APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING PARTICLES

摘要

An air seeder for planting agricultural crops includes: a storage tank for containing particles to be dispensed; a metering mechanism for transferring particles from the storage tank; an air distribution system for receiving particles from the metering mechanism, the air distribution system comprising a bank of tubes for transporting particles in a flow of air havin g a flow rate, and a damper mechanism at the bank of tubes for selective control of the flow rate within the bank of tubes; an air flow source for providing a flow of air to the bank of tubes; a particle velocity sensor located at each tube for providing a sensor output signal corresponding to a measured partic le velocity; and a control mechanism operably connected to the sensors and to the damper mechanism for selective adjustment of the flow rate in the bank of tubes, the control mechanism being adapted t o receive the sensor output signals, normalize the values corresponding to the sensor output signals, and display the normalized values.