Turf slicer with vertical oscillator

• US 7,677,324 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2006
• Issued: 03/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: First Projects Limited (Babcock International Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: First Projects Limited (Babcock International Group PLC)
• Inventors: Jones, Donald C., Whitfield, Carroll J., Funk, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Will; Thomas B
• Assistant Examiner(s): MCGOWAN, JAMIE LOUISE
• Application Number:
  US11/500,620
• Publication Number:
  US 20080035355A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,316 Days
• Field of Search: 172/21, 172/22, 172/89, 172/94, 172/97, 172/125, 403/383
• US Class Current: 172/97
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 45/026 Scarifiers comprising a knife reel actively driven around a substantially horizontal shaft

Abstract

A turf slicer includes a gang of six slicer wheels that “walk” through the turf in response to the forward motion of the turf slicer. In the meantime, the power takeoff from the tractor vertically oscillates the slicer wheels out of phase with one another, so that every sixth wheel is being thrust downwardly to bear most of the weight of the turf slicer as the other five wheels in the gang of six are either being withdrawn upwardly or moved downwardly and do not bear much weight, so that the weight of the turf slicer is concentrated on the downwardly moving slicer wheel that is approaching bottom dead center of its movement, thereby amplifying the effective weight of the turf slicer against the turf below.

Claims

1. A turf slicer for penetrating and aerating turf, comprising:

a support frame,

a drive shaft rotatably supported by the support frame,

power takeoff means arranged to rotate the drive shaft,

a series of slicer wheels supported on the drive shaft, each of the slicer wheels including a series of substantially flat slicer blades extending radially about the drive shaft and oriented perpendicular to the drive shaft, the slicer wheels being freely rotatably supported on the drive shaft such that when the slicer wheels are lowered and some of the flat slicer blades of each slicer wheel contact the turf below the support frame and the support frame is advanced over the turf below the support frame the slicer wheels rotate freely about the drive shaft in response to the advancement of the support frame and penetrate the turf, and

a circular hub mounting each slicer wheel to the drive shaft, each circular hub having an off center opening mounted to the drive shaft with a lobe protruding on one side of the off center opening and configured for oscillating the slicer wheels in an orbit perpendicular to the drive shaft in response to rotation of the drive shaft such that the flat slicer wheels more deeply penetrate the turf below the support frame,

the lobes of adjacent ones of the circular hubs extending at different radial directions from the drive shaft, such that when the drive shaft is rotated the lobes of the circular hubs move about the drive shaft and cause the slicer wheels to oscillate in vertical planes about the drive shaft and penetrate downwardly into the turf below the support frame at different times from adjacent slicer wheels.

2. The turf slicer of claim 1, wherein the series of slicer wheels include duplicate slicer wheels each having radially extending flat slicer blades for penetrating the turf below the support frame.

3. The turf slicer of claim 1, wherein the drive shaft is non-circular in cross section.

4. The turf slicer of claim 3, wherein the drive shaft is hexagonal in cross section with flat surfaces formed about the perimeter of the drive shaft.

5. The turf slicer of claim 3, wherein the drive shaft is multilateral in cross section with flat surfaces formed about the perimeter of the drive shaft.

6. The turf slicer of claim 1, wherein the drive shaft is multilateral in cross section with flat surfaces formed about the perimeter of the drive shaft, and the lobes of adjacent ones of the circular hubs are oriented in alignment with different ones of the flat surfaces of the drive shaft.

7. A turf slicer for penetrating and aerating turf, comprising:

a drive shaft,

power means arranged to rotate the drive shaft,

a series of slicer wheels mounted to the drive shaft and freely rotatable about the drive shaft,

each slicer wheel including a plurality of radially extending flat slicer blades oriented substantially perpendicular to the drive shaft and extending radially at a right angle from the drive shaft and tapered to a narrow distal end for penetrating the turf,

the slicer wheels being rotatably supported on the drive shaft such that when the slicer wheels are lowered into contact with turf below the support frame and the support frame is advanced over the turf the slicer wheels penetrate the turf and freely rotate about the drive shaft in response to the advancement of the support frame, and

slicer wheel oscillator means for oscillating the slicer wheels in vertical planes about the drive shaft and out of phase with one another about the drive shaft, such that the slicer blades of different ones of the slicer wheels apply more force to the turf than the slicer blades of the other slicer wheels.

8. The turf slicer of claim 7, wherein:

the slicer wheel oscillator means comprises a circular hub mounting each slicer wheel to the drive shaft, each circular hub having an off center opening mounted to the drive shaft with a lobe protruding on one side of the off center opening, the lobes of adjacent ones of the circular hubs extending at different radial directions from the drive shaft, such that when the drive shaft is rotated the lobes of the circular hubs rotate with the drive shaft and cause the slicer wheels to oscillate about the drive shaft and adjacent ones of the slicer wheels penetrate the turf at different times.

9. The turf slicer of claim 7, wherein the series of slicer wheels include duplicate slicer wheels each having radially extending flat slicer blades for penetrating the turf below the support frame.

10. The turf slicer of claim 7, wherein the drive shaft is non-circular in cross section.

11. The turf slicer of claim 7, wherein the drive shaft is hexagonal in cross section with flat surfaces formed about the perimeter of the drive shaft.

12. The turf slicer of claim 7, wherein the drive shaft is multilateral in cross section with flat surfaces formed about the perimeter of the drive shaft.

13. The turf slicer of claim 8, wherein the drive shaft is multilateral in cross section with flat surfaces formed about the perimeter of the drive shaft, and the lobes of adjacent ones of the circular hubs are oriented in alignment with different ones of the flat surfaces of the drive shaft.

14. A method of aerating soil, comprising:

advancing a support frame on soil with the support frame having a drive shaft including a plurality of lobes extending in different radial directions about the drive shaft,

supporting a slicer wheel on each lobe of the drive shaft with the slicer wheels having thin slicer blades radiating there from and penetrating the soil,

while the thin slicer blades penetrate the soil and in response to advancing the support frame, rotating the slicer wheels freely about the lobes of the drive shaft such that the thin slicer blades of the slicer wheels walk through the soil,

as the slicer wheels walk through the soil rotating the drive shaft and the lobes,

in response to the rotation of the drive shaft and the lobes, oscillating the slicer wheels in vertical planes about the drive shaft with adjacent ones of the slicer wheels oscillating out of phase with each other and urging the thin slicer blades of adjacent slicer wheels into the soil at different times as the slicer wheels walk through the soil, and

applying the weight of the support frame through the downwardly moving slicer wheels into the soil in response to rotating the drive shaft while raising others of the slicer wheels.

15. A turf slicer for penetrating and aerating turf, comprising:

a support frame,

a drive shaft rotatably supported by said support frame,

power takeoff means carried by said support frame arranged to rotate said drive shaft,

a series of circular hubs mounted on said drive shaft for rotation in unison with said drive shaft, each said hub having an off center opening mounted to said drive shaft with a lobe protruding on one side of said center opening, said lobes of some of said circular hubs extending at different radial directions from said drive shaft than others of said circular hubs and configured for oscillating in an orbit perpendicular to said drive shaft in response to rotation of said drive shaft,

a series of slicer wheels, each of said slicer wheels mounted on one of said circular hubs and freely rotatable about said circular hub,

each of said slicer wheels including a series of slicer blades extending at different radial directions about said drive shaft and oriented perpendicular to said drive shaft for penetrating the turf below said support frame,

said circular hubs configured for oscillating said slicer wheels in orbits perpendicular to said drive shaft in response to rotation of said drive shaft such that said slicer blades apply the weight of said support frame to less than all of said blades to more deeply penetrate the turf below said support frame, and

said slicer wheels and said hubs being configured such that when some of said flat slicer blades of said slicer wheels contact the turf below said support frame and said support frame is advanced over the turf, said slicer wheels rotate freely about said circular hubs in response to the advancement of said support frame and penetrate the turf, and said slicer wheels move in an orbit about said drive shaft in response to the rotation of said drive shaft.