Twin-row planter with tandem driven seed meters

摘要

The present invention is directed to a twin-row planter with tandem driven seed meters at a pair of row units at each row segment of a twin-row planter. A tandem drive system drives the seed meters in a tandem manner, which may include a single transmission assembly simultaneously rotating a pair of seed discs in the pair of seed meters at each row segment. An indexing system allows for quickly changing an amount of relative rotational or angular indexing of seed disks inside of the pair of seed meters at the pair of row units of each row segment to adjust longitudinal spacing between delivery locations of seeds from the seed disks at planted row segments of a planted twin-row. Adjustments can be made at disk hubs, between shaft segments linking the seed disks, or with multiple sets of mounting holds on the seed disks.

主权项

1. A twin-row planter with tandem driven seed meters, the twin-row planter comprising:
a chassis towable behind a tractor through an agricultural field for planting seeds onto the field during a planting session; multiple row segments supported by the chassis, each of the multiple row segments including, a first seed meter with a first seed disk supported at the row segment for singulating seeds for individual delivery onto the field in a first planted row segment with the delivered seeds of the first planted row segment longitudinally aligned and spaced apart from each other; a second seed meter with a second seed disk supported at the row segment for singulating seeds for individual delivery onto the field in a second planted row segment with the delivered seeds of the second planted row segment longitudinally aligned and spaced apart from each other and longitudinally staggered with respect to the first planted row segment; a tandem drive system with a transmission assembly delivering power to both the first and second seed meters for singulating and delivering seeds on the first and second planted row segments, respectively, and a shaft assembly with a first shaft segment and second shaft segment engaging and rotating in unison with the first shaft segment during use of the twin-row planter and wherein the first shaft segment delivers power to the first seed meter and the second shaft segment delivers power to the second seed meter; and an indexing system arranged with respect to the shaft assembly to selectively adjust an angular index position of the seed disks of the first and second seed meters with respect to each other during an indexing adjustment procedure, the indexing system including a biasing arrangement that is arranged with respect to the shaft assembly to apply a biasing force and lock first and second shaft segments into rotational unison with each other when the biasing arrangement is in a resting state during use of the twin-row planter and wherein temporarily overcoming the biasing force of the biasing arrangement permits relative rotation of the first and second shaft segments with respect to each other during the indexing adjustment procedure.