TITLE OF THE INVENTION: ADAPTABLE ROTARY TILLER FOR AGRICULTURAL VEHICLE(S)

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to, accessories such as, a rotary tiller which can be removably attached to vehicles inclusive of but not restricted to agricultural vehicles. In particular, the present invention relates more specifically to an adaptable rotary tiller, said rotary tiller having a provision for enabling interchangeability between any drop drown drives such as chain drive variant, gear drive variant or the like for a given type of rotary tiller, a single speed, a multi speed or the like rotary tillers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Conventionally, the manual mode of agriculture involves increased use of labor and faces constraints due to shortage of labour. In the recent times however, the manual mode of agriculture has been predominantly replaced by the industrial mode of agriculture and there is an increase in the usage of agricultural vehicles and agricultural accessories. The rotary tiller is one such accessory, which is useful in preparation of land for cultivation.

These agricultural rotary tillers are widely used in the agricultural industry for quickly preparing the soil for sowing by combining disking, cultivating and planking functions altogether. Usually, these agricultural rotary tillers are generally available in two types, i.e., single speed rotary tiller and multi speed rotary tiller. These rotary tillers have two drop down drive variants in general, i.e., gear drive rotary tiller and chain drive rotary tiller.

Each of the variants, i.e., gear drive and chain drive, are capable of performing well in specific field conditions. Depending on the condition/nature of soil during preparation of soil, the user accordingly chooses to use gear drive rotary tiller / chain drive rotary tiller alternatively. To change the variant from chain drive to gear drive or vice versa in the rotary tiller, it is necessary for the user/farmer to procure both the variants separately- chain drive and gear drive variant on his own. This makes it more expensive in terms of financial investment.

There is therefore a need in the art for a rotary tiller in which the chain drive and gear drive for single speed and multi speed rotary tiller can be interchanged without disturbing the entire setup of the rotary tiller.

There is therefore a need in the art for a rotary tiller, which helps a user/farmer to complete his/her work quickly and easily without requiring to change the rotary tiller unit to interchange the drop down drives as per the field requirements.

There is therefore a need in the art for a rotary tiller, which does not require two different individual variant units i.e. one chain drive and one gear drive variant of rotary tiller.

OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION

The present invention as embodied by the adaptable rotary tiller for agricultural vehicles, succinctly fulfils the above-mentioned need(s) in the art. The present invention has objective(s) arising as a result of the above-mentioned need(s), said objective(s) being enumerated below. Inasmuch as the objective(s) of the present invention are enumerated, it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, the enumerated objective(s) are not exhaustive of the present invention in its entirety, and are enclosed solely for the purpose of illustration. Further, the present invention encloses within its scope and purview, any structural alternative(s) and/or any functional equivalent(s) even though, such structural alternative(s) and/or any functional equivalent(s) are not mentioned explicitly herein or elsewhere, in the present disclosure. The present invention therefore also encompasses, any improvisation(s)/modification(s) applied to the structural alternative(s)/functional alternative(s) within its scope and purview. The present invention may be embodied in other specific form(s) without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof.

An objective of the present invention is to provide a rotary tiller which is adaptable for any drop down drive variants based on the user requirement in a self-sufficient single unit with minimal changes.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a adaptable rotary tiller for vehicles in which the drop drives can be interchanged without disturbing the entire setup of the rotary tiller.

Still another objective of the present invention is to provide adaptable rotary tiller, which eliminates the necessity of different units for all drop drown drive variants, and hence is very economic.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention as embodied by an adaptable rotary tiller for agriculturalvehicle(s), succinctly fulfils the objective(s) of the present invention as broadly enumerated in the present disclosure. However, it would be perfectly clear to a person skilled in the art that, inasmuch as the objectives have been enumerated, said objectives are only indicative of the scope and general coverage of the present invention.

Typically, the rotary tillers used for soil preparation are available in two different variants such as, chain drive and gear drive for both the single speed as well as multi speed rotary tiller(s). However, depending on the field requirements, gear drive variant or chain drive variant are used alternatively. The present invention as embodied by an adaptable rotary tiller, comprises of a jack shaft, a rotor shaft, a main frame and a side plate assembly designed in a manner which makes it possible to interchange both the variants, namely gear drive and chain drive in the rotary tiller, which operates in either single speed or multi speed modes. This is achieved by simply adding/removing components comprised in the rotary tiller variants such as chain, sprocket/gear to their respective shafts via the side plate assembly of rotary tiller and thereby not requiring to change the rotary tiller itself.

In the present invention, the rotary tiller is adaptable lo any drop down drive variants such as gear drive, chain drive or the like. The gear drive variant comprises of atleast three drop down gears. Said components being removably attached to their respective shafts via the side plate assembly of the rotary tiller. Said gears being the driver gear, the driven gear and the intermediate gear, which are in turn connected to the rotary tiller through the jack shaft and the rotor shaft to enable gear drive operation.

The chain drive variant comprises of at least two sprockets, a chain and a chain tension mechanism. For enabling the chain drive variant's operation, all the components used in the gear drive variant are detached from their respective shafts. The driver gear and the driven gear are removed and the sprockets are fitted in their positions respectively. The intermediate gear is unplugged and its respective shaft is removed from the side plate assembly. Further, there is a provision on the side plate assembly to install a chain tension mechanism. The chain then passes over the fitted sprockets and along the chain tension mechanism which enables the chain drive operation without any interference with the gear drive operation. Said variants of the rotary tiller can function in either single speed or multi speed modes of rotary tiller.

The interchangeability of the variants in the rotary tiller of the present invention has been achieved by commonizing the size and count of splines in sprockets (of chain drive) and splines in gears (of gear drive). The number of teeth in the sprockets, the chain pitch and the number of links in the case of chain drive, and the number of teeth in drop down gears and the gear modules in the case of gear drive are selected in such a way that the theoretical distance between the central line of the rotor shaft and the central line of the jackshaft is same in both cases which ensures easy interchangeability of the variants.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The description of the present invention in conjunction with the drawings, illustrating the present invention and in application(s) illustrative of the present invention, explain in detail, the working of the present invention. It will be amply clear to a person skilled in the art, that the application as disclosed in the drawings are merely illustrative of the scope of the present invention and not exhaustive of the scope of the present invention, in its entirety.

Figure 1(a) and 1(b) illustrates the conventional rotary tillers of gear drive variant and chain drive variant respectively.

Figure 2 illustrates one embodiment of the adaptable rotary tiller in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 3 illustrates the projected view of the side plate assembly connected to the main frame of the adaptable rotary tiller of the present invention in one embodiment.

Figure 4 illustrates the projected view of the side plate assembly, which shows the Intermediate gear connecting point and its respective shaft for the gear drive variant of the present invention in accordance with one embodiment.

Figure 5 illustrates the side plate assembly of the gear drive variant of adaptable rotary tiller in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Section A-A illustrates the sectional view of the drop down gears connectivity at their location.
Figure 6 illustrates the side plate assembly of the chain drive variant of adaptable rotary tiller in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Section B-B illustrates the sectional view of the sprockets connectivity at their location.

Figure 7 illustrates the chain drive variant of the adaptable rotary tiller with a single speed gear box in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 8 illustrates the gear drive variant of the adaptable rotary tiller with a multi speed gear box in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Soil preparation is the most important, time consuming and cumbersome process before cultivation. It is very difficult to do soil preparation manually as it is very cumbersome and strenuous. Rotary tiller is an agricultural accessory, which helps in soil preparation during cultivation. The rotary tiller is mounted on an agricultural vehicle through a PTO (Power Take-Off) Shaft. The PTO shaft is inturn connected to a gear box (18) of the rotary tiller by a cardan shaft. Said gear box can be single speed gear box, multi-speed gear box or the like. The rotary tiller with single speed gear box is referred to as single speed rotary tiller. Similarly, the rotary tiller with multi speed gear box is referred to as multi-speed rotary tiller. Said gear box is then connected to a dropdown drive through jackshaft (14). Said drop down drive can be chain drive, gear drive or the like. The rotary tiller with chain drive is called as chain drive variant rotary tiller. Similarly, the rotary tiller with gear drive is called as gear drive variant rotary tiller. The drop down drive is finally connected with rotor blades (16) through a rotor shaft (15). The rotation of the blades on the rotor shaft (15) along with the forward motion of the agricultural vehicle causes the pulverisation of the soil. The conventional rotary tillers with gear drive and chain drive are shown in Figure 1(a) and Figure 1(b) respectively.

Conventional rotary tiller equipment illustrated in Figure 1(a) is useful for one type of soil and rotary tiller equipment illustrated in Figure 1(b) is employed for a different soil type. Figure 1(a) shows the arrangement of the three drop gears namely driver gear, driven gear and intermediate gear in a gear drive variant rotary tiller.

Figure 1(b) shows a conventional chain drive rotary tiller with a chain (3) and sprockets (2,8) provided on side plate (4), which is on a separate unit from the rotary tiller as shown in Figure 1(a) and has to be separately purchased by the farmer. However, when the farmer is on the field, he may be required to prepare two different kinds of soil. At that point, it is difficult for him to go to the shed and accordingly change the chain drive variant to gear drive variant and vice versa. This results in wastage of time and resources. Also, it is more expensive for a farmer to buy two different rotary tiller units. A farmer would find it very convenient and economical if it were possible to make some minimal changes and change a gear drive variant to a chain drive variant in the same rotary tiller unit.

The present invention is illustrated in conjunction with Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 Figure 7 and Figure 8. Even though conventionally chain drive and gear drive variants are available in separate units as shown in Figures 1(a) and 1(b), the present invention embodies an adaptable rotary tiller wherein both the variants are operable in the same rotary tiller without changing the unit itself as against conventional one. The present invention comprises of a jack shaft (14), a rotor shaft (15), a main frame (5) and a side plate assembly (4) being designed in a manner which makes it possible to interchange between any drop down drive variants namely gear drive, chain drive or the like in the rotary tiller, which can operate in single speed mode, multi speed mode or the like. Figure 2 illustrates the entire unit of the adaptable rotary tiller in accordance with the present invention with single speed gear box (18). Further, the side plate assembly (4) has provision(s) for removably attaching the components of gear drive variant and chain drive variant with their respective shafts. The side plate assembly (4) comprises of connecting points (9) towards its end. Said side plate assembly (4) is then mounted on the main frame (5) by screwing the connecting bolts (17) to respective connecting points as illustrated in Figure 3.

Figures 5 and 6 illustrate one embodiment of the gear drive and chain drive variant of the rotary tiller respectively. Both the variants can function in speed like single speed rotary tiller, multi-speed rotary tiller or the like.

As illustrated, the gear drive variant rotary tiller comprises of a driver gear(11), driven gear(12) and intermediate gear (13), in which the driver gear (11) and driven gear (12) are inturn removably connected to the jack shaft (14) and the rotor shaft (15) respectively via side plate assembly (4) and the intermediate gear (13) is removably attached to the side plate assembly (4) to enable gear drive operation of the rotary tiller. The connectivity of the gears (1) with their appropriate shafts are clearly illustrated in Figure 5 section A-A.

The chain drive variant of the rotary tiller in one embodiment of the present invention illustrated in Figure 6 comprises of a driver sprocket (2), a driven sprocket (8), a chain (3) and a chain tension mechanism. Usually, after a few hours of operation, the chain (3) tends to expand and begins to slack. This might lead to slippage of the chain (3) from the sprockets (2,8) and/or can make abnormal noise while working. To avoid this problem, the chain tension mechanism is installed in a provision (10) provided on the side plate assembly (4) of the rotary tiller. Said chain tension mechanism comprises a tension adjuster and a torsion spring force to keep the chain always under tension. When the chain gets slackened, the torsion spring force pushes the adjuster against the chain by which the chain is kept under good tension.

In the present invention, to change from the gear drive variant to the chain drive variant, all the gears (1) are detached. The driver gear (11) and the driven gear (12) are removed and the sprockets(2, 8) are fitted in their positions accordingly. The intermediate gear is unplugged and its respective shaft is removed from its place on the side plate assembly (4). Further, there is a provision (10) on the side plate assembly to install a chain tension mechanism. The chain (3) then passes over the fitted sprockets (2,8) along the chain tension mechanism to enable rotation of the rotor blades (16) via the rotor shaft (15) and thereby makes the rotary tiller function properly. Section B-B of Figure 6 clearly illustrates the connectivity of the sprockets (2,8) with their respective shafts and the connecting bolts (61) for fitting the intermediate gear (3) and its respective shaft on the side plate assembly (4).

Similarly, said chain drive variant can be easily changed to gear drive variant by detaching the components of the chain drive variant. The chain (3) and the sprockets (2,8) are detached from the side plate assembly (4) and the gears (11,12) are fitted in their positions. Further, the intermediate gear (13) and its respective shaft (62) are mounted in between the two gears (11,12) at a provision (6) on the side plate assembly (4) known as the intermediate gear mounting point using bolts (61). This is clearly illustrated in Figure 4. The chain tension mechanism is also removed. Now, the rotary tiller starts operating as a gear drive variant without changing any other parts of the rotary tiller within a short period of time as per field requirement.

The chain drive variant of the adaptable rotary tiller with a single speed gear box (18) and the gear drive variant of the adaptable rotary tiller with a multi-speed gear box (18) in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention are illustrated in Figure 6 and Figure 7 respectively.

The interchangeably of the variants in the rotary tiller of the present invention has been achieved by commonizing the size and count of splines in sprockets (of chain drive) and splines (7) in gears (of gear drive). Usually for any chain drive, center distance between two sprockets is determined by the number of teeth in the sprockets, the pitch of the chain selected and the number of links on the chain. Similarly, the center to center distance between gears is determined by the number of teeth and gear module. However, in the present invention, the distance between the jackshaft and the rotor shaft is fixed. The number of teeth in the sprockets, the chain pitch and the number of links in the case of chain drive and the number of teeth in the dropdown gears and the gear modules in the case of gear drive are selected in such a way that they have the same center distance to achieve easy interchangability of the variants in the rotary tiller.

ADVANTAGES

The below-mentioned advantage(s) arising out of the application in conjunction with the enclosed drawing(s) are merely indicative and are not to be considered as exhaustive of the entire advantage(s) arising by the deployment of the present invention. It will be amply clear to persons skilled in the art that, any primary advantage(s) arising out of the present invention as against the problem(s) in the conventional rotary tillers are to be construed to be well within the scope and purview of the present invention. Further, any secondary advantage(s) arising as a result of the primary advantage(s) are also to be construed to be well within the scope and purview of the present invention.

In this context, an advantage of the present invention i.e. an adaptable rotary tiller which facilitates easy interchangeability between any drop drive variants without changing the side plate assembly of the rotary tiller and without disturbing the entire set up. This provision of interchangeability of the present invention eliminates the requirement of different individual units (one chain drive and one gear drive and the like), hence is economic.

We claim:

1. An adaptable rotary tiller for agricultural vehicles comprises

a. a main frame(5);

b. a jack shaft(14) and a rotor shaft(15) for enabling the operation of rotary tiller through drop down drives such as the gear drive, the chain drive or the like;

c. a side plate assembly (4) comprising connecting points (9) to facilitate mounting on main frame (5) using connecting bolts (17) or similar fastening means;

d. and a gear box (18) for controlling the speed associated with the jackshaft(14),
wherein the jack shaft (14), the rotor shaft (15), the main frame (5) and the side plate assembly (4) are designed as adaptable to any drop down drives; further the chain drive and gear drive being interchangeable by a simple method according to the field requirement without changing the rotary tiller itself.

2. The adaptable rotary tiller for agricultural vehicles as claimed in claim 1, wherein the side plate assembly (4) has provisions for removably attaching the components of drop down drives to their respective shafts.

3. The adaptable rotary tiller for agricultural vehicles as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gear drive comprises of at least three gears namely a driver gear (11), a driven gear (12) and a intermediate gear (13); said gears being removably attached to their respective shafts via the provisions on the side plate assembly (4).

4. The adaptable rotary tiller with the gear drive as claimed in claim 3, wherein the driver gear (11) and the driven gear (12) are inturn removably connected to the jack shaft (14) and the rotor shaft (15) respectively via the side plate assembly (4), and the intermediate gear (13) is removably attached to the side plate assembly (4) to enable gear drive operation of the rotary tiller.

5. The adaptable rotary tiller for agricultural vehicles as claimed in claim 1, wherein the chain drive comprises of at least two sprockets namely a driver sprocket (8) and a driven sprocket (2), a chain (3) and a chain tension mechanism; said components being removably attached to their respective shafts via the provisions on the side plate assembly (4).

6. The adaptable rotary tiller with the chain drive as claimed in claim 5, wherein the driver sprocket (2) and the driven sprocket (8) are in turn connected to the jackshaft (14) and the rotor shaft (15) respectively to enable chain drive operation of the rotary tiller.

7. The adaptable rotary tiller for agricultural vehicles as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method of interchanging the gear drive into the chain drive comprises:

a. removing the driver gear (11) and the driven gear (12) from their respective shafts;

b. fitting of sprockets(2, 8) with their respective shafts via the provisions on the side
plate assembly (4);

c. unplugging the intermediate gear (13) from the side plate assembly (4);

d. installing the chain tension mechanism at the respective provision 0) provided on
the side plate assembly (4); and

e. fitting of the chain (3), and said chain travelling over the fitted sprockets.

8. The adaptable rotary tiller for agricultural vehicles as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method of interchanging the chain drive into the gear drive comprises:

a. removing the driver sprocket (2) and the driven sprocket (8) from their respective
shafts;

b. fitting of the driver gear (11) and the driven gear (12) with their respective shafts via the provisions on the side plate assembly (4);

c. unplugging the chain tension mechanism and the chain from the side plate
assembly (4); and

d. fitting the intermediate gear (13) with its shaft (62) at the respective provision (6)
provided on side plate assembly (4).

9. The adaptable rotary tiller for agricultural vehicles as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said gear box can be a single speed gear box, a multi-speed gear box or the like.

10. The adaptable rotary tiller for agricultural vehicles as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said rotary tiller can be operated in any modes - as a single speed, a multi speed or the like rotary tillers.