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:
Jul. 25, 2000
Filed:
Jan. 16, 1998
Karl-Heinz O Mertins, Fargo, ND (US);
Barry D Batcheller, West Fargo, ND (US);
Paul R Bramel, Fargo, ND (US);
Jason J Wanner, Fargo, ND (US);
Deere & Company, Moline, IL (US);
Abstract
An optical particle flow monitoring system for monitoring particle flow through the primary and/or secondary tubes of an air dispensing system, such as an air seeder. The primary tubes include a particle sensor having at least one emitter lens body, which forms a substantially uniform, collimated beam which illuminates a sensing area in a seed tube in order to accurately monitor the number of particles flowing in the seed tube. In the preferred embodiment, optical fibers connect the emitter lens bodies to optical beam generating devices, and connect respective receiver lens bodies to optical beam detecting devices, with both the optical beam generating devices and the optical beam detecting devices being located remotely from the seed tubes for improved immunity to static electricity discharge. All the particles flowing in the secondary seed tubes associated with a given primary tube may be counted by a particle sensor located on the primary tube, thus greatly decreasing the number of sensors and the amount of data processing required to determine the total number of particles dispensed by the secondary tubes of the air dispensing system.