Portioning device for chemical granular material

{
  "publication_number": "US12085435B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Portioning device for chemical granular material",
  "abstract": "A portioning device for chemical granular material, in particular fertilizer, having an inlet opening for granules, an outlet opening for discharging granule portions produced from the granules and at least one rotationally drivable conveying element which is designed to combine granules fed to the portioning device to give granule portions during a rotational movement.",
  "claims": [
    "1. An agricultural spreading machine comprising: a storage hopper for storing chemical granules; and a portioning apparatus for generating granulate portions generated from the granules, a conveying device that conveys the granules from the storage hopper into the portioning apparatus, wherein the conveying device generates a conveying air stream entraining the granules and comprises a blower to generate the conveying air stream; a dosing device that adjusts a granulate quantity fed to the portioning apparatus; a depositing device that deposits the generated granulate portions onto an agricultural land surface; wherein the portioning apparatus includes an inlet opening for the granules and an outlet opening to dispense granulate portions generated from the granules and a rotationally driven conveying element is configured to bring the granules introduced into the portioning apparatus together as granulate portions during a rotational movement, wherein the granulate quantity and a size of a granulate portion is adjusted via the granulate quantity fed to the portioning apparatus; wherein the portioning apparatus comprises a housing, inside which a portioning chamber is disposed, wherein the conveying element is disposed inside the portioning chamber and the portioning chamber is connected to an inlet channel via a chamber inlet opening and the conveying air stream entraining the granules is conveyed via the chamber inlet opening into the portioning chamber; and wherein the chamber inlet opening is arranged at a lateral end face of the portioning chamber and is aligned in a direction of rotation of the conveying element, so that the conveying air stream is introduced into the portioning chamber in the direction of rotation of the conveying element.",
    "2. The agricultural spreading machine according to claim 1, wherein the conveying element of the portioning apparatus comes into contact with the granules present in the portioning chamber during a rotational movement and the conveying element pushes the granules in front of itself after making said contact.",
    "3. The agricultural spreading machine according to claim 1, wherein the conveying element is configured to accelerate granules present in the portioning chamber in a rotary manner during a rotational movement.",
    "4. The agricultural spreading machine according to claim 1, wherein the portioning chamber of the portioning apparatus is bounded in radial direction by a wall of the housing that at least partly encircles the axis of rotation of the conveying element.",
    "5. The agricultural spreading machine to claim 1, wherein the conveying element of the portioning apparatus is elongated or is formed as a blade extending radially outward.",
    "6. The agricultural spreading machine according to claim 1, wherein the conveying element of the portioning apparatus comprises multiple pieces from an elastically deformable material.",
    "7. The agricultural spreading machine according to claim 1, wherein the conveying element of the portioning apparatus comprises a deformable body.",
    "8. The agricultural spreading machine according to claim 7, wherein the deformable body comprises a deformable rubber body.",
    "9. The agricultural spreading machine according to claim 1, wherein the portioning apparatus comprises a drive device configured to drive the conveying element in rotation.",
    "10. A method for generating granulate portions using the portioning apparatus of an agricultural spreading machine, the portioning apparatus comprising housing inside which a portioning chamber is disposed, wherein the conveying element that is driven in rotation is disposed inside the portioning chamber and the portioning chamber is connected to an inlet channel via a chamber inlet opening and the conveying air stream entraining the granules is conveyed via the chamber inlet opening into the portioning chamber; and wherein the chamber inlet opening is arranged at a lateral end face of the portioning chamber and is aligned in a direction of rotation of the conveying element, so that the conveying air stream is introduced into the portioning chamber in the direction of rotation of the conveying element; the method comprising the steps of: conveying granules from a storage hopper into the portioning apparatus by a conveying device, the conveying device generating a conveying air stream entraining the granules and comprising a blower to generate the conveying air stream; bringing the granules introduced into the portioning apparatus together as granulate portions by a conveying element of the portioning apparatus that is driven in rotation; and adjusting an amount of the granules fed to the portioning apparatus by a dosing device of the agricultural spreading machine; wherein a granule quantity and size of a granule portion are adjusted via the granule quantity supplied to the portioning apparatus.",
    "11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the steps of: pushing the granules present in the portioning chamber by a rotating conveying element along a conveying trajectory that at least partly encircles an axis of rotation of the conveying element; acceleration of the granules present in the portioning chamber in rotational manner by the rotating conveying element, and outward acceleration of the granulate portions from the portioning chamber of the portioning apparatus in the direction of an outlet opening of the portioning apparatus.",
    "12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the speed of the rotational movement of the conveying element is higher than a speed of movement of the granules introduced into the portioning chamber.",
    "13. The method according to claim 10, wherein the impingement of the granules on the conveying element is damped by an elastically deformable contact face of the conveying element."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "The invention is directed to a portioning apparatus for chemical granulate, to an agricultural spreading machine and to a method for generating granulate portions.\n\nDuring the sowing of some plant varieties, such as corn, for example, fertilizer is spread at the same time, in order to increase the plant growth and thus achieve an increase of yield. In this connection, it has been common practice heretofore, especially for row crops, to deposit the fertilizer in bands along the rows onto the soil of the agricultural land surface. In contrast to this, however, the seed grains of a row are deposited in a manner uniformly spaced apart from one another. The spacing between the deposited seed grains may be, for example, 15 cm. Due to the spacing, a relatively large proportion of the fertilizer deposited in bands cannot be reached by the plants, at least in the germination phase, since the root system has not yet developed sufficiently.\n\nIn order to improve the accessibility of the deposited fertilizer for the germinating plants, delivery apparatuses for depositing fertilizers in portions close to a seed grain are known in the prior art. For example, a corresponding system is known from the publication EP 1,825,737 B1.\n\nThese and other known solutions for deposition of chemical granulate in portions on an agricultural land surface do permit delivery of the granulate, but they do so only at a limited ground speed and/or they lead frequently to inadvertent disproportioning of the granulate.",
  "cpc": [
    "G01F 11/24",
    "A01C 15/003",
    "A01C 15/006",
    "A01C 7/06",
    "A01C 7/102",
    "A01C 7/18",
    "B65G 2201/042",
    "B65G 29/00"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "A01C 15/00",
    "B65G 29/00",
    "G01F 11/24"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "Amazonen Werke H Dreyer SE and Co KG"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Thomas Wien",
    "Florenz Hilbert",
    "Stefan Jan Johannaber",
    "Florian Stein",
    "Jan-Henrik BREUER",
    "Stephan Teckemeyer",
    "Mario Wessels"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2020-05-19",
  "publication_date": "2024-09-10",
  "grant_date": "2024-09-10",
  "priority_date": "2019-06-28",
  "application_number": "US-202017620099-A",
  "family_id": "70779754",
  "cited_by_count": 2,
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}