A broadcast seeder, alternately called a broadcaster, broadcast spreader or centrifugal fertilizer spreader (Europe) or "spinner" (UK), is a farm implement commonly used for spreading seed where no row planting is required (mostly for lawns and meadows: grass seeds or wildflower mixes), lime, fertilizer, sand, ice melt, etc., and is an alternative to drop spreaders/seeders. [1] Apart from spinners there is also a type of broadcast spreader called "wagtail spreader" (the name describing the movement of its distributing part), used with tractors.
The smallest are handheld with a hopper of several liters and which operate via hand cranking. A bit larger are push units with the spinning disk powered by gearing to the wheels. The next size up is designed to be towed behind a garden tractor or ATV. Very similar in size to the tow behind units are broadcast seeders that mount to the three-point hitch of a compact utility tractor, these are ideal for landscape and small property maintenance. Still larger are commercial broadcast seeders/spreaders designed and sized appropriately for agricultural tractors and mount to the tractor's three point hitch. The broadcast seeders that are mounted to a three-point hitch are powered by a power take-off (P.T.O.) shaft from the tractor. At the largest size are pull behind or chassis mounted units for agricultural use that can spread widths of up to 90 feet. [2] [3]
The basic operating concept of broadcast spreads is simple. A large material hopper is positioned over (in the centrifugal types) a horizontal spinning disk. The disk has a series of 3 or 4 fins attached to it which throw the dropped materials from the hopper out and away from the seeder/spreader. [4] Alternately a pendulum spreading mechanism may be employed, this method is more common in mid-sized commercial spreaders for improved consistency in spreading.[ citation needed ] The photos clearly show the material hopper. Hoppers are commonly made of plastic, painted steel, or stainless steel. Stainless steel is usually used in large commercial units for strength and because granular fertilizer is often quite corrosive.
Some seeders/spreaders have directional fins to control the direction of the material that is thrown from the spreader. All broadcast spreaders require some form of power to spin the disk. On hand carried units, a hand crank spins gears to turn the disk. On tow behind units, the wheels spin a shaft that turns gears which, in turn, spin the disk. As is partially visible in one of the photos, with tractor mounted units, a mechanical P.T.O. shaft connected to the tractor and controlled by the tractor operator, spins the disk. There are some seeder/spreaders made for garden size tractors that use a 12 volt motor to spin the dispersing disk and yaw. Broadcast spreaders can also be used under drones. [5]
A clutch is a mechanical device that allows the output shaft to be disconnected from the rotating input shaft. The clutch's input shaft is typically attached to a motor, while the clutch's output shaft is connected to the mechanism that does the work.
A starter is a device used to rotate (crank) an internal-combustion engine so as to initiate the engine's operation under its own power. Starters can be electric, pneumatic, or hydraulic. The starter can also be another internal-combustion engine in the case, for instance, of very large engines, or diesel engines in agricultural or excavation applications.
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commonly, the term is used to describe a farm vehicle that provides the power and traction to mechanize agricultural tasks, especially tillage, and now many more. Agricultural implements may be towed behind or mounted on the tractor, and the tractor may also provide a source of power if the implement is mechanised.
In agriculture, a harrow is a farm implement used for surface tillage. It is used after ploughing for breaking up and smoothing out the surface of the soil. The purpose of harrowing is to break up clods and to provide a soil structure, called tilth, that is suitable for planting seeds. Coarser harrowing may also be used to remove weeds and to cover seed after sowing.
A tachometer is an instrument measuring the rotation speed of a shaft or disk, as in a motor or other machine. The device usually displays the revolutions per minute (RPM) on a calibrated analogue dial, but digital displays are increasingly common.
A lawn mower is a device utilizing one or more revolving blades to cut a grass surface to an even height. The height of the cut grass may be fixed by the design of the mower, but generally is adjustable by the operator, typically by a single master lever, or by a lever or nut and bolt on each of the machine's wheels. The blades may be powered by manual force, with wheels mechanically connected to the cutting blades so that when the mower is pushed forward, the blades spin or the machine may have a battery-powered or plug-in electric motor. The most common self-contained power source for lawn mowers is a small internal combustion engine. Smaller mowers often lack any form of propulsion, requiring human power to move over a surface; "walk-behind" mowers are self-propelled, requiring a human only to walk behind and guide them. Larger lawn mowers are usually either self-propelled "walk-behind" types or more often, are "ride-on" mowers, equipped so the operator can ride on the mower and control it. A robotic lawn mower is designed to operate either entirely on its own or less commonly by an operator by remote control.
A power take-off or power takeoff (PTO) is one of several methods for taking power from a power source, such as a running engine, and transmitting it to an application such as an attached implement or separate machine.
In mechanical or automotive engineering, a freewheel or overrunning clutch is a device in a transmission that disengages the driveshaft from the driven shaft when the driven shaft rotates faster than the driveshaft. An overdrive is sometimes mistakenly called a freewheel, but is otherwise unrelated.
A trailer is an unpowered vehicle towed by a powered vehicle. It is commonly used for the transport of goods and materials.
The Ferguson-Brown Company was a British agricultural machinery manufacturing company formed by Harry Ferguson in partnership with David Brown.
A tree chipper or woodchipper is a machine used for reducing wood into smaller woodchips. They are often portable, being mounted on wheels on frames suitable for towing behind a truck or van. Power is generally provided by an internal combustion engine from 2 to 700 kilowatts. There are also high power chipper models mounted on trucks and powered by a separate engine. These models usually also have a hydraulic winch.
The Ford N-series tractors were a line of farm tractors produced by Ford between 1939 and 1952, spanning the 9N, 2N, and 8N models.
A sprayer is a device used to spray a liquid, where sprayers are commonly used for projection of water, weed killers, crop performance materials, pest maintenance chemicals, as well as manufacturing and production line ingredients. In agriculture, a sprayer is a piece of equipment that is used to apply herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers on agricultural crops. Sprayers range in size from man-portable units to trailed sprayers that are connected to a tractor, to self-propelled units similar to tractors with boom mounts of 4–30 feet (1.2–9.1 m) up to 60–151 feet (18–46 m) in length depending on engineering design for tractor and land size.
The Meillerwagen was a German World War II trailer used to transport a V-2 rocket from the 'transloading point' of the Technical Troop Area to the launching point, to erect the missile on the Brennstand, and to act as the service gantry for fuelling and launch preparation.
Tractor PTO Augers, commonly referred to as Post Hole Diggers and Earth Augers, are implements used in conjunction with a tractor's Power Take Off drive, and a tractor's 3 point hitch.
A planter is a farm implement, usually towed behind a tractor, that sows (plants) seeds in rows throughout a field. It is connected to the tractor with a drawbar or a three-point hitch. Planters lay the seeds down in precise manner along rows. Planters vary greatly in size, from 1 row to 54, with the biggest in the world being the 48-row John Deere DB120. Such larger and newer planters comprise multiple modules called row units. The row units are spaced evenly along the planter at intervals that vary widely by crop and locale. The most common row spacing in the United States today is 30 inches.
Centrifugal casting or rotocasting is a casting technique that is typically used to cast thin-walled cylinders. It is typically used to cast materials such as metals, glass, and concrete. A high quality is attainable by control of metallurgy and crystal structure. Unlike most other casting techniques, centrifugal casting is chiefly used to manufacture rotationally symmetric stock materials in standard sizes for further machining, rather than shaped parts tailored to a particular end-use.
A slurry pump is a type of pump designed for pumping liquid containing solid particles. Slurry pumps changes in design and construction to adjust to multiple type of slurry which varies in concentration of solids, size of solid particles, shape of solid particles, and composition of solution. Slurry pump are more robust than liquid pumps; they have added sacrificial material and replaceable wear parts to withstand wear due to abrasion.
The 6-ton 6×6 truck was a family of heavy tactical trucks built for the United States Army during World War II. The basic cargo version was designed to transport a 6- short ton (5,400 kg) cargo load over all terrain in all weather. The chassis were built by Brockway Motor Company, The Corbitt Company, The Four Wheel Drive Auto Company (FWD), Ward LaFrance Truck Corporation, and White Motor Company. They were replaced by the M54 5-ton 6x6 trucks in the 1950s.