Claims:We Claim :
1. An improved tine holder with adaptable pitch for the agricultural implements, comprising of : a tine holder (100) with a first end and a second end, wherein the said first end and the second end having a plurality of holes (104); a centre portion with a plurality of apertures (105); and a dust cover (106) with a plurality of apertures (107), wherein the said plurality of apertures (105) on the centre portion of the tine holder (100) is aligned with the said plurality of apertures (107) on the dust cover (106).

2. An improved tine holder as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said tine holder (100) is coupled to the dust cover (106) by means of a plurality of nuts and bolts (109)

3. An improved tine holder as claimed in claim 1, the said plurality of holes (104) at the first and the second end of the tine holder (100) are spaced appropriately with respect to the pitch length of a plurality of tines (103).

4. An improved tine holder as claimed in claim 1, Wherein the said plurality of tines (103) are associated with the tine holder (100) by means of plurality of nuts and bolts (102).

5. An improved tine holder as claimed in claim 1, accommodates various tines which are of diversified shapes, sizes and with different pitch holes.

6. An improved tine holder as claimed in claim 1, is preferably flat or curved.

7. An improved tine holder as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said dust cover (106) is provided with a plurality of holes (108) for removing the accumulated dust specks.

8. An improved tine holder as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said dust cover (106) is coupled to the rotor shat (101), the rotation of the said rotor shaft (101) during the pulverization of the soil, removes the accumulated dust specks settled at the bottom of the dust cover (106) through the said plurality of holes (108) on the dust cover (106).

9. An improved tine holder as claimed in claim 1, is a retrofit.

10. An improved tine holder as claimed in claim 1, enables easy and quick replacement of blades/tines with minimal change in the assembly structure and reduces the maintenance cost associated with the earth working vehicles.
, Description:AN IMPROVED TINE HOLDER FOR POWER HARROW
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to agricultural machinery, in particular to tractor operated implements employed for soil preparation, more particularly to an improved tine holder with coupled dust cover for the power harrows.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The agricultural machinery are used for different kind of earth working operations such as levelling, ploughing, harrowing, tilling and the like, for which different types of implements with various tines are used. Power harrow is one such agricultural implement used for soil preparation such as tilling, harrowing, pulverization etc. The conventional power harrow comprises of a transverse beam or rotor shaft to which the soil working blades /tines are arranged at spaced positions. The rotor shafts are connected to the drive train which drives each blade pair about a vertical axis from the power take-off shaft of an agricultural tractor to be worked. Blades/tines used for pulverization are available in diversified shapes and the pitch of the holes used for mounting the blade on the blade support are poles apart. Each blade is attached to its rotatable mounting on the beam by means of a tine holder. Wherein the tine holder comprises of non-rotatable plates located on the drive shaft and interconnected by means of screws, nuts and bolts against the hub portion and are directed towards the ground. This makes the replacement of worn or damaged blades or switching of one type of tine from another type for different working operation, a tedious task and also a time consuming one. Other alternative for this is to change the tine holder as such along with the blades which is time saving, but an expensive and a non-economical affair. Therefore there is need in art to provide a means to change the tines easily, quickly and economically.
During soil preparation, power harrow accumulates lot of dust specks in and around the tine holder. Further accumulation of dust tends to settle on the rotor shaft which is lubricated by means of lubricating oil. An oil seal which is incorporated to prevent the leakage of oil from the rotor shaft gets damaged due to this accumulation of dust specks. Further this accumulation of the dust on the rotor will lead to seizure of the power harrow and requires high cost maintenance. Therefore, there is need in art to provide a means of preventing the accumulation of dust specks on the rotor shaft and also provide a means of easy maintenance.
GB2369763 discloses a blade release mechanism for a power harrow comprising of a blade assembly with support means formed with two recesses, each for accommodating a respective flange of a respective harrow blade. The support means carries two retaining members each of which is moveable between an operative position and an inoperative position, and is biased towards the operative position. When the retaining member is in its operative position, it locks the corresponding blade in position in the corresponding recess, whilst moving the retaining member into an inoperative position allows the insertion of a flange into the recess or the withdrawal of the flange from the recess. A power harrow may be provided with a plurality of such blade assemblies. This blade assembly provides quick release or quick attachment of a blade. But cannot be accommodated for various blades with diversified shape, size and with different pitch holes.
US4046201 describes a soil cultivating implement or rotary harrow comprising at least one power-driven soil working member or rotor that includes a tine support secured to a shaft affording the axis of rotation and also includes at least one tine having integral active soil working and fastening portions. The fastening portion of the tine is connected to a holder of said support and can be readily replaced by releasing fastening means that permits the holder and fastening portion to be separated.
IN 2262/MUM/2015 relates to a quick fit mechanism for power harrow blade having an easily replaceable power harrow blade assembly carried by a rotor to transmit power and rotation using the driving shafts and various gears to rotate the power harrow blade to cultivate the soil of land. The power harrow blade assembly comprises at least a pair of power harrow blades which are mounted at the fixed angle on the rotatable blade mount housing each one fastening with a double pin fastened in the holes of the power harrow blade and blade mount housing, the double pin having a single pin as a supporting part which is locked by a linchpin thereby inserting in the hole of single pin to hold the power harrow blade assembly. The assembly of the power harrow blades reduces maintenance time by quick replacing the power harrow blades and increases the field efficiency.
WO2013176551 provides a device for the attachment of a replaceable wearing part to be attached at a leading edge of an implement, wherein, at the leading edge, a supporting surface is formed which is arranged to receive and fix a wearing-part holder, one of the wearing-part holder and the wearing part forming an attachment projection and the other of the wearing-part holder and the wearing part forming a corresponding socket, the attachment projection and the socket being provided with corresponding, cooperating guide portions, the guide portions of the wearing-part holder being formed as guide faces facing the supporting surface and being slanted relative to the supporting surfaces, falling in a direction away from the leading edge.
US4235294 discloses a machine for soil cultivation comprising a main transverse beam carrying a transverse tool shaft driven to drive wobble bearings on the tool shaft, thereby to oscillate a plurality of tool holders having lever arms guided for transverse swinging movement in the beam. The tool holders mount the tines directly in tapered bores in the tool holders. The tines are secured to the tool holders by bolts threaded into the upper ends of the tines and are provided with break sections, to protect the tool holders.
CN202732964 provides a dust cover for an oil seal and relates to the field of automotive transmissions. The dust cover for the oil seal prevents the entry of dust specks to the oil seal, thus limiting the abrasion of the oil seal lip and increasing its service life. A dust exhaust port is formed in a direction opposite to the running direction of the component fixed on an output flange and located at a staggered part, so that the dust at the staggered part is exhausted from the dust cover exhaust port by using a centrifugal force which is generated in a manner that the output flange drives the component to rotate.
EP0793906 discloses a rotary harrow with a washer to hold back dirt and allow floating dust particles to settle and making it difficult for dust and dirt to penetrate to as far as the oil seal ring. A collar tightly arranged about the upright portion of the said washer covers the narrow aperture between washer and the bottom plate, so that passing earth and dust are halted in their motion and prevented from entering the washer space and thus protecting the bearing construction.
All of the above stated prior-art discloses easy and quick fit/replacement mechanism for the tines, they teach only about the easy removal and fastening of tine to the tine holders and there exists no mechanism for the tine holder/blade support to accommodate blades/tines with diversified shapes, sizes and with different pitch holes which are poles apart. Further none of the cited patents reports about the tine holder with dust cover for minimizing the accumulation or entry of dust specks in the oil seal while pulverizing the agricultural field using a Power Harrow.
The present invention aims to alleviate the stated drawbacks by providing an improved tine holder with adaptable pitch for agricultural implements, specially for power harrows. The said tine holder is design to accommodate various blades/tines with diversified shapes, sizes and with different pitch holes which are poles apart. The improved tine holder of the present invention is provided with an dust cover to minimize the dust speck accumulation near the oil seal thereby preventing the oil seal from getting damaged and prolonging the service life of the oil seal. Further the present invention enables easy replacement of the blades/tines along with the tine holder with minimal change in the assembly structure at minimum time.
OBJECTIVE OF THE INVENTION
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide an improved tine holder with adaptable pitch for agricultural implements, specially for power harrows.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide improved tine holder to accommodate various blades/tines which are of diversified shapes, sizes and with different pitch holes.
Additional objective of the present invention is provide an improved tine holder with coupled dust cover to minimize the accumulation of dust specks near the oil seal thereby preventing the oil seal from getting damaged.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide an improved tine holder which enables easy replacement of the blades/tines with minimal change in the assembly structure at minimum time.
Still another objective of the present invention is to increase the service life of the oil seal and reduce the cost of maintenance of the power harrow.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an improved tine holder with adaptable pitch for the agricultural implements, especially for power harrows comprising : a tine holder (100) with a first end and second end, wherein the said first end and the second end having a plurality of holes (104); a centre portion with a plurality of apertures (105); and a dust cover (106) with a plurality of apertures (107). The tine holder and the said dust cover is coupled through fastening the plurality of apertures (105) on the centre portion of the tine holder (100) and the plurality of apertures (107) on the dust cover (106) by means of a plurality of nuts and bolts (109). The improved tine holder coupled with dust cover is fasten with tines (103) and rotor shaft (101) by means of appropriate nuts and bolts. For different working operations, different type or size of tines are used with different pitch holes. The improved tine holder is provided with adaptable pitch to accommodate various blades/tines with diversified shapes, sizes and with different pitch holes which are poles apart. The dust cover (106) coupled to the tine holder (100) minimizes the accumulation of dust specks near the oil seal thereby preventing it from getting damaged, thereby increasing the service life of the oil seal. The dust cover removes the accumulated dust specks through a plurality of holes (108) on it. The improved tine holder is a retrofit and is either quadrilateral, circular or elliptical in shape. Further the improved tine holder of the present invention enables easy replacement of the blades/tines along with the tine holder with minimal change in the assembly structure at minimum time thus reducing the maintenance cost associated with the earth working vehicles.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DIAGRAM
Figure 1 depicts an improved tine holder with a dust cover.
Figure 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention an improved tine holder.
Figure 3 shows an embodiment of the present invention a dust cover.
Figure 4 shows an improved tine holder with coupled dust cover attached to the rotor shaft of the power harrow.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an improved tine holder with adaptable pitch for the agricultural implements, comprising of : a tine holder (100) with a first end and a second end, wherein the said first end and the second end having a plurality of holes (104); a centre portion with a plurality of apertures (105); and a dust cover (106) with a plurality of apertures (107), wherein the said plurality of apertures (105) on the centre portion of the tine holder (100) is aligned with the said plurality of apertures (107) on the dust cover (106), wherein the said tine holder (100) is coupled to the dust cover (106) by means of a plurality of nuts and bolts (109).
In the preferred embodiment, wherein the said plurality of holes (104) at the first and the second end of the tine holder (100) are spaced appropriately with respect to the pitch length of a plurality of tines (103), wherein the said plurality of tines (103) are associated with the tine holder (100) by means of plurality of nuts and bolts (102).
In the preferred embodiment, the adaptable improved tine holder (100) can accommodate various blades/tines (103) which are of diversified shapes, sizes and with different pitch holes.
In the preferred embodiment, wherein the said adaptable improved tine holder (100) is a retrofit.
In the preferred embodiment, the adaptable improved tine holder is preferably flat or curved.
In the preferred embodiment, wherein the said dust cover (106) is provided with a plurality of holes (108) for removing the accumulated dust specks, wherein the said dust cover (106) is coupled to the rotor shat (101). The accumulated dust specks which settles at the bottom of the dust cover (106) is removed by the rotation of the rotor shaft (101) during the pulverization of the soil, through the said plurality of holes (108) on the dust cover (106).
In an another embodiment, the adaptable improved tine holder (100) is circular or elliptical in shape. Wherein the tine holder comprises of a centre portion and a radial edge portion, said centre portion and radial edge portion of the tine holder comprises a plurality of apertures, the tine holder is fastened to the said dust cover (106), said tine holder is fastened by a plurality of nuts and bolts through the plurality of apertures in the centre portion of the tine holder, a plurality of tines are associated with the tine holder by the plurality of nuts and bolts through the plurality of apertures on the radial edge portion of the tine holder, wherein the said tine holder is a retrofit.
The said adaptable improved tine holder of the present invention enables easy and quick replacement of the blades/tines with minimal change in the assembly structure. Further the dust cover coupled to the tine holder minimizes the accumulation of dust specks near the oil seal thereby preventing it from getting damaged and increasing the service life of oil seal. Thus reducing the maintenance cost of the power harrow.
It will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that the above description is for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered as limiting. Various modifications, additions, alterations, and improvements without deviating from the spirit and the scope of the invention may be made by a person skilled in the art.