GB2063031A

GB2063031A - Ploughs

Info

Publication number: GB2063031A
Application number: GB7939506A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Pipe J W
Current assignee: Pipe J W
Priority date: 1979-11-15
Filing date: 1979-11-15
Publication date: 1981-06-03
Also published as: GB2063031B

Abstract

A mounted or semi-mounted plough for attachment to a three point tractor linkage, comprising a frame-work having at the front a head (10) for attachment to said linkage and a rearwardly extending beam (11) carrying legs (12) supporting the groundworks, each groundworks including a rotary cutter (13) consisting of a plurality of plural bladed rotors (14) mounted one behind the other on a rotary shaft (15) extending parallel to the beam and adapted to be driven by an hydraulic motor (18) carried by the corresponding legs of the frame. The rotary cutter (13) may be used in partial or total substitution for the conventional mouldboard and sharepoint. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to ploughs This invention relates to a plough.

Conventionally, a mounted or semi-mounted plough for attachment to the three point linkage of a tractor comprises a frame carrying at the front a head for attachment to said tractor linkage. The frame comprises a beam extending rearwardly from the head, this beam carrying a plurality of longitudinally spaced legs which support the so-called groundworks. The groundworks usually consists of a mouldboard or breast-plate carrying a share or sharepoint at the front.

According to the invention, there is provided a plough of the above-described kind, wherein the groundworks includes a rotary cutter, which cutter is supported by a shaft rotatably borne by the frame and adapted to be driven by a motor carried by said frame.

The rotary cutter preferably comprises a plurality of plural bladed rotors mounted one behind the other on a shaft extending longitudinally generally parallel to the beam.

It is preferred to employ the rotary cutter in place of the rear part of the conventional mouldboard, the front part of the mouldboard and the share being retained. In practice, this entails replacing the conventional share by an enlarged share having a rear part corresponding to the front part of the mouldboard. The effect of this arrangement is to complete the turning over of the furrow-slice produced by the share and to break up the slice into a tilth which requires a minimum and possibly no afterpreparation prior to sowing.

It is also possible, however, to obtain a similar advantageous effect when the whole of the mould- board and share is replaced by a rotary cutter. In this case it is necessary for the cutter to be mounted further forward and, for example in the case of the bladed multiple rotors above referred to, for the blades of the front rotor to be formed with angled end portions, preferably right-angled end portions, in use to dig a furrow slice somewhat similar to that produced by a share and which can be broken up by the following rotors.

In all instances, it is desirable for the drive to rotate the shaft in such a sense that the rotor blades enter the soil (which is turned overto one side) atthe bottom and exit from the soil at the top.

The rotary cutting arrangement in accordance with the invention may be applied to a mounted or semi-mounted plough, preferably a reversible plough, and the plough frame may simultaneously carry coulters or other earth-working tools.

A practical arrangement of plough in accordance with the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a practical arrangement of the plough in diagrammatic side view; Figure 2 shows the arrangement in diagrammatic rear view; and Figure 3 shows a modified rotary cutter.

The arrangement shown in Figures 1 and 2 comprises a reversible mounted plough, i.e. a plough intended to be attached to the three point linkage of atractorto be raised and lowered bythetractor's hydraulic system, without the supplementary support of a rear ground wheel, and which has right and left hand groundworks which are alternated when the plough is in operation so that all the furrows are laid one way. In fact, the illustrated plough is also a multiple plough, having plural groundworks on both sides. Two groundworks on each side are common practice, but multiple ploughs may also have three or more groundworks on both sides.

Essentially, the plough comprises a head 10 for attachment to the tractor linkage, a beam 11 extending rearwardly from the head, and legs 12 projecting laterally from the beam to carry the respective groundworks. As the present plough is a multiple reversible plough, the beam 11 carries four legs 12 in opposed pairs.

Conventionally, each leg 12 carries a mouldboard or breastplate (indicated in broken line in Figure 1) mounted on a support fixed to the leg, which mouldboard supports a share or sharepoint at its front.

In accordance with the invention, in the present arrangement, the major part of the conventional mouldboard (which acts in use to turn overthe soil loosened by the digging action of the share in order to form a furrow slice) is replaced by a rotary cutter 13. This cutter 13 comprises three plural bladed rotors 14, one behind the other, fixed on a rotary shaft 15 rotatably supported in a bearing block 16 carried by the conventional mouldboard support 17.

Asmall hydraulic motor 18 is also carried by the support 17, in order to drive each rotary cutter 13 in rotation.

For each groundworks, the rotary cutter 13 is positioned just behind the sharepoint 19 laterally to the side thereof (see Figure 2) to which turning of the soil is commenced by the retained lower, forward part 20 of the mouldboard. The parts 19 and 20 may alternatively be regarded as an enlarged share; this consideration is not important. The relevant feature of the described arrangement is that the digging or loosening of the soil is effected in the usual manner by the sharepoint 19, the tail of the share or partial mou Idboard 20 commences turning of the soil, and completion of soil turning is effected by the rotary cutter 13. In addition, however, the rotary cutter 13 acts to break up the soil so that, instead of a conventional furrow slice, a soil tilth is produced which requires the minimum and possibly no further preparation before sowing.For maximum efficiency in use, and also to bury stubble left from a previous crop, the rotary cutters 13 are driven in the appropriate sense to cause the cutter blades to enter the soil at the bottom and to exit from the soil at the top. As can be seen from Figure 2, the illustrated arrange The drawing originally filed was informal and the print here reproduced is taken from a later filed formal copy.

ment has four blades on each rotor 14, and the blades of the three rotors at each groundworks are angularly aligned. However, each rotor may have more than four blades, and these blades may have differing angular positions from one rotor to the next.

The invention may also be employed in a plough in which the mouldboard and share are wholly dispensed with. In this case, as indicated in Figure 3, the front rotor 21 of the rotary cutter at each groundworks has forwardly turned edges 22 on its blades, enabling this cutter to perform a digging action analogous to that of the conventional share. The rotors 23 behind the front rotor 21 perform the turning over and soil breaking action previously described. The rotary cutter assembly 24 of Figure 3 will be mounted on the plough frame slightly further forwardly than the position indicated in Figure 1 for the rotary cutters 13.Furthermore, in this modification it may be convenient to employ reversible motors to drive the rotor cutters, or to incorporate suitable reversing means, whereby the rotary cutters can be driven (simultaneously) either in one rotational sense or the other This enables either a shallow tilth or a deep tilth to be obtained, as required, depending on whether the rotor blades enterthe turned soil at the top or at the bottom.

The hydraulic motors 18 may conveniently be powered from an outputtapping often provided in the tractor hydraulics system. If no such tapping is available, an auxiliary pump may be introduced. It may also sometimes be practical to employ a single motor, or a single motor on each side of the plough, with a chain coupling to the rotary cutters.

Various further modifications of the abovedescribed arrangement are also possible within the scope of the invention, which is also applicable to other types of plough.

Claims

1. A mounted or semi-mounted plough for attachment to a tractor three point linkage, comprising a frame having a head for attachment to said linkage and a rearwardly extending beam having one or more legs carrying the groundworks, wherein the or each groundworks includes a rotary cutter, which cutter is supported by a drivable shaft rotatably borne bytheframe.

2. A plough according to claim 1, wherein the rotary cutter comprises a plurality of plural bladed rotors mounted one behind the other on a shaft extending longitudinally generally parallel to the beam.

3. A plough according to claim 1, wherein the rotary cutter comprises a flexible cutter in the form of a cutting chain.

4. A plough according to claim 1 or claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the or each groundworks includes a partial mouldboard and sharepoint at the front, and a rotary cutter in substitution for the rear part of the mouldboard.

5. A plough according to claim 1 or claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the or each groundworks consists of a rotary cutter without a preceding share.

6. A plough according to claim 5 when appendantto claim 2, wherein the end portions of the blades of the front rotor are angled in use to dig a furrow slice similar two that produced by a share.

7. A plough according to claim 2 or any of claims 4 to 6 when appendantto claim 2, wherein the shaft is adapted to be driven in a sense which causes the blades to enterthe soil of a turned over furrow slice at the bottom and to exit from the soil at the top.

8. A plough according to any of claims 1 to 7, including a shaft driving means including a reversible motor or reversing means in the drive from a unidirectional output.

9. A plough according to any of claims 1 to 8, including a shaft driving means in the form of one or more hydraulic motors mounted on the frame.

10. A plough according to claim 9, wherein the or each motor is adapted to be driven from an output tapping in a tractor hydraulics system.

11. A plough according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the rotary shaft is adapted to be driven from an output drive shaft on the tractor.

12. A plough according to any of claims 1 to 11, being a reversible plough having right- and left-hand groundworks.

13. A plough according to any of claims 1 to 12, being a multiple plough having a plurality of groundworks one behind the other on at least one side of the beam.

14. Amounted orsemi-mounted plough substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 and 2 or Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings.