Row planter assembly
View Patent ↗A row planter assembly having offset track assemblies, a downforce control assembly, a furrow assembly, a seed metering assembly, and a seed delivery assembly.
1. A row planter assembly, comprising:
a chassis;
a first track assembly mounted to the chassis;
a second track assembly mounted to the chassis at a position offset from the first track assembly;
a seed meter assembly and seed delivery assembly mounted to a rearward end of the chassis;
a furrow assembly mounted to the chassis forward of the seed delivery assembly; and
wherein the seed meter assembly has a pair of seed plates mounted to a drive shaft in spaced relation disposed within a housing.
2. The assembly of claim 1 further comprising a downforce control assembly.
3. The assembly of claim 2 wherein the downforce control assembly has a first swing arm connected to a contact wheel at one end and a pair of swing arms connected to the chassis assembly at one end, a first cylinder connected to the second swing arms, and a second cylinder connected to the first swing arm.
4. The assembly of claim 2 wherein the downforce control assembly has a set of support arms in parallel and connected to a fulcrum arm of which the upper support arm is of longer length than the lower support arm, causing the lower section of the fulcrum arm to move in a forward direction when the chassis is moved upwardly, thereby causing the chassis to also move forward.
5. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the furrow assembly has an opening disc; a furrow plow, and a pair of shaping wheels in contact with the sides of the furrow plow.
6. The assembly of claim 5 wherein the opening disc has a tangent convexed cutting edge configured to cut through soil and residue to reduce furrow compaction and improve cutting through residue.
7. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the housing of the seed meter assembly has an outlet port in communication with a discharge conduit that is in communication with a transverse conduit that is in communication with a disc air chamber that is in communication with a makeup air chamber that is in communication with an inlet port.
8. The assembly of claim 1 further comprising a sprayer mounted to the frame downstream from the seed meter assembly and seed delivery assembly.
9. The assembly of claim 8 further comprising a nozzle with a reduced cross sectional area in communication with a pump causing fluid to forcibly flow such that the fluid penetrates the soil to a desired depth without the use of mechanical device.
10. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the seed meter assembly has a sensor mounted between a singulator and a seed drop zone and adjacent a seed disc and connected to a computer, the sensor positioned to monitor the presence of a seed on the seed disc and the computer configured to accelerate a rotational speed of the seed disc when no seed is detected by the sensor on the seed disc.
11. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the seed delivery system includes a pair of flexible discs mounted to a shaft and configured to frictionally hold a seed in place.
12. The assembly of claim 11 wherein the seed delivery system has a first separator positioned to separate the pair of flexible discs to receive a seed from the seed meter assembly and a second separator positioned adjacent a furrow to separate the flexible discs to deliver the seed to the furrow.