PLANTING DEVICE, PARTICULARLY FOR PLANTING POTATOES

1489480 Potato planters AGROSTROJ PROSTEJOV NARODNI PODNIK 28 Jan 1975 [11 Feb 1974] 3653/75 Heading AID In a planting apparatus, a number of scooping carriers are carried on arms, each arm having a support portion, pivotably mounted in a rotatable shaft, and connected to a crank carrying a pin or roller parallel to the axis of rotation of the shaft and engaging a cam guide. In operation, the apparatus collects and projects material 2, e.g. potato tubers, in scoops 1 carried at the ends of arms 4, having support portions 5, which rotate at different angular velocities in different positions about the shaft 7 as a result of the engagement of rollers 11 with the cam groove 12. During planting, material 2 is fed into a position to be scooped from the reservoir 23 when the spring-loaded arm 26 is displaced by a cam 29. A free space 22 on each side of the scooping path accommodates surplus material. The apparatus is mounted on a furrowing machine, Fig. 4 (not shown), and coupled to the machine's ground engaging wheels so that material 2 is projected rearwardly and downwardly. At the point D a scoop 1 has minimum circumferential velocity, to minimise damage to the scooped material 2, and at point F the circumferential velocity V 2 falls abruptly from its maximum value to release material 2. The value of V 2 is chosen so that the horizontal ground impact velocity of material 2 is equal to the translational velocity of the furrowing machine, in order to ensure vertical descent of material 2 into a furrow.