Ford New Holland, Inc.

Sperry Corporation

New Holland North America, Inc.

New Holland Inc.

Control Concepts, Inc.

Carl E Bohman

Richard Paul Strosser

Mark K Chow

Shaun A Seymour

Howard A Winey

John Henry Posselius

John R McClure

Kenneth W Zeuner

Irwin D McIlwain

Gilbert W Linde

Ronald T Sheehan

Thomas A Chmielewski, Jr

E William Rowland-Hill

Marvin G Weaver, Jr

Charles P Heisig

Peter G Mitchell

Hugh C Maguire

Ray C Minor

Linwood H Bowen

Mark K Torbett

James W Treichler

Bradley J Thompson

Pierino Piccinato

A material spreader comprising a mobile tank for receiving and discharging waste material, such as manure. The spreader includes a conveying assembly comprising one or more augers rotatably mounted in the tank for conveying material received in the tank to a discharge area. An opening in the vicinity of the discharge area permits material to be dispensed to a slinger assembly mounted outside the tank adjacent the opening. Material is distributed by the slinger in a controlled pattern as the tank is transported over a field. A control system is provided for selectively controlling the rate and pattern of the material being distributed, based on characteristics of the material. A field is divided into cells and data relating to the nutrient demand of each cell is collected and stored in tables in a memory. A GPS receiver detects the location of the spreader as it moves over a field. Nutrient demand data, specific to the cell in which the spreader is located, is the read from the memory to control the rate at which nutrient material is dispersed from the spreader.

Site-specific control system for manure spreader

A method and apparatus for controlling an agricultural harvester having a cut crop receiving header coupled to a hydraulic cylinder. The header applies a force against the ground that is adjusted by applying pressure to the cylinder. A first proportional valve is fluidly coupled to the cylinder, and responds to a first input signal by increasing pressure in the cylinder to a setpoint value, when the pressure is less than the setpoint. A second proportional valve is also fluidly coupled to the cylinder, and responds to a second input signal by reducing pressure in the cylinder to the setpoint pressure value, when the pressure is greater than the setpoint. A pressure signal representing cylinder pressure is received. The difference between the measured pressure and the setpoint is used to compute the first and second input signals, which are transmitted to the valves. Cylinder pressure is maintained substantially at the setpoint, maintaining the force applied against the ground by the header substantially constant. Alternatively, header height may be measured and the valves controlled to maintain header position substantially constant relative to the ground or the harvester frame. Header lateral tilt is controlled while controlling either cylinder pressure or header height. A resume function returns the header from a raised position to a cutting position at the beginning of a new row.

Agricultural harvester with closed loop header control

A forage harvester having a feed mechanism for transporting crop material along a feed path to a rotating cutterhead is provided with a first detector for detecting metal objects in the crop material and a second detector for detecting hard objects. The feed mechanism includes a hollow feed roll rotatable about a fixed shaft and both detectors are supported by the fixed shaft inside the feed roll. The first detector is a metal detector mounted inside a housing supported by the fixed shaft. The second detector is a thin film microphone for sensing air-borne sound waves produced when hard objects impact the feed roll. The second detector may be mounted on the housing or, alternatively, mounted on a support member attached to the fixed shaft. In either arrangement, a vibration-absorbing pad is provided to isolate the microphone from mechanical vibrations occurring in its supporting structure.

Metal and hard object detectors with shared fixed support inside a feed

A thin film highly directional audible sound sensor is mounted within a rotatable feed roll of a forage harvester to detect the presence of stones and other hard foreign objects in a crop material being fed past the feed roll to a cutter mechanism. Air-borne sound waves produced by the impact of foreign objects on metal parts of the harvester are detected by the sensor which produces a signal for stopping the crop feed mechanism before the foreign objects reach the cutter mechanism. The sensor is mounted on a stationary support within the rotatable feed roll. Output signals from the sensor control a stop mechanism for the crop feed mechanism via conductors extending through a stationary support shaft for the feed roll, thereby avoiding the need to commutate output signals from the detector.

Method and apparatus for hard object detection

In a forage harvester having an acoustic detector for sensing air-borne sounds produced by the impact of hard foreign objects on the crop feed mechanism of the harvester, a start-up control is provided for inhibiting the detector output during the intervals when the crop feed mechanism is stopped or being brought up to running speed. In forage harvesters having metal detectors for sensing the presence of metal in the crop material, the electromagnetic sensor in the metal detector inherently produces a noise output signal which is dependent on the speed of the crop feed mechanism, and this signal is used to control the inhibiting of the acoustic detector output.

Acoustic detector with start-up control

A device for determining the depth below the ground surface of a working member of an earth moving equipment, comprises a sensor for transmitting ultrasonic signal from underneath and toward the ground surface and for receiving a portion of the signal reflected from the ground surface. The sensor is positioned underneath the ground surface in fixed spatial relationship to the working member such that the sensor means is under the ground surface when at least a portion of the working member is under the ground surface. A circuit is provided for processing the received reflected signal to thereby indicate the depth under the ground surface of the working member, whereby the depth is proportional to the time of travel of the signal to the ground surface and the reflected signal to the sensor means.

Underground ultrasonic tillage depth sensor

A device for determining the depth below the ground surface of a working member of an earth moving equipment, comprises a sensor for transmitting electromagnetic signal from underneath and toward the ground surface and for receiving a portion of the signal reflected from the ground surface. The sensor is positioned underneath the ground surface in fixed spatial relationship to the working member such that the sensor means is under the ground surface when at least a portion of the working member is under the ground surface. A circuit is provided for processing the received reflected signal to thereby indicate the depth under the ground surface of the working member, whereby the depth is proportional to the time of travel of the signal to the ground surface and the reflected signal to the sensor means.

Underground electromagnetic tillage depth sensor

Apparatus for sensing moisture in crop material includes a probe mounted on a pickup of an agricultural baler for movement between a retracted position and an operative position. The probe has a pair of fingers arranged in a spaced apart relationship so that crop material picked up by the baler bridges the space between the fingers when the probe is in the operative position thus creating a signal path between the fingers. The moisture sensing apparatus also includes a cam roller carried on the pickup to move the probe from its retracted position to its operative position, and a computer connected to the probe to measure the conductance level of the crop material creating the signal path.

Moisture sensing apparatus with movable probe in combination with an

A non-contact row crop sensor comprises one or more transmitter/receptor pairs mounted on two row separators of a harvesting machine. Each transmitter transmits an energy beam to one of the receptors and the energy beams cross at a point which defines a position of the harvesting machine relative to a row of crop stalks. A circuit produces steering control signals dependent upon the time of intercept of one beam of a pair relative to the time of intercept of the second beam of the pair. A discriminator circuit is provided for discriminating between crop stalks and weeds. Plural transmitter/receptor pairs permit discrimination between intercepts caused by leaves and those caused by stalks.

Non-contact sensing unit for row crop harvester guidance system

A row crop harvesting machine is provided with first and second infra-red transmitters and first and second infra-red receptors for sensing the infra-red beams emitted by the transmitters. The transmitters and receptors are mounted on two adjacent crop row separators of a harvesting machine header and are positioned such that the beams intersect in a region which defines the alignment of the harvesting machine relative to a row of crop stalks. The intensities of the beams and the sensitivities of the receptors are such that the receptors may sense the beams through leaves but not through stalks.

Method and apparatus for discriminating between stalks and leaves in a

A row crop harvesting machine is provided with first and second infra-red transmitters and first and second infra-red receptors for sensing the infra-red beams emitted by the transmitters. The transmitters and receptors and mounted on two adjacent crop row separators of a harvesting machine header and are positioned such that the beams intersect in a region which defines the alignment of the harvesting machine relative to a row of crop stalks. The widths of the beams are chosen to be less than the width of the crop stalks being harvested but greater than the width of weed stalks which may be growing in the region of a crop row.

Optical method and apparatus for discriminating between crop stalks and

A method and apparatus for cancelling cyclically recurring noise induced in a magnetic metal detector by movement of ferrous machine parts in the field of the detector provides for periodically sampling the output of the metal detector, delaying each sample for the duration of one cycle of the cyclically recurring noise, and subtracting the samples taken in one cycle from the output of the metal detector during the following cycle. The delay is accomplished by a delay line or shift register, or by storing the samples under microprocessor control. If the noise has a first component occuring at a first rate and a second component occuring at a second rate cancellation of both components may be accomplished.

Digital noise cancellation in a metal detector

A bale accumulator and optional caboose are controlled by a microprocessor-based control circuit associated with and controlling the baler which pulls the bale accumulator. The control circuit monitors bale switches actuated by the presence of bales on four tables, two switches indicating the position of a bale push bar, and three table switches indicating when individual ones of three of the tables are latched or released for dumping bales therefrom. An operator's panel provides a visual display of the status of the bale accumulator and includes switches which may be actuated by the operator. In response to the switches on the bale accumulator the control circuit controls the push bar to move bales from a center table onto a left or right table at the sides of the center table, or inhibits movement of the push bar so that a succeeding bale ejected from the baler pushes a bale on the center table onto a trailing fourth table. In response to actuation of a dump switch the control circuit determines which tables should be unlatched to dump a bale therefrom, and energizes a motor or motors to unlatch the tables as determined by the control circuit. All operations of the bale accumulator are automatic except for operator actuation of the dump switches.

Bale accumulator with automatic control

In a forage harvester having a metal detector positioned within a first feed roll and a second feed roll whose displacement from the first feed roll varies with the bulk of crop material passing between the feed rolls, the sensitivity of the metal detector is adjusted according to the displacement of the second feed roll from the metal detector to provide a more uniform detection of tramp metal with varying crop bulk. The sensitivity is increased as the inherent noise component induced in the metal detector output signal by the second feed roll decreases as the second feed roll is displaced from the metal detector by crop bulk.

Variable sensitivity metal detection system

Under the control of a microprocessor first and second motors alternately drive first and second ends of a shear bar for adjusting the position of the shear bar relative to cutter head. The shear bar is adjusted so that it is substantially parallel to the cutter head even though the cutter head and shear bar may not be parallel at the time the adjustment is initiated. A knock sensor is provided for sensing impacts between the cutter head and shear bar, the knock sensor output signal being converted to a digital value for controlling the adjusting sequence. A knocker is provided for inducing vibrations in the shear bar to thereby test the operability of the knock sensor and its output circuitry. The sensitivity of the adjustment system to the output of the knock sensor is set automatically before an adjustment sequence begins to account for variations in the knock sensor, its output circuitry, and 'noise' vibrations induced in the shear bar by normal machine operation.

Growing community of inventors

New Holland, PA, United States of America

Carl E Bohman