Patents by Inventor Frank W. Faulring
Frank W. Faulring has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 8573142Abstract: Foliage separator for a transplanter, and more particularly an apparatus for separating the foliage of adjacent rows of seedlings which are grown in trays having a plurality of side-by side rows of seedling cells. The foliage separator includes a rotating beater bar, the beater bar being positioned at an angle with a progressive taper, the beater bar being mounted for movement with a carriage which carries a subassembly for picking up an entire row of seedlings from a nursery tray and positioning them for hand-off to a seedling loader group. An air knife may be mounted on the same carriage, the air knife facilitating separation by keeping the seedling foliage and stems up and helping the beater bar enter between adjacent rows.Type: GrantFiled: March 16, 2012Date of Patent: November 5, 2013Assignees: Faulring Mechanical Devices, Inc., Morning Star CompanyInventors: Frank W. Faulring, Charles H. Hoffman, Chad S. Lookabill
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Publication number: 20120174839Abstract: Foliage separator for a transplanter, and more particularly an apparatus for separating the foliage of adjacent rows of seedlings which are grown in trays having a plurality of side-by side rows of seedling cells. The foliage separator includes a rotating beater bar, the beater bar being positioned at an angle with a progressive taper, the beater bar being mounted for movement with a carriage which carries a subassembly for picking up an entire row of seedlings from a nursery tray and positioning them for hand-off to a seedling loader group. An air knife may be mounted on the same carriage, the air knife facilitating separation by keeping the seedling foliage and stems up and helping the beater bar enter between adjacent rows.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 16, 2012Publication date: July 12, 2012Inventors: Frank W. Faulring, Charles H. Hoffman, Chad S. Lookabill
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Patent number: 8122838Abstract: Transplanter which can avoid skips when planting, which skips may occur when seeds in a tray row fail to grow into seedlings. This is accomplished by picking up an entire row of seedlings from a tray, transferring the seedlings to a mechanism which eliminates gaps between seedlings, and then discharging the seedlings one at time to the ground with a desired spacing between the seedlings. A novel tray indexing mechanism is provided which can index trays of varying sizes. The planting mechanism has an air knife mounted adjacent transfer disks for straightening out the foliage as stems of seedlings before they are received by the planting disks, and the planting and transfer disks may be moved towards and away from each other for seedlings of differing heights.Type: GrantFiled: March 10, 2011Date of Patent: February 28, 2012Assignees: Faulring Mechanical Devices, Inc., Morning Star CompanyInventor: Frank W. Faulring
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Publication number: 20110179982Abstract: Transplanter which can avoid skips when planting, which skips may occur when seeds in a tray row fail to grow into seedlings. This is accomplished by picking up an entire row of seedlings from a tray, transferring the seedlings to a mechanism which eliminates gaps between seedlings, and then discharging the seedlings one at time to the ground with a desired spacing between the seedlings. A novel tray indexing mechanism is provided which can index trays of varying sizes. The planting mechanism has an air knife mounted adjacent transfer disks for straightening out the foliage as stems of seedlings before they are received by the planting disks, and the planting and transfer disks may be moved towards and away from each other for seedlings of differing heights.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 10, 2011Publication date: July 28, 2011Inventor: Frank W. Faulring
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Patent number: 7954439Abstract: Transplanter which can avoid skips when planting, which skips may occur when seeds in a tray row fail to grow into seedlings. This is accomplished by picking up an entire row of seedlings from a tray, transferring the seedlings to a mechanism which eliminates gaps between seedlings, and then discharging the seedlings one at time to the ground with a desired spacing between the seedlings. A novel tray indexing mechanism is provided which can index trays of varying sizes. The planting mechanism has an air knife mounted adjacent transfer disks for straightening out the foliage as stems of seedlings before they are received by the planting disks, and the planting and transfer disks may be moved towards and away from each other for seedlings of differing heights.Type: GrantFiled: July 31, 2008Date of Patent: June 7, 2011Assignees: The Morning Star Company, Faulring Mechanical Devices, IncInventors: Frank W. Faulring, Robert Chope Gill, II, Peter M. Lomanto, Robert D. Force, Jason W. Faulring
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Patent number: 7905186Abstract: A transplanting apparatus which can plant virtually 100% of the seedlings from a nursery tray, while avoid skips when planting which may happen when seeds in a tray row fail to grow into seedlings. This is accomplished by picking up an entire row of seedlings from a tray, transferring the seedlings to a mechanism which eliminates gaps between seedlings, and then discharging the seedlings one at a time to the ground with a desired spacing between the seedlings while having full physical control of the seedlings. A root ball compressor is provided to provide better control of the seedlings as the compressed root balls are less likely to tip over, and the compressed root balls are easier to be grabbed by the pinch disks.Type: GrantFiled: February 4, 2010Date of Patent: March 15, 2011Assignees: The Morning Star Company, Faulring Mechanical Devices, IncInventors: Frank W. Faulring, Robert Chope Gill, II, Jonathan C. Gobel
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Publication number: 20100170426Abstract: A transplanting apparatus which can plant virtually 100% of the seedlings from a nursery tray, while avoid skips when planting which may happen when seeds in a tray row fail to grow into seedlings. This is accomplished by picking up an entire row of seedlings from a tray, transferring the seedlings to a mechanism which eliminates gaps between seedlings, and then discharging the seedlings one at a time to the ground with a desired spacing between the seedlings while having full physical control of the seedlings. A root ball compressor is provided to provide better control of the seedlings as the compressed root balls are less likely to tip over, and the compressed root balls are easier to be grabbed by the pinch disks.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 4, 2010Publication date: July 8, 2010Inventors: Frank W. Faulring, Robert Chope Gill, II, Jonathan C. Gobel
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Publication number: 20090031935Abstract: Transplanter which can avoid skips when planting, which skips may occur when seeds in a tray row fail to grow into seedlings. This is accomplished by picking up an entire row of seedlings from a tray, transferring the seedlings to a mechanism which eliminates gaps between seedlings, and then discharging the seedlings one at time to the ground with a desired spacing between the seedlings. A novel tray indexing mechanism is provided which can index trays of varying sizes. The planting mechanism has an air knife mounted adjacent transfer disks for straightening out the foliage as stems of seedlings before they are received by the planting disks, and the planting and transfer disks may be moved towards and away from each other for seedlings of differing heights.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 31, 2008Publication date: February 5, 2009Inventors: Frank W. Faulring, Robert Chope Gill, II, Peter M. Lomanto, Robert D. Force, Jason W. Faulring
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Patent number: 6634306Abstract: A transplanter is provided a single centralized pneumatic feeder which will feed anywhere from 2 to 10 or more rows of seedlings at one time. The centralized pneumatic feeder concept allows the transplanter to operate with low velocity movement and still plant large numbers of seedlings. The seedlings are initially in plant trays designed so that the seedlings can be extracted from the bottom of the trays. To simplify seedling transfer, the pneumatic feeder includes an impulse-type extraction system and a pneumatic seedling transfer system is employed. This new system is simple in concept and has only two moving parts per row. This concept makes the transplanter system extremely adaptable to almost any configuration, for example 2-10 or more rows, bare ground fields, mulch covered beds, and even other manufacturer's planters.Type: GrantFiled: July 30, 2002Date of Patent: October 21, 2003Inventor: Frank W. Faulring
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Patent number: 4941416Abstract: An actuating mechanism (20) for a ground-engaging tool is arranged as a swinging parallelogram such that the tool has varying components of velocity in the horizontal and vertical directions. The mechanism is synchronized such that the tool has a rearwardly-directed velocity component substantially equal to the forward ground speed of the frame, when the tool is in the vicinity of its bottom dead center position. Hence, the tool has a substantially-zero net horizontal velocity as it engages the ground. The tool may include a burner head (25) and/or an injector mechanism (26) for planting a pneumatically-delivered seed-vermiculite mixture through a sheet of imperforate plastic mulch.Type: GrantFiled: December 1, 1988Date of Patent: July 17, 1990Inventor: Frank W. Faulring