GB2073566A - Spreader - Google Patents

Abstract

A flail-type material spreader of the type which has flexible flails 23 spaced along a rotatable shaft 15 and which has conventional starter members 25 on the shaft near the spreader end walls 11, 12 is improved by providing it with an end wall cleaner and auxiliary starter 29 between the plane of each starter member and of the nearest flail, and on a radius remote from each of them. The end wall cleaner and auxiliary starter has a rigid, fixed arm 30 and a short flexible flail 34 pivoted near the outer end ofthe arm, the length of the short flail being such that its flail head 35 is capable of scraping along the end wall to clean manure from the wall as the shaft rotates. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improved spreader Flail-type material spreaders for agricultural use have been well known since the first invention of such a spreader by Keith D. Elwick, to whom U. S.

patent 2,886,332 issued on May 12, 1959, for a flailtype material unloader. Such spreaders are a highly developed type of apparatus.

It has been known for many years that a flail-type spreader must have an opener, or starter member, somewhere on the flair shaft; and commoniy a starter member is placed at each end of the shaft to initiate the discharge of material from the container.

Because of the fact that the flexible flails in a flailtype spreader are initially wrapped around the shaft, when material in the container is piled high above the shaft the wrapped up flails may simply make a tunnel in the material and never start discharging it.

The starter members eliminate this possibility; and one form of starter member is that of Ferris U. S.

patent 3,414,199. That patent also describes another type of starter member which is the one utilized in the apparatus of the present invention.

The rigid starter arms must be placed nearly an inch from the end walls in order to provide sufficient clearance for the mounting bolts of the pivoted flingers, because of the need to accommodate arm deflection which may occur due to unequal material loading on the two sides of a starter arm. The flinger, in turn, must be on the side of the starter arm remote from the end wall, for the same reason. This typically, places the nearest face of the starter flinger about 1-1/2 inches from the end wall.

The result of these dimensional requirements is to leave a layer of manure on each container end wall, and those layers are thicker toward the outer perime teroftheend walls. Endwise, whipping action of the endmost flexible flails has heretofore been relied upon to break caked material off the end walls.

Reliance upon the endmost flexible flails is not always satisfactory. On occasion, when the shaft is stopping, the flail head of the endmost flexible flail lodges between the starter arm and the end wall, and is not dislodged by shaft rotation. The problem is particularly acute in spreaders of the type disclosed in U. S. patent 4,101,078, which have an outward offset at the top of the end wall and a movable hood which is entirely outside the plane of the end wail, so there is a pocket between the starter arm and the movable hood within which the flail head of the endmost flexible flail may lodge.

In addition to the problems of end wall cleaning and endmost flail head trapping, there has always been more or less user dissatisfaction with the rate at which the starters open up the ends of a load of manure and free up the flails for normal material discharge. Accordingly, there has been a need for a structure which can open up the ends of a load faster than the conventional starter members.

In accordance with the present invention, the apparatus is provided with a novel end wall cleaner and auxiliary starter which is fixed to the shaft and extends radially from it between the planes of the starter member and of the closest flail mounting ear, and on a radius remote from that of each of them.

The end wall cleaner and auxiliary starter comprises a rigid arm fixed to the shaft, and a short flexible flail which is pivotally mounted near the distal end of the arm. There is a flail head on the short flexible flail, and the length of the short flexible flail is such that the flail head is capable of scraping along the end wall to clean manure from it as the shaft is rotated.

The end wall cleaners and auxiliary starters do a better lob of cleaning the end walls than do the conventional flails, their flail heads are incapable of being caught between the starter arms and the end walls, and the combination of a short rigid arm with a short flexible flail member on the outer end speeds the breaking out of the load at the ends of the container.

Fig. 1 is a fragmetary plan view of a spreader manufactured in accordance with the present invention, with the hood omitted for clarity of illustration; and Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken substantially as indicated along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, a flail-type material spreader, indicated generally at 10, has a front end wall 11, a rear end wall 12, and a side wall 13 that connects the end walls and occupies a segment of a cylinder. Substantially on the longitudinal axis of the cylinder is a rotor, indicated generally at 14, which includes a shaft 15 that is carried in journals 16 and 17 on the respective end walls 11 and 12. The spreader is provided with means 18 for rotating the shaft 5 from the PTO of a farm tractor; and the spreader has wheels 19 and a hitch 20 so that it may be towed by the tractor.

The rotor shaft 15 is provided with radially extending, fixed flail mounting ears 21 which are spaced along the shaft in rows; and the illustrated apparatus has four rows of flail mounting ears 21 which are located 90" from each other about the circuiference of the shaft 15. There are endmost mounting ears 22 the positioning of which will be described in more detail hereinafter.

Pivotally connected to each of the ears 21 and 22 is a flexible flail member 23 which includes a flail head 24 pivoted at its distal end. The flails are of the usual construction - i.e., a heavy link chain with a T-bar flail head at the end.

Fixedly secured to each end of the shaft 15 is a starter member, indicated generally at 25; and the two starter members extend in opposite directions from the shaft. Each starter member consists of a fixed arm 26 and a flinger 27 which is pivotally mounted on the distal end of the arm on an axis 28 parallel to the shaft. Ordinarily the starter arm is about 7/8" (2.2 cm) from the end wall 11 or 12, as the case may be; and commonly the starter arm is about 518" thick (1.59 cm), which places the near face of the flinger 27 about 1-1/2" (3.8 cm) from the end wall.

In a commercial spreader of the type manufactured by applicants' assignee the flail heads 24 clear the container side wall 13 by about one inch (2.54 cm), while the flingers clear the side wall by about three inches (7.62 cm). The reason for this is that in winter-time operation in cold climates it is not unusual to have a buildup of ice in the bottom of the container which is easily smashed by the flail heads 24 but which may cause damage to the entire shaft end assembly if the starter flinger strikes it when the flinger is leading the pivot 28 as sometimes occurs due to oscillating cycles in rotation of the rotor 14.

The need for extra clearance at the end of the flinger 27, and also the relatively large space between the flinger and the end wall, can result in an undesirable buildup of material during ordinary operation ofthe spreader. The problem is aggravated by the fact that, in orderto avoid damageto the end walls and reduce the likelihood of the fail heads being trapped, the endmost flail mounting ears 22 in an apparatus having four rows of flails are about 6-1/2" from the starter members 25, a though the space between the planes of successive flail ears 21 is only about 4-1/2". This, of course, means that there is a greater likelihood that material just inside the starter arms 26 will not be discharged by the endmost flails.

In accordance with the present invention, an end wall cleaner an auxiliary starter, indicated generally at 29, is fixed to the shaft 15 in a plane between those of the starters 25 and the endmost flail mounting ears 22. Each of the end wall cleaner and auxiliary starter members 29 consists of a rigid arm 30 which extends radially from the shaft 15. At the distal end of each arm 30 is a pivot 31 which is parallel to the shaft 15 and carries a link 32 at the outer end of which is a mounting 33 for a short flail chain 34 that has a flail head 35 pivoted upon its outer end.

As an example of a prototype of the presentinven- tion that has been operated experimentally by applicants' assignee, in a containerwhich is 62" in diameter the distance from the axis of the shaft 15 to the distal ends of the arms 30 is 14-1/4" (36.2 cm); radius through their pivot points, each of the flair combined length of the short chain 34 and flail head 35 is 13" (33 cm). When the short flail chains 34 are fully extended, the flail heads 35 clear the container side wall 13 by about one inch.The position of the end wall cleaner and auxiliary starter arms 30 with reference to the end walls 11 and 12 is such that when the short flail chains 34 swing outwardly toward the end walls at an angle of about 30 from a radius trhough their pivot points, each ofthe flail heads 35 can just scrape along the adjacent end wall 11 or 12, as the case may be.

Tests of experimental units provided with the end wall cleaners and auxiliary starters 29, running under different operating conditions with various types of material in the containers, have demonstrated that the improvement of the present invention opens up the ends of the load substantially faster than is the case with commercial spreaders sold by applicants' assignee which are not equipped with the end wail cleaners and auxiliary starter, and that the end walls are kept considerably cleaner.

The invention is illustrated as applied to a material spreader having four rows of flails; but it is equally applicable to spreaders having more or less than four rows.

Locating the endmost flail mounting ears 22 in alignment with the adjacent starter members greatly reduces the possibility that an endmost flail head will be trapped between a starter member and an end wall of the container.

The foregoing detailed description has been given for clearness of understanding only and no unnecessary limitations should be understood therefrom as modifications will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

Claims (7)

1. In a flail-type material spreader having a con tainerwith two end walls, a side wall that connects the end walls and occupies a segment of a cylinder, a shaft substantially on the longitudinal axis of said cylinder, a plurality of radially extending flail mounting ears fixed to said shaft in spaced relationship to.

one another, a ffexible flail member attached to each of said ears, saidflexible flail members having flail heads and being capable of winding around the shaft, a radially extending starter member mounted on the shaft, in close parallel relationship to monted on the shaft in close parallel relationship to an end wall of the container, said starter member including a fixed arm and a flinger pivoted near the distal end of the arm on an axis parallel to the shaft, and means for rotating the shaft to cause said starter member and said flail members to discharge material over said side wall, the improvement comprising, in combination:: an end wall cleaner and auxiliary starter comprising a rigid arm fixed to the shaft and extending radially therefrom between the planes of said starter member and of the closest flail mounting ear, and on a radius remote from that of each of them, a short flexible flail, means pivotally mounting said short flexible flail near the distal end of the arm, and a flail head on said short flexible flail, the length of the short flexible flail being such that its flail head is capable of scraping along said end wall to clean manure from it as the shaft is rotated.

2. The improvement of claim 1 in which the mounting ear closest to the starter member is effectively longitudinally aligned therewith.

3. The improvement of claim 2 in which the rigid arm of the end wall cleaner and auxiliary starter is fixed to the shaft effectively 1 80" from the line of the starter memberandthe closest mounting ear.

4. The improvement of claim 1 or 2 or3 in which the means pivotally mounting the short flexible flail comprises a link, a pivot parallel to the shaft connecting said link.nearthe distal end of the rigid arm, and a connection between said link and said short flexible flail.

5. The improvement of claim 1 in which the spreader has a starter member in close parallel rela tionshipto each end wall of the container, the flail mounting ears nearest both said starter members are effectively equidistant from said starter members, and there are effectively identical end wall cleaners and auxiliary starters ateach end portion of said shaft, said end wall cleaners and auxiliary starters being effectively equidistant from the planes of said starter members.

6. The improvement of claim 5 in which the starter members are mounted on the shaft effectively 180 apart, and each wall cleaner and auxiliary star ter arm is fixed to the shaft effectively 180 from the line of the adjacent starter member.

7. The improvement of claim 6 in which each mounting ear which is closest to a starter member is effectively longitudinally aligned with the adjacent starter member.

S. The improvement of claim 5 or 6 or 7 in which the means pivotally mounting the short flexible flail of each of the effectively identical end wall cleaners comprises a link, a pivot parallel to the shaft connect ing said link near the distal end of the rigid arm, and a connection between said link and said short flex ible flail.