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System for controlling vertical displacement of agricultural implements into the soil

  • US 5,524,560 A
  • Filed: 12/09/1994
  • Issued: 06/11/1996
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/09/1994
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. In a means for altering vertical displacement of an agricultural implement as said implement and its motorized carrier travel across ground;

  • wherein said altering means includesmeans to raise and lower said agricultural implement with respect to said carrier;

    sensor means adjacent said implement and partly submerged in said ground for sensing the magnitude of electrical resistivity of soil in said ground;

    wherein said sensor means travels with said implement;

    wherein said sensor means comprises a positive electrode extending into said soil in a tilling-like manner, wherein said positive electrode is shaped at its lower end to compress said soil into a compacted narrow ribbon at said lower end, wherein said ribbon is generally parallel to and below the surface of said ground, and is adjacent and touching said electrode'"'"'s lowest surface, as said electrode travels through said soil;

    elevation control means connected to said sensor means and to said raising-lowering means so as to alter said vertical displacement of said implement and said sensor means when the sensed resistivity is different than a predetermined magnitude;

    the improvement comprisingsaid sensor means having a negative electrode other than said agricultural implement itself, which negative electrode at least partly is submerged in said ground immediately behind said positive electrode in the direction of travel;

    wherein said negative electrode extends deep enough into said ground so as to contact said ribbon throughout the full thickness of said ribbon;

    wherein said positive and negative electrodes'"'"' forwardmost faces are wedge-shaped; and

    wherein said wedge shape on said positive electrode extends upward from immediately above said lower end of said positive electrode to above ground level, so that oncoming upper soil, as it contacts said wedge shape on said positive electrode, is prevented from moving downward toward said lower end.

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