Kansas State University Research Foundation

Rhs Fertilizing/spraying Systems

Kent D Funk

Troy Christmann Kolb

Richard W Heiniger

Clyde J Lang

Bryan K Andra

Philip Todd

A spray boom system for mounting on a vehicle with opposite sides includes a pair of boom assemblies with proximate and distal ends. The boom assemblies are mounted on the vehicle and are swingable between laterally-extending field positions and folded travel positions generally alongside the vehicle. Hinged connector assemblies are attached to the boom assembly proximate ends for permitting the swinging movement of the boom arms and also permit the boom arms to be independently raised and lowered by a pair of hydraulic cylinders which are also connected to the boom assembly proximate ends. The operation of the cylinders for raising and lowering the boom assemblies is controlled by a height control system which utilizes ultrasonic signals for determining heights of the boom assemblies above a field or crop surface. A liquid dispensing system includes a tank for mounting on the bed of the vehicle, a pump, spray nozzles mounted on the boom assemblies and tubing interconnecting the liquid dispensing system components.

Spray boom system with automatic boom end height control

As the tractor and baler are driven straight down the windrow, hay is picked up and placed upon a platform conveyor which transfers the same rearwardly toward the baling chamber, during which transfer a deflector diverts the crop stream into an appropriate one of three axial sections of the chamber as determined by sensing and control mechanism associated with the baler. As the hay builds up in one of the sections, the sensors of the mechanism compare the size of that portion of the bale with the bale portion in the next adjacent chamber section, and once the differential between the two bale portions reaches a certain predetermined level, the control mechanism swings the deflector to its next position, directing hay into that next adjacent section to build up that portion of the bale. While build up is occurring in that section, such build up is compared with that in the next adjacent section until the deflector is shifted again, and so on, until a finished bale of uniform diameter from end-to-end has been completed without requiring that the operator weave the baler back-and-forth on the windrow. The need for hay within the respective chamber sections is sensed by the difference in tension of forming belts associated with the corresponding chamber sections, and a microprocessor serves as the primary control source for the deflector movement.

Cylindrical baler having bale-shape-responsive loading control system

Growing community of inventors

Manhattan, KS, United States of America

Kent D Funk