Agricultural tillage implement wheel control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9622400-B2
Application number	US-201414532563-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 4, 2014
Priority date	Nov 13, 2013
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

An agricultural tillage implement includes a main section including a hitch extending in a travel direction, a plurality of foldable wing sections coupled with the main section, a plurality of ground engaging tilling elements, a plurality of wheel assemblies and a control system. The tilling elements are coupled to the main section and wing sections. Each of the wheel assemblies include an actuator. The wheel assemblies include a first plurality of wheel assemblies associated with the main section and a second plurality of wheel assemblies associated with the plurality of wing sections. The actuators of the first plurality of wheel assemblies being independent of the actuators of the second plurality of wheel assemblies. The control system is configured to actuate the actuators to effect a profile minimizing operation of the foldable wing sections when the implement is being transitioned into a transport mode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An agricultural tillage implement, comprising:
a main center section including a pull hitch extending in a travel direction;
a plurality of foldable wing sections coupled with said main center section, wherein said plurality of foldable wing sections includes a plurality of foldable wing sections on each side of said main center section, including an outer wing section furthest from said main section when in an operational field mode and an inner wing section closest to said main center section when in the operational field mode;
a plurality of ground engaging tilling elements coupled to one of said main center section and to said plurality of foldable wing sections;
a plurality of wheel assemblies, each said wheel assembly including an actuator, said plurality of wheel assemblies including a first plurality of wheel assemblies associated with said main center section and a second plurality of wheel assemblies associated with each of said plurality of wing sections, wherein said actuators of said first plurality of wheel assemblies are independent of said actuators of said second plurality of wheel assemblies; and
a control system operably connected to and configured to actuate said actuators to effect a profile minimizing operation of said foldable wing sections when the implement is being transitioned into a folded transport mode,
wherein when the implement is moved from an operational field mode to a folded transport mode, during such movement each of the outer wing sections fold over respective adjacent inner wing sections such that the outer wing sections and the inner wing sections are horizontally parallel to each other and form a folded group, then each folded group on each side of the main center section is folded inward over a portion of the main center section such that all of the plurality of wing sections are vertically parallel to each other in the folded transport mode.

2. The agricultural tillage implement of claim 1 , wherein said control system is additionally configured to actuate said actuators to control a depth of said tilling elements in each of said sections when the implement is in an operational field mode, and wherein each of said actuators are independently extendable and retractable by said control system.

3. The agricultural tillage implement of claim 1 , further comprising a middle wing section positioned between each outer wing section and each inner wing section.

4. The agricultural tillage implement of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of wing sections includes at least one of said second plurality of wheel sections connected thereto, and wherein the main center section includes at least one actuator operatively coupled to at least one of the first plurality of wheel assemblies, and each of the plurality of wing sections includes a linkage system including an actuator positioned between rear and fore wheels of each of the second plurality of wheel assemblies, each linkage system operatively connected at one end of the system to a rear wheel of one of the plurality of second wheel assemblies associated with that wing section and at an opposite end of the system to a fore wheel of the one of the plurality of second wheel assemblies, wherein the at least one actuator of the main center section and the linkage system of each of the plurality of wing sections are operably connected to the controller for moving the first plurality of wheel assemblies and the second plurality of wheel assemblies to an adjustable extended position when the implement is moved into the operational field mode and for moving the second plurality of wheel assemblies to an at least partially retracted position when the implement is moved into the folded transport mode.

5. The agricultural tillage implement of claim 4 , wherein said linkage system includes the actuator and an adjustable link, and the adjustable link is configured for independent adjustment of fore/aft leveling of its respective wing section.

6. The agricultural tillage implement of claim 4 , wherein said actuators of said first plurality of wheel assemblies are controlled independently of said actuators of said second plurality of wheel assemblies by said controller, and wherein said actuators of said second plurality of wheel assemblies are configured to lower a profile of said wing sections as said wing sections are moved from said operational field mode to said folded transport mode.

7. The agricultural tillage implement of claim 4 , wherein said actuators of said second plurality of wheel assemblies are configured to extend said second plurality of wheel assemblies associated with said wing sections as said wing sections are moved from the folded transport mode to the operational field mode, and extension of each of the second plurality of wheel assemblies is individually adjusted by the controller for depth control of the plurality of ground engaging tilling elements coupled to each of the plurality of wing sections.

8. The agricultural tillage implement of claim 4 , wherein as said wing sections are folded, thereby defining folded wing sections, said control system precludes an operator from manually extending said wheel assembly associated with said folded wing section.

9. A control system of an agricultural tillage implement, the implement having a main central section including a pull hitch extending in a travel direction, a plurality of foldable wing sections coupled with the main central section and a plurality of wheel assemblies, each of the plurality of wing sections having at least one tilling element that is engageable with the ground, the control system comprising:
a controller; and
a plurality of actuators with at least one actuator being associated with each of said plurality of wheel assemblies, said plurality of wheel assemblies including a first plurality of wheel assemblies associated with said main central section and a second plurality of wheel assemblies associated with said plurality of wing sections, and the plurality of actuators associated with each second plurality of wheel assemblies includes a linkage system including an actuator positioned between rear and fore wheels of the second plurality of wheel assemblies, the linkage system of each wing section operatively connected at one end of the system to a rear wheel of one of the plurality of second wheel assemblies associated with that wing section and at an opposite end of the system to a fore wheel of the one of the plurality of second wheel assemblies, wherein the at least one actuator associated with the main center section and the linkage system of each of the plurality of wing sections is operably connected to the controller for moving the first plurality of wheel assemblies and the second plurality of wheel assemblies to an adjustable extended position when the implement is moved into an operational field mode and for moving the second plurality of wheel assemblies to an at least partially retracted position when the implement is moved into a folded transport mode, said actuators of said first plurality of wheel assemblies being controlled independently of said actuators of each of said linkage systems of said second plurality of wheel assemblies by said controller, said controller being configured to actuate said actuators to control a profile minimizing operation of said foldable wing sections when the implement is being positioned into the folded transport mode.

10. The control system of claim 9 , wherein said controller is additionally configured to actuate said actuators to effect a depth of the tilling elements in each of said sections while the implement is in the operational field mode.

11. The control system of claim

Assignees

• Cnh Ind America Llc

Inventors

• Sudbrink Matthew R
• Knobloch Dean A

Classifications

• A01B73/048

  the axis being oriented in transverse direction (A01B73/042 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A01B73/046 Primary

  each folding frame part being foldable in itself · CPC title

• A01B73/044

  the axis being oriented in a longitudinal direction (A01B73/042 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A01B29/00

  Rollers · CPC title

• A01B31/00

  Drags · CPC title