CA1075657A - Liquid dispensing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

LIQUID DISPENSING APPARATUS

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
Liquid dispensing apparatus especially adapted for dispensing liquid insecticide and the like to material being transported by a conveying device. A valve providing commun-ication between a liquid reservoir and the conveying device is normally biased closed. Operation of the conveying device cocks a tripping device, which when released strikes a portion of the valve causing temporary opening thereof, and dispensing of a predetermined amount of liquid to the material. The amount of liquid dispensed during each temporary opening of the valve is controlled by adjustment of an arcuate member that controls the amount that the valve may be opened.

Description

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BACKGROU~D AND SUMMARY OF THE I~VE~TION
~ he genexal field of the invention is the metering of liquid for treating material, and the specific field o the invention is the metering of li~uid insecticiae and the like for treating seed or the like being transported and/or mixed by conveying means. It is often necessary for farmers to ..
treat seed for storage or before planting so that it will be resistant to insects, fungus, and a variety of other maladies.
In the past, while it has been common to provide means for treating seed conveyed by an auger or the like with powdered ~ : .
.insecticide, the treatment with li~uid insecticide has not been entirely successful, problems of proper adjustment of the I amount of liquid dispensed, problems of dispensing in an auger I environment, and problems of liquid flow after auger movement ~`
'~ 15 has stopped being common.
1I Typical prior art devices for treating seed or the like wit~ p~wdered material are shown in United States Patent ~umbers 3,773,220 and 2,507,820. While these devices are suc- ;
cessful in properly dispensing powdered material, they are not adaptable ~or use with liquid insecticide or the like s.ince liquid flow theret~roug~ would be constant, and would general- ~ -ly result in inproper dosage of insecticide with consequsnt i adverse effects or was~e. Devices in the general art of ll liquid dispensing, such as shown in United States Patent ~um-;¦ 25 ber 1,018,924, are no~ adaptable to function properly in the seed and grain treating snvironment, means respon~ive to con-veyor movement and means for facilitating positive dispensing of ~e proper amount of liquid not being providedO

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According to the teachings of the present invention, apparatus is provided or metering out the exact amount of liquid desired for treating seed and the like, which liquid is metered out in response to auger or other seed conveying 5 means position, but which will prevent liquid leakage into the auger when the auger is stopped no matter what position it as-sumes when stopped. Such apparatus preferably comprises a valve normally biased into closed position at an opening from ; a liquid reservoir to a seed~conveying means. A tripping de-vice w~ich normally does not act on the valve to open it is cocked by engagement of a portion ~hereof with a portion of the conveying means during a cycle o operation thereofO After cocking, the tripping device is released, and a portion ~here-of abuts the valve, temporarily opening it and allowing a flow o liquid from the reser~oir to the seed or the like within conveying means. The amount the valve is opened - and thus the amount of liquid that is dispensed during each opening of the valve - may be precisely determined by adjusting a valve `I limiting means for limiting the degree of opening thereof.
It is the primary object of the present invention to pro~ide means for effectively dispensing a desired amount of liquid to material carried by a conveying means, in re-sponse to the movement of said conveying means. This and other ob~ects of the invention will become clear from an in-spection of the detailed description of the invention and the appended claims.
BRIEE DESCRIPTIOM OF THE DRAWINGS
~IGURE 1 is a side view partly in section of liquid-_3_ ': ' .. ";;

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dispensing apparatus according to the present invention, show-ing the valve t~ereof in temporary open-li~uid dispensing position;
FIGURE 2 is a detail view partly in section of the valve and operating means therefor showing the valve in its normal closed position.

I)F:TAII.ED DESCRIPT:CO~ OF TH~ I~VE351TION
The invention relates to apparatus for treating with a liquid materials transported by a conveying means.
In particular, it relates to apparatus for treating seed, grain, or the like with a liquid insecticide, fungicide, numa-ticide, herbicide, or the like. The liquid-dispensing means is shown generally at 10 in FIGURE 1, having a body portion 14 thereof connected via any suitable fastening means 12 to a conveying tube 16 of an auger 18 or the likeO The auger 18 is shown in the drawings as having conventional flights 20 associated therewith, and is adapted to transport seed or the like upwardly through the tube 16. While an auger 18 is shown in the drawings, it is to be understood, that other suitable conveying means, such as a paddle conveyor or the like, may also be utilized.
The liquid-dispensing body portion 14 is adapted to receive a suitable treating liquid therein. A removable , .
cover 22 may be provided for the body 14, and the cover may be biased by a spring 24 into its closed position to prevent contaminants from entering the interior of the body 14. At the lower end of the body 14 is a bottom plate 26 for prevent-ing communication between the interior of the body 14 and the ~..

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auger 18. The plate 26 has a top surface 28 thereof, and an opening 30 therein. ~he opening 30 is normally closed (see FIGURE 2) by abutment of a valve 32 with t~e top surface 28.
The valve 32 has a stem portion 34 thereof extending through the opening 30 and terminated by a flange 36, and a spring 38 or the like is disposed between the plate 26 and the flange 36 for normally biasing the valve 32 into engagement with khe surface 28.
Movement of the valve 32 in opposition to the bias of the spring 38 away from the surface 28 allows the entrance of li~uid from the body 14 into the auger 18 for treatment of the material conveyed by the auger. The amount of flow of liquid through the opening 30 during each movement oE the valve 32 awa~ from ~he surface 28 is controlled by the arcu-ate member 40 or the like, which limits the extent of upwardmovement of the valve 32. The arcuate member 40 is adjusted ~y rotating it about shaft 42 to which it is attached. The .. : .
shaft 42 is pivoted at 44 to plate 46 near the top of the body 14, and at 48 to plate 26. Rokation of the shaft 42 is accomplished by rotation of ~andle 50 rigidly attached there-to~ Preferably the handle 50 is located at ~he top of ~he i body 14 for ease of accessO Indicia and/or detent means may , be provided for ~he han~le 50 to facilitate positive position-ing of the member 40 in a desired relationship wit~ respect to the valve 32 to accurately determine the amount of liquid to be metered to the material carried by the auger 18 during each upward movement of t~e valve 32.
Opening of the valve 32 is controlled by a tripping ~7~57 device, shown generally at 52 in the d.rawings. The tripping device 52 may be of any suitable construction for temporar-ily forcibly bringing a member into operative engagement with the flanye 36 of valve 32 in response to the movement of the auger 18 to temporarily open the valve 32 with snap-action.
As shown in the drawings, the tripping device 52 comprises an arm 54 responsive to auger 18 movement, and arm 56 for engagement with the valve flange 36, and a connecting por-tion 58 connecting the arms 54 and 56~ The arms are pivoted about a shat 60 received by opposed walls of the body portion .
14. A spring 62 or the like is operatively connected to the tripping device 52 by attachment at 66 to portion 58 J and is connected at 64 to the body portion 14. An auger-flight en-gaging portion 58 is rigidly attached to arm 54. The spring constank of the spring 62 may be chosen so that in the rest .~ -position thereof, even though the arm 56 abuts flange 36, it does not provide enou~h force to overcome the inertia and bias of spring 38; or preferably, the location of the shaft 60 and spring attachments 64 and 66 are chosen so that in ..
20 the normal position of device 52 the arm 56 barely makes :~
contact with the bottom of flange 36 . ~ . .
The operation of the exemplary device according to the invention is as follows: Seed or ot~er material that it is desired to treat is placed in auger 18 and conveyed by auger flights 20 through the conveyiny tube 16. The treat-ing liquid or liquids are placed in bo~y portion 14. The dispensing adjustment means 40 is adjusted by rotation of ..
handle 50 to the desired position which posit.io:n is dependent 6- :

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upon the volume of material to be treated, the speed of the auger 18, and the type and desired dosage of the treating liq-uid. Operation of the auger 18 results in an upward transla-tion of auger flights 20 thereof. During each rotation of the 5 auger 18 a flight portion 20 thereof abuts the portion 68 at-tached to arm 54 of tripping device 52, and the device 52 is rotated about shaft 60 clocXwise, resulting in the tensioning of spring 62 and the movement of arm 56 away from flange 36 of - valve 32 to the position shown in FIGURE 2. Slight additional 10 movement of the flight 20 from the position shown in F~GURE 2 results in the portion 68 of device 52 clearing the Elight por-tion 20, and the device 52 is moved rapidly in the counter-clockwise direction about the shaft 60 under the force of spring 62. This movement causes arm 56 to forcibly engage 15 flange 36 of valve 32, causing valve 32 to be moved away from the surface 28 - to the FIGURE 1 position - to allow liquid to flow through the opening 30. The upward movement of the valve 32, and thus the amount of liquid metered in, is determined by the position of the me~er 40. The valve 32 will only remain 20 open temporarily, and will close under the force of spring 38 as soon as the force supplied by arm 56 is diminished. In this way, permanent colr~nunication of the liquid within body 14 and the auger 18 is prevented no matter what the position of the auger flights 20 are when the auger is shut down. Proper mix-25 ing of the liquid and conveyed material occurs during subsequentconveyance of the material. Of course the cocking of the trip-ping device and the temporary opening of the valve 32 will be repeated for each rotation of the auger 18.

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It will thus be seen that apparatus has been herein disclosed that provides for even metering of a liquid insecti-cide or the like for treatment of seed or the like in conveying means. Permanent communication between the liquid reservoir and the auger is prevented no matter what position the auger is stopped in, and precise adjustment of the amount of liquid delivered is facilitated.
; While the invention has been herein shown in what is presently conceived to be the most practical and preferred em-bodiment, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that many modifications may be made thereof within the scope of the invention, which scope is not to be limited ex-cept by the appended claims.

Claims (7)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY
OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. Liquid-dispensing apparatus comprising a) conveying means for conveying material to be treated, said conveying means including engagement means, b) a liquid reservoir adapted to hold material-treating liquid, c) valve means biased to a closed position for preventing delivery of liquid from said reservoir to material being conveyed by said conveying means when closed, and alter-natively for allowing delivery of an amount of liquid from said reservoir to said material when opened, d) tripping means for temporarily opening said valve means with a snap-action against its closed-position bias so that no movement of the valve member takes place in direct response to movement of said conveying means but only in re-sponse to movement by said tripping means after release thereof by said conveying means engagement means, said tripping means including a member for cooperation with said engagement means of said conveying means, and e) means for positioning said tripping means to temporarily open said valve means once during each predetermin-ed degree of movement of said conveying means.

2. Apparatus as recited in claim 1 further compris-ing means for adjusting the amount of liquid that will be dis-pensed by said valve means during each temporary opening there-of.

3. Apparatus as recited in claim 2 wherein said ad-justing means comprises means for limiting the amount of travel of said valve means from its normally closed position.

4. Apparatus as recited in claim 3 wherein said valve travel limiting means comprises an arcuate abutment mem-ber, and means for controlling the portion of said arcuate abut-ment member above said valve means by rotation thereof.

5. Apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said trip-pring means positioning means includes a shaft about which said tripping means may rotate, and wherein said tripping means includes a device hav-ing a first portion thereof comprising said member for coopera-tion with said engagement means of said conveying means, and a second portion thereof for cooperation with said valve means for engagement thereof, and biasing means for imparting a strik-ing force to said second portion to open said valve means against its closed-position bias.

6. Apparatus as recited in claim 5 wherein said bias-ing means comprises a spring attached to said reservoir and to said tripping device.

7. Apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said con-veying means comprises an auger.