Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
1047Z54
This invention relates to an apparatus suitable for
supplying plants with treatment substances that can be dissolved
in water - e.g. fertilizers, weed killers and the like,
In the field of gardening and in agriculture the prob-
lem frequently arises as to ho~ best to apply a fertilizer to
the soil or distribute a plant protective or a weed killer on to
a gardening or field area, both from the point of view of incur-
- ring a minimum of work and from th~ point of view of minimizing
costs.
With fertilizers in a dry form, up to now it has been
usual to distri~ute the generally granular or powderlike material
either manually or by automatic distributing means. This method
has various serious disadvantages. As a result of the highly
concentrated fertilizer in undissolved form, burning is easily
caused especially with young plants since the distribution is
generally rather irregular and accumulation of fertilizer in
places cannot be avoided. Furthermore, the fertilizer is partly
; lost as a result of wind or for other reasons, or alternatively
; is distributed to the wrong areas so that an unnecessarily high
consumption of fertilizer is incurred. Furthermore, the fertil-
~.
izing effect is obtained only later on, as the dissolving of the
fertilizer by water is required before it can be absorbed by the
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i`^S plants. In order to avoid the above disadvantages, apparatuses
; have been proposed wherein fertilizers and other materials for
~; treating the plants are introduced into pouring water. In one
known embodiment, a rotating cage made of wire is provided in a
;s~ casing through which pouring water flows; the pouring water flows
:;
partially around or partially through the cage in which the mat-
erial is located~ However, the apparatus has considerable dis-
3~ advantages since undissolved material passes through the inter-
~ stices of the cage or container into the water flow, which
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automatically results in a clogging of the nozzles of, for ex-
ample, a sprinkler after a period of time. If one tries to
~, overcome this problem by making the interstices of the cage suf-
ficiently small - i.e, smaller in diameter than the diameter of
the vents of the sprinkler nozzle, then this will also result,
after a period of time, in the interstices of the cage or con-
tainer becoming clogged so that no material or an insufficient
amount of material is mixed in with the pouring water. This is
particularly true as fertilizers often include materials which
are rather difficult to dissolve in water. Furthermore, the
application of a precise dosage is not possible.
It is a general object of the invention to provide a
new and improved apparatus for impregnating water flowing through
a water conduit with desired ingredients or treatment substances
such as fertilizers and/or plant protectives and/or weed killers
prior to its discharge at the end of said conduit.
It is an object of the invention to provide an appara-
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tus preventing any undissolved particles of the ingredients from
being carried along by the water flow.
"
According to this invention, there is provided an
apparatus comprising a container, wherein the container provides
; a wall section, preferably an outer wall section, which is com-
pletely closed externally, against which wall material which has
, not yet been dissolved i5 pressed as a result of a centrifugal
::
force caused by rotational movement of the container. An open-
ing in the area of the rotational axis and/or between said axis
and the wall section at a sufficient distance from said wall
section is provided so that material which has not yet been dis-
solved cannot pass or discharge through the opening from the con-
tainer. This invention is based on the general principle that
in view of the different specific weights between the water and
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1047%54
the material to be introduced into the~ater, and/or because of
the effect of the flow conditions arising,onl~ such material that
is completely dissolved in water can leave the container through
the opening.
In a preferred embodiment of the apparatus, the con-
tainer isFrovided with a first ace or bottom surface, which is
closed and which extends transversely or perpendicularly to said
wall section, and is also provided with a second face or upper
wall which also extends transversely or perpendicularly to said
- 10 ~all section.
Preferably a truncated surface joins the wall section
of the container and, preferably in the second face or upper wall,
at least one further opening is provided in addition to the
central opening, which further opening is staggered radially with
respect tG the central openlng.
These and other features and advantages of my invention
wîll be more fully apparent from the following description, taken
in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like refer-
ence characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the
several views and in which:
FIGURE 1 shows a top view, partly in section, of an
apparatus according to this invention; and
FIGURE 2 shows a section through the apparatus along
line I-I of Figure 1.
~`; In Figure 1, a cylindrical casing through which water
flows, is provided with a water inlet pipe 2 and a water outlet
pipe 3, which are appropriately connected to, for example, a
- water supply and a sprinkler respectively. In the centre of the
casing a pivot pin 5 is provided for supporting a container 6,
which is rotatable around said pivot pin. All the parts of the
casing are preferably made (water inlet and outlet pipes 2 and 3,
10472S4
pivot pin 5, etc.) as an integral unàt from plastic material.
For ease of production of the casing and in order to be able to
easily remove the casing from the mould for proaucing such cas-
ing, it is useful to produce at least part of the casing lateral
wall 7 separately, and combine said part in a known manner such
as b~ gluing, welding or the like with the remaining casing.
On its upper side the casing is provided with a cover
8 preferably made from a transparent material, which cover is
seated with its downwardly directed outer rim on an internally
drawn upper rim 10 of the casing at outer wall 7. By means of
upper inwardly drawn rim 10 outer wall 7 also gets the required
mechanical strength in order to withstand external forces.
'~ Container 6,in a manner similar to casing ~ is of a gen-
erally cylindrical section and comprises an outer wall 11 which
extends concentrically to pivot pin 5, which outer wall on the
, one hand joins a bottom surface 12 and on the other hand joins a
truncated surface 13. Bottom surface 12 is drawn inwardly for
forming a bearing sleeve 14, which embraces pivot pin 5, where-
by said sleeve 14 extends into a tip 15 in order to gain better
flow conditions at a front surface thereofdirected towards the
interior of the container.
The end of surface 13, which tapers towards rotational
axis 16 of the container, forms an upper opening of the con-
tainer which is closed by a cover 17 preferably made from trans-
`; parent material. Container 6 and cover 17 are preferably made
from plastic material.
Cover 17 is provided with a centre opening 18 and
add~tional openings 19 arranged around said centre opening such
that it is possible to adapt the number of additional openings
19 to the particular use and/or to vary their number.
In the illustrated embodiment, openings 19 can be
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closed either entirely or partly by providing, in addition to
cover 17, a disc 17' on said cover, w~ich disc is rotata~le
; around a centre extension 20 and contacts cover 17. Prefer-
ably, the disc is formed of a transparent material. Within
said disc, openings 21 are provided which can be aligned with
openings 19; said openings 21 can be aligned entirely or partly
or not at all by rotating disc 17' around centre extension 20
of cover 17 with openings 19 so that, dependent on the position
of the disc, a resulting openingis obtained within cover 17,
the cross-section of which opening can be varied whereby the
cross-section of said resulting opening is determined by the
area across which openings 19 and 21 overlap each other.
; At the outer wall of container 6, blades 22 are formed;
blades 22 extend in an inclined direction in ~espect of the con-
, tainer radius such that when the blades are hit by the water
~lowing through inlet pipe 2, they rotate container 6 in the
direction of arrow A of Figure 1. By choosing the angle of in-
clination of blades 22 in view of the container radius, the ro-
tational speed of container 6 can be adjusted to the required
value. Within inlet pipe 2 a check valve, which consists of a
valve seat 23, a ball 24 and a sprin~ 25, is provided; spring 25
urges ball 24 towards spring seat 23. The use of a check valve
.~ is preferred in order to prevent any dissolved material from
;~i passing from the apparatus into inlet pipe 2, which might other-
wise occur if means were provided on a sprinkler connected to
;~ water outlet pipe 3 which allows interruption of the water stream.
In- order to operate the app~atus, initially cover 8 of
the casing is opened and container 6 is removed from the casing.
Then cover 17 of the container is opened and the desired amount
of material, such as fertilizer, plant protectives, weed killer
, or the like, is placed in container 6. Subsequent thereto,
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container 6 is closed again by means of cover 17, and disc 17'
on cover 17 is adjusted in such a manner that openings 19 or 21
form a resulting opening, wh~c~ corresponds to the desired con-
centration of material 26 within the pouring water. In order
: to simplify the ad~ustment operation, a scale 27 is provided at
opening 19 at which the pos~tion of an edge 28 of corresponding
opening 21 can be read.
After having adjusted the resulting openings within
container cover 17, casing 1 is closed again by means of cover
8 and the water is supplied to inlet pipe 2. By means of water
flowing through casing 1 and through pipes 2 and 3, container 6
? - as already described - is rotated in the direction of arrow A
of Figure 1 around pivot pin 5. This rotation causes material
; 26 within container 6, as a result of the centrifugal or rota-
tional force acting upon substance 26, to be urged towards out-
side wall 11, bottom surface 12 and truncated surface 13 in the
manner shown in Figure 2. In other words,the rotational move-
.. ment of container 6 generates a liquid flow, as shown by the flow line designated by reference numeral 27', whereby water enters
the interior of container 6 through centre opening 18 within con-
tainer cover 17 and discharges fro~ the container through open-
ing 19. Simultaneously, a vortex flow as indicated by refer-
ence numeral 28' is formed within the interior of the container
which vortex flow dissolves material 26 and mixes partially with flow 27 in the interior of the container so that ~ssolved mat-
: erial 26 passes through opening~19 into the water flow surround-
. ing container 6 and is discharged through outlet pipe 3. The
. amount of dissolved material 26 discharged from container 6 is,
of course, determined by the intensity of flow 27' and by
the dimensions of openings 19 or, alternatively, of the resulting
openings which are formed b~ openings 19 and 21.
As can be seen from Figure 2, openings 19 and/or 21
~047254
and centre opening 18 are spaced a sufficient distance from
material 26, which is provided within container 6 and is not yet
dissolved, or, in other words, from the corresponding container
walls towards which the not yet dissolved material 26 is urged,
thus only dissolved material will leave container 6 via flow 27'
so that clogging of the nozzles of a sprinkler, with which the
. apparatus is connected, by means of not dissolved or incom-pletely dissolved material is effectively prevented.
. The described apparatus preferably is supplied with a
number of interchangeable containers 6 so that the user has the
~, possibility to use the same apparatus for mixing various mater-
ials to the pouring water, whereby the containers including the
various materials merely have to be interchanged. In view of
the fact that covers 8 and 17 are made from transparent material,
s it is easy to control the consumption of mater~al 26.
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