The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 24, 1998
Filed:
Aug. 20, 1996
John F Stufflebeam, Romeoville, IL (US);
Thomas A Olson, Bolingbrook, IL (US);
Lisle J Dunham, Downers Grove, IL (US);
Case Corporation, , WI (US);
Abstract
A seed agitating assembly for a seed metering mechanism including a housing with a seed reservoir area wherein a mass of seeds are held and a rotatable seed disc internally carried by the housing. The seed disc is provide with a circular array of holes or throughopenings for captively transferring seeds from the seed reservoir to a seed discharge area on the seed metering mechanism. The seed discharge area is typically arranged in spaced relation from the seed reservoir. A rotary drive shaft extends endwise through the housing for imparting rotational movements to the seed disc. According to the present invention, a seed agitator assembly is provided for stirring or agitating the seeds in the seed reservoir. The seed agitating assembly includes a generally circular or plate-like member that is operably coupled to the drive shaft. The seed agitating assembly further includes a plurality of flexible arms carried by and radially extending beyond the periphery of the plate-like member for agitating the seeds in the seed reservoir as the plate-like member is rotatably propelled by the drive shaft.