Deere + Company

Richard F Gallens

Jay H Olson

Jerry D Webber

William R Lundie

James C Martin

James L Tetrick

An air seed meter which dispenses individual seeds supplied by a seed hopper into a furrow at a controlled rate as the meter and others like it are advanced over the ground has a generally cylindrical housing containing a rotatable seed disk. As the seed disk is rotated past a mass of seeds on one side thereof, a plurality of seed cells formed by recesses in the surface of the seed disk at one or more circumferential rows of holes adjacent the outer periphery of the seed disk mechanically accelerate and eventually capture therein individual seeds from the seed mass. The individual seeds are held within the cells by a pressure differential created by a vacuum source coupled to the inside of the housing on the opposite side of the seed disk until the cells reach a discharge area. At the discharge area, the effects of the vacuum are cut off so as to release the individual seeds from the cells for discharge through a chute at the bottom of the housing to a seed furrow below. Agitation of seeds within the seed mass with the accompanying mechanical acceleration and capture of individual seeds within the cells may be enhanced by providing fins on the surface of the seed disk and is facilitated by a cell configuration which has a rear wall of greater slope than the front wall of the cell. Doubling of seeds within the individual cells is minimized by limiting the size and depth of the cells relative to the seed and also by use of a relatively low pressure differential which is made possible by the manner in which the cells agitate, mechanically accelerate and then capture the seeds. As a result there is no need for cumbersome and elaborate multiple seed eliminating arrangements.

Vacuum seed meter

In a seed meter in which a vacuum source is coupled to the interior of a generally cylindrical housing in which a seed disk is rotatably mounted, a seal in the form of an endless loop is mounted within the housing so as to extend between an inner wall of the housing and a side surface of the seed disk so as to confine the vacuum from the vacuum source to a selected portion of the seed disk. The seal has a first portion of the length thereof extending around a major portion of a circle on the opposite side of a circumferential array of apertures in the seed disk from the axis of rotation of the seed disk and a second portion of the length thereof extending across the circumferential array of apertures and into a region adjacent the axis of rotation to isolate a seed discharge chamber on the other side of the seed disk from the vacuum source. The seal has a base portion extending along the length thereof and releasably mounted within a holder mounted on the inner wall of the housing, the base portion having ribs in the opposite sides thereof which fit into mating grooves in the side walls of the holder. The seal also has a thin lip portion along the length thereof which emanates from an edge of the base portion opposite the inner wall of the housing and which extends in a direction outwardly and away from the axis of rotation of the disk and into contact with the side surface of the disk.

Growing community of inventors

Moline, IL, United States of America

Richard F Gallens