Air Seeder and Cart

Overview

An air seeder is a two-piece field machine that plants a crop across a wide swath in one pass. A towed Tank and Frame carries the seed and fertilizer, a Metering System system dispenses each product at a set rate, and an Air System floats the metered product on a stream of air out to the Opener Tool Bar, where each opener cuts a furrow and places the seed. The design separates bulk storage from ground engagement: the heavy product rides on the cart's Running Gear while the openers stay light enough to follow the soil. One operator covers very large areas because the wide tool bar plants many rows at once and the large tanks need filling only every few hectares.

The whole system runs on the tractor's hydraulic supply through the Hydraulic System, with no mechanical drive shaft. Rates, coverage, and alarms are managed from the cab through the Rate Monitor, which ties ground speed to metering speed so the application stays constant whether the tractor speeds up or slows down.

Tanks and frame

The Tank and Frame is a welded Main Frame carrying several Product Tank units, often split by an Tank Divider into a seed side and a fertilizer side. Each tank is sealed by a gasketed Tank Lid because the conveying fan pressurizes the tank from the top, and that pressure helps push product down to the meters. A Low-Level Sensor in each compartment warns the operator before it empties, and a folding Access Ladder gives access for filling from an auger or a tender. Tanks range from about eight thousand to twenty-five thousand litres of total capacity, so the machine can seed for an hour or more between fills.

Metering the product

Accurate rate is the job of the Metering System system. Below each tank outlet sits a Meter Body holding a fluted Metering Roller; the volume of the flutes and the speed of the roller together set how much product drops per turn. Each roller is turned by an Meter Drive Motor through a Meter Gearbox, and because each product has its own motor, the operator can plant seed and band fertilizer at independent rates. Before seeding, a sample is run into the Calibration Tray and weighed so the controller knows the true grams per turn for that lot of seed. A Clean-Out Door door empties the meter quickly when switching crops so the next product is not contaminated.

The air conveying system

The Air System moves metered product across the machine. A hydraulic Fan Motor spins the Air Fan, whose Fan Impeller develops the air pressure inside the Fan Housing. Below each meter an Injection Venturi draws the falling product into the moving air, which then travels through a large Primary Hose to a tower-shaped Distributor Head. The distributor splits one primary stream evenly into many Secondary Hose runs, one per opener. Even splitting matters because an uneven distributor leaves some rows thin and others thick, so the heads are designed to keep each outlet within a few percent of the average. An Blockage Sensor in each run reports a plugged hose to the cab so a missed strip can be caught and reseeded.

Openers and ground engagement

The Opener Tool Bar is a folding Bar Frame carrying a rank of Seed Opener units. Each opener uses a hardened Opener Disc to slice through residue and open a slot, a Seed Boot to drop the seed at the bottom, and a Parallel Arm linkage so the unit follows the ground without changing depth. A Depth Gauge Wheel wheel rides the surface to limit cut depth, a Down-Pressure Spring forces the opener into firm or trashy soil, and a Packer Wheel firms the soil over the seed for good contact. For transport the wings fold up on Fold Cylinder units to bring the wide bar within road width.

Running gear and hydraulics

The loaded cart can weigh many tonnes, so the Running Gear uses wide flotation tires on a Walking Beam to spread the load and limit soil compaction, riding on sealed Wheel Hub bearings. Every powered function runs from the Hydraulic System: a Valve Block routes tractor oil through the Quick Coupler connections to the fan, the wing fold, and the opener down-pressure circuit, where an Accumulator keeps the down-force steady over bumps. A Pressure Sensor watches each circuit so the cab can warn of a fan that has slowed or a down-pressure that has dropped.

Control and use

From the cab the Rate Monitor runs the whole job. A Rate Controller drives the meter motors to hold the target rate, taking ground speed from the GPS Receiver so the rate per hectare stays constant when the tractor changes pace. The Cab Display shows live rates, area covered, tank levels, and any blockage or low-product alarm. Air seeders suit large grain and oilseed operations on the prairies and steppes, where wheat, canola, barley, peas, and pulses are planted across thousands of hectares in a short window. The machine trades the precise single-seed placement of a row planter for sheer width and capacity, so it wins where speed and area matter more than exact in-row spacing.