Abstract: A seed meter for dispensing seed. The seed meter comprises a housing at least partially enclosing an interior space. The housing includes a top surface defining a seed inlet, and further includes a seed outlet. The seed meter additionally includes a metering wheel positioned within the interior space of the housing. The metering wheel is configured to carry seed through the housing when rotating in a first direction or in a second direction. The seed meter further includes a pair of retractable seed guards positioned within the interior space of the housing. The seed guards are each configured to be selectively configured in an operating configuration and in a retracted configuration. In the operating configuration the seed guards are configured to prevent excess seed from passing through the seed meter, and in the retracted configuration the seed guards are configured to permit large obstacles to pass through the seed meter.

Abstract: A planting unit for a seeding machine having a frame member and a seed meter mounted thereto. The seed meter has a housing and a metering member rotatably mounted therein. The metering member has a sidewall with an inner surface and an outer surface with a rim portion of the sidewall adjacent an outer edge of the sidewall. The inner surface of the side wall and the housing form a trough at a bottom portion of the metering member to hold a seed pool. A mechanical seed delivery system takes seed from the metering member and moves seed to a discharge location adjacent a seed furrow formed in soil beneath the seeding machine.

Abstract: An ice dispensing assembly includes a hopper, a metering disk, a shelf member, and a separating wall. The hopper includes an outlet opening defined in a bottom end of the hopper, and an ice inlet defined in a top end of the hopper. The metering disk is positioned in the hopper and includes a plurality of cavities. The shelf member is arranged to at least partially shield the cavities from a supply of ice held in the hopper. The metering disk is rotatable relative to the hopper between a first position wherein at least one cavity is exposed to the supply of ice to be filled with ice, and a second position wherein the cavity is separated from the supply of ice by the separating wall and ice in the cavity is dispensed through the outlet opening.

Abstract: A system and method of flavoring food includes a metering tray coupled to a frame. The metering tray may be configured to hold a food flavoring. A metering roller also may be coupled to the frame. An exterior axial surface of the metering roller may define a plurality of indentations, which may be configured to capture the food flavoring as the metering roller rotates. The system may also include a metering blade and a displacement; each may be coupled to the frame. The metering blade may be configured to level the food flavoring as the food flavoring is dispensed by the plurality of indentations of the metering roller as the metering roller rotates. The displacement blade may have a plurality of teeth that are configured to correspond to the plurality of indentations. The teeth may be configured to positively displace the food flavoring as the metering roller rotates.

Abstract: Systems for delivering coating compositions are disclosed. The system may include a support base for supporting a container of a coating composition and a pressure canister movable in relation to the support base from an open position to a closed position in which the pressure canister surrounds the coating composition container and forms a seal with the support base. The system may include a pressure canister that is movable from a delivery position in which the canister is pressurized to a cleaning position in which the canister may be cleaned by a cleaning fixture. The pressure canisters are useful in automated systems for delivering various types of coating formulations.

Abstract: Apparatus for metering and dispensing seeds from a liquid or gel suspension of seeds includes a rotor having a plurality of orifices disposed within concave-shaped recesses about the peripheral surface of the rotor, each recess communicating with a bore of the rotor by a passageway. The rotor is supported within a recess in a housing by a stationary pintle having circumferentially extending grooves which are aligned with the radial passageways in the rotor, the grooves being connected to a pressure source and to a suction source so as to enable a suction to be applied to orifices located at a first region of the housing and a pressure to be applied to orifices located at a second region of the housing. The orifices located at the first region are exposed to the seed suspension, and the suction causes a seed from the suspension to be drawn to and held on the peripheral surface.

Abstract: An apparatus for intermittently feeding a solid particulate material, in which a measured quantity of the particulate material is periodically fed into a cavity of predetermined volume and the particulate material is thereafter discharged from the cavity, substantially all of the particulate material is removed from the cavity by scraping the particulate material from the cavity simultaneously with the discharge of the material from the cavity.

Abstract: A planting apparatus is shown having a drive wheel for turning a drive belt connected to an axis extending through a hopper. Inside the hopper, a pickup wheel having individual spokes extending radially outward is rotated by the axis. Each spoke there has an indentation just large enough to receive a seed therein upon rotation through to the bottom of the hopper having seed therein. Upon further rotation, the seed is carried by the spoke to the top of the hopper before being dropped into a funnel shaped flue. A spring loaded tapping mechanism strikes the spokes to insure that the seeds will drop from the spokes into the flue. The individual spokes may be removed for varying the space therebetween, or replaced by other spokes having different sized holes therein for the planting of different sized seeds. The seeds drop through the flue and are delivered to a furrow made by a planting foot and covered by a planter wheel.

Abstract: A device for the metering of plastic raw materials of granulate, or pulverulent, or highly viscous consistency in connection with plastic materials processing machines, where a rotating metering disc at the bottom of a drum-shaped receptacle discharges fixed amounts of material at a predetermined frequency, and where the semi-circular metering pockets on the periphery of the metering disc are wiped clean by a vertically extending radially and circumferentially flexible wiper finger which dislodges any material that might otherwise adhere to the pocket flanks at the point of gravity discharge of the plastic material from the metering pockets.

Abstract: A timed pulsed fuel injection device which meters fuel continuously and distributes flow pulses to n nozzles through a rotary distributor pressure cascading device which totally isolates the metering event from variations and dynamic effects in the n injection lines.