajectory, leading to irregular plant spacing and yield loss, as they can hit or deflect seeds, disrupting their path and timing.
Innovation Solution
A seed tube with a smooth, uninterrupted, and sink-free interior surface made of transparent material, where sensors are mounted externally to face the exterior surface, avoiding contact with seeds and using a separate lower locator to ensure a flat interior surface, preventing disruptions and ensuring accurate seed spacing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a conventional sensor is mounted inside the seed tube to detect seeds, then seed detection capability is achieved, but seed trajectory is altered causing spacing irregularities
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor is extracted from the interior of the seed tube and mounted on the exterior surface. The transmitter and receiver are positioned outside the tube, with the receiver facing the exterior surface through which light passes to detect seeds without physical contact or internal obstructions affecting seed trajectory.
Solution Approach 2:
The transparent front wall of the seed tube serves as an intermediary medium, allowing light to pass through from the external transmitter to the external receiver while enabling seed detection without requiring internal sensor mounting that would obstruct seed flow.
2Ease of operation
If molded structures are added to the seed tube for sensor mounting and attachment, then sensor mounting capability is achieved, but interior surface smoothness is compromised creating sinks and warps
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor mounting function is extracted from the interior of the seed tube and relocated to the exterior surface. Attachment structures are similarly moved to the exterior, preserving the interior surface as a smooth, uninterrupted, sink-free surface suitable for seed flow.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor mounting and attachment functions are moved from the interior dimension to the exterior dimension of the seed tube. This spatial relocation allows external sensor mounting and attachment structures without compromising interior surface quality.
3Measurement precision
If sensors are mounted inside the seed tube, then seed detection is enabled, but seed contact occurs causing trajectory disruption and delays
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor components (transmitter and receiver) are extracted from the interior environment and mounted on the exterior of the seed tube. This eliminates all potential contact between sensor parts and seeds, preventing trajectory disruption while maintaining detection accuracy through optical transmission through the tube wall.
Solution Approach 2:
The mechanical sensor mounting system inside the tube is replaced with an optical detection system mounted externally. Light transmission through the transparent tube wall enables seed detection without mechanical contact, eliminating the source of trajectory disruption.
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
This design enhances seed spacing accuracy by maintaining a smooth interior surface within the seed tube, reducing seed delays and irregular plantings, thereby improving yield consistency.
Implementation Method 1
A sensor is mounted on the seed tube and arranged to face an exterior surface of the front wall. The sensor is kept outside of the seed tube, and light is transmitted and received by the sensor through the front wall to detect seeds passing through the seed tube.
Data Source
AI summary
A seed tube for an agricultural planter has a top entrance, a bottom exit, front and rear walls, and sidewalls. A lower seed tube locator fits around the main body of the seed tube as a separate component and provides a lower attachment point for the seed tube. The front wall of the seed tube is free of substantial molded structures that would tend to create a sink or warp the interior surface of the front wall during molding. A sensor is mounted to the seed tube to face an exterior surface of the front wall. Light is transmitted and received by the sensor through the front wall to detect seeds passing through the seed tube. The interior surface of the front wall is smooth, uninterrupted and sink-free to avoid any obstructions that might alter the trajectory of the falling seeds, thereby increasing the seed spacing accuracy of the planter.