Apparatus for subsoil application

• US 4,033,271 A
• Filed: 02/13/1976
• Issued: 07/05/1977
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/1974
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Acra-Plant, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Acra-Plant, Inc.
• Inventors: Williams, Donald E., Robertson, Forrest E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Burr, Edgar S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bratlie, Steven A.
• Application Number:
  US05/657,720
• Time in Patent Office: 508 Days
• Field of Search: 111/6, 111/7, 111/86, 172/699, 172/700, 172/713, 172/723, 172/768, 172/770, 172/724, 172/730
• US Class Current: 111/123
• CPC Class Codes: A01C 23/025 Continuous injection tools

Abstract

A knife for applying substances such as fertilizer in solid, liquid or gaseous form cuts a slice in the subsoil with its leading, rearwardly inclined cutting edge and simultaneously firms up and maintains the lower portions of the sides of the slice in readiness for receiving the substance in a pocket formed by a recess at the lowermost rear of the knife in conjunction with the firmed up portions. The slice taken by the slender knife is of such narrowness and the movement of the knife through the subsoil is of such a streamlined nature that the cohesive integrity and inherent resiliency of the subsoil is not destroyed, promoting self-closure of the slice behind the knife, thus greatly reducing the escape of the substance where it is a gas. A forwardly tapering wedge having downwardly converging faces on the bottom of the knife leads rearwardly from a lowermost, forwardly projecting, sharp point to prepare the lower portions of the slice sides in the proper manner, and laterally projecting, forwardly converging wings overlying the recess of the knife behind the wedge help seal the pocket to trap the substance when it is a gas, such wings also serving to return and press subsoil into the slide after the deposit of the substance.

Claims

1. In a subsoil knife, a body having:

an elongated blade having a front, a rear, a bottom, a top, and a pair of opposite sides with respect to the normal path of travel of the body,

the longitudinal axis of the blade extending between said top and bottom thereof,

said blade having a soil-slicing, line edge all along the front thereof which is devoid of flat surfaces extending transversely of said normal path of travel of the body,

said sides of the blade progressively diverging from said line edge as said rear of the blade is approached,

said bottom of the blade sloping upwardly and rearwardly from said front of the blade in the same plane as a pair of diagonally extending line edges on said opposite sides of the blade;

an elongated soil-firming wedge integral with said blade along said bottom of the latter, the longitudinal axis of said wedge extending between said front and rear of the blade,

said wedge having a pair of lateral triangular faces converging downwardly and inwardly to a common lowermost, soil-creasing, fore-and-aft extending line edge and diverging upwardly to form said diagonal line edges with the sides of the blade,

said soil-slicing line edge, said soil-creasing line edge, and said diagonal line edges leading to and converging forwardly in a soil-piercing point on the body,

said wedge terminating rearwardly at a location spaced forwardly from said rear of the blade to thereby define a recess topped by said bottom of the blade and fronted by the rear termination of said wedge; and

a pair of elongated, fore-and-aft extending wings projecting outwardly from said opposite sides of the blade directly above said recess,

said wings having lower surfaces serving as lateral extensions of said bottom of the blade and lying in the same diagonal plane as said diagonal line edges, said wings further having upper surfaces sloping downwardly and forwardly toward said diagonal line edges,

said wings converging laterally and forwardly toward said point at the same rate and in linear alignment with said diagonal line edges,

said diagonal line edges being at the lateralmost extremity of the body from said point rearwardly to said wings, whereupon, from the wings rearwardly, the wings represent the lateralmost extremity of the body.

2. In a subsoil knife as claimed in claim 1, wherein said sides of the blade are outwardly bowed.

3. In a subsoil knife as claimed in claim 1, wherein said slicing edge is longitudinally concave and is inclined rearwardly as said top of the blade is approached.

4. In a subsoil knife as claimed in claim 1, wherein said knife further includes a tube along said rear of the blade having a discharge opening within said recess.

5. In a subsoil knife as claimed in claim 4, wherein said blade is thicker at its rear than said tube.

6. In a subsoil knife as claimed in claim 1, wherein said knife includes a mounting shank for the body, the latter having a mating cavity for the shank, said cavity being open along the top and rear of the blade.