WO2008009770A1

WO2008009770A1 - Herbicide applicator

Info

Publication number: WO2008009770A1
Application number: PCT/ES2007/000446
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hector Jorge Tarallo Gomez
Original assignee: Hector Jorge Tarallo Gomez
Priority date: 2006-07-20
Filing date: 2007-07-19
Publication date: 2008-01-24
Also published as: ES1067198U; ES1067198Y; AR057943A4; UY4140U

Abstract

The invention relates to a herbicide applicator comprising: a tool-carrier chassis (A, Figure 1) which supports a 200-litre container (B, Figures 1 and 2); a system for regulating parallel pirns (C, Figure 2); a drop-metering system (D, Figure 2); and an applicator system (E, Figure 3) which can be used to apply herbicides in order to control weeds in grassland, natural fields, areas of vegetation cover, seedbeds and other types of forage land. The inventive applicator affects the weeds but not the pasture.

Description

PE HERBICID APPLICATION MACHINE

D E S C R I P C I Ó N

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It refers to a utility model application corresponding to a machine that allows the application of herbicides, for the control of weeds in grasslands, natural fields, improvement in coverage, seedbeds, and other types of forage improvements; touching weeds only without affecting the pasture.

SCOPE

This model is part of the agricultural technique sector and presents a solution for weed control in pastures.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Weed control with chemical herbicides is an increasingly widespread agricultural practice. This is due to the important development and growth of direct sowing and the decrease in the cost of herbicides. The direct sowing and the use of rotations with perennial pastures, has led to a considerable increase in the areas of permanent artificial grasslands. Together with this the development and growth of the improvements in coverage, is leading to the existence of evergreen areas of evergreen pasture. In perennial pastures and improvements in coverage, it is where the weed control, since they are composed of mixtures of forage plants, grasses and legumes, of different characteristics, often complementary. When it comes to controlling weeds in an already implanted pasture, selective herbicides should be used, so as not to affect the pastures when fighting weeds. These herbicides have a very high cost per hectare and often the desired control levels are not obtained. They must also be applied at certain very specific times, which sometimes becomes very difficult or impossible due to the occurrence of winds, rains or debris that complicate or impede application work by spray equipment. This leads to the fact that the application work is often not carried out in the optimal conditions and the results are not the desired ones.

The applicant knows the existence of spray equipment (sprinklers) to apply herbicides. There are manuals, backpack, hitch in the three points of the tractor, shooting and self-propelled

(mosquitoes) All these equipments have a pump that gives pressure to the system and when passing the broth through the nozzles of the spray peaks, a rain of drops is obtained that arrives fairly uniformly to the surface of the soil, the crop or the weeds As the team applies the product to the entire surface on which it moves, evenly and uniformly, the selectivity towards weeds is given by the herbicide itself, which determines which type of plant kills and which does not.

In land sprayers, spray peaks are used, which drop water droplets with pressurized herbicide that reach the entire surface on which they are applied, as if all the plants present were weeds. The selectivity is given by the herbicide used, which determines if all plants die or not. Common sprayers have restrictions on use when wind speed is greater than 15 kilometers per hour, to avoid problems of drift of the herbicide, which can damage other sensitive crops and achieve a good application.

As for the volumes of the broth (water + herbicide) applied per hectare, the sprayers apply medium to high volumes, greater than 65 liters per hectare.

The applicant is aware of the existence of equipment known as a rope machine, which partially resolves these inconveniences of spray equipment in pastures. This equipment has a system of ropes or ropes that get wet with the herbicide and when touching the weeds wets them with the product. This equipment has some drawbacks for which it has not had much diffusion. We can mention that it is very difficult to calibrate the equipment and know exactly how much it spends per hectare, because the dispenser and the applicator are the same ropes or ropes. This means that when you start working, the equipment is clean and spends a certain amount of broth. As it begins to work, the rope or rope is brushing the surface of the weeds and gets dirty with dirt, dust, plant debris and other things that adhere to it by being charged with static electricity. This determines that the team begins to spend less and less broth, than when it began to work and being able to cover itself completely and not spend anything, because nothing comes out. On the other hand, the tank of the tank is small and the amount of liquid remaining is not easily seen, so you have to stop frequently and waste a lot of time. To this must be added, that many times there are ropes or ropes, which drip more than others and the application is uneven. Other times weeds have small hard twigs that hook the ropes or ropes, detaching them from the tubes that provide the broth with the herbicide. This produces the blasting of the herbicide on the pasture with the consequent damage to the pastures, causing loss of time and ceasing profits. If the machine operator is not very attentive and looking back almost all the time, you will not be able to see when the ropes detach and can cause very important unwanted damage to the pastures.

On the other hand, having to be so attentive looking back, you must go at a very slow working speed so as not to take anything ahead, which decreases the performance of the equipment and increases the costs of the application.

The applicant also knows equipment that can apply less than 15 liters of broth per hectare, known as ultra low volume (UBV) equipment. These teams produce and release very small drops, which when dragged by the wind can go great distances, even with little wind, or even evaporate the drops on a hot day. This has the problem that the application can be disastrous, because the herbicide will stop somewhere unwanted, for example to another crop, causing damage and loss of profits. In the case and the drops evaporate, the treatment effect is null and the desired objective is not achieved. It is for this reason that UBV equipment is not recommended for herbicide applications.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The machine is formed by the following components: - a tool holder chassis (A - figure 1) that carries a 200 liter tank (B - figures 1 and 2) for water and herbicide (broth), which gives it great autonomy working without having to recharge water;

a parallel bobbin regulator system (C - figure 2), which allows to safely and reliably regulate the flow of liquid that it reaches the droppers;

a dropper dosing system (D - figure 2) which, according to the calibration of each dropper, allows to regulate the amount of water and herbicide that reaches the carpet and how they are distributed on it. The dispenser is formed by a series of parallel bobbins and set of calibrated drippers that allow an accurate and lasting calibration. The machine can be calibrated to spend between four and ten liters per hectare

an applicator system (E - figure 3) that we call carpet, that rubs weeds, scraping the surface of the leaves, turning them in many cases and applying the water with the herbicide. It has two jacks or legs on each side (F - figure 1), in order to prevent the carpet from touching the ground when the machine is detached from the tractor.

It is rectangular in shape, hanging on the machine chassis with bolts that hold it on the two longest sides of the rectangle. It is designed in such a way that it has a belly-shaped fall towards the center, which improves contact with weeds and wetting them. The measurements of the carpet are such that the width of the carpet is one and a half times the width of the machine chassis (1.5 ratio). This ratio of 1, 5 does that the carpet does not drip and in many weeds, turn the leaves back to apply the herbicide on the face under the leaves where there is less wax, greatly improving the penetration of the herbicide.

The dosing system is attached to the chassis by bolt clips. At the exit of the 200 liter tank there is a bobbin (H - figure 2), to allow or interrupt the passage of the broth, when starting or finishing the work of the machine respectively. The equipment works without pressure, only with the force of gravity. The herbicide used with this machine is glyphosate at a concentration of 10% (nine parts of water and one of glyphosate). As a lot of foam is produced in the tank, with the movement of the machine during work, an antifoam should be added to the broth.

ADVANTAGES: Unlike the rope machine, in the carpet machine the dispenser and the applicator are separated, so there is no variation in the cost of broth while the equipment is working. Once calibrated, the equipment always spends the same amount of broth.

The applicator system, which is the carpet, gently rubs the weeds and scrapes, to apply a broth film on them. The machine is calibrated so as not to drip the herbicide and the continuous contact with the weeds does not affect it, so the operator only takes care of operating the tractor after having regulated it. This makes the machine have a good performance, without wasting time, since there are no breaks or damage during operation.

It can be used in stony places since the operator only has to drive to avoid the stones without worrying about possible herbicide dripping.

The machine also has a herbicide tank high enough for the operator to easily see the amount of remaining stock.

The carpet applicator does not have the drawback of wind drift in conventional sprayers and wind or non-wind operation can be operated without any problem. This allows control of weeds when desired and not only when it is possible because of the wind, which gives it an important advantage to be able to choose the best moment of control.

The carpet machine allows a lower cost in weed control.

It allows the use of total herbicides in pastures and at any time, instead of selective herbicides that require a very limited application time, by pasture and weeds.

The carpet weed killer machine solves the problem of weed control in cultivated grasslands, improvements in cover, seedlings of forage plants and natural fields. Before you had to use selective herbicides that are expensive and now you can use glyphosate which is a total herbicide, but much cheaper. It allows to control the weeding, without affecting the pastures that you want to clean, killing only the weeds and leaving intact the productive forage plants.

By being mounted on the three-point hitch of an agricultural tractor, this machine can perform herbicide applications on large areas and have commercial use in fields and pastures.

When comparing the carpet machine with the machines commonly used to apply herbicides, we find the following differences that are discussed below.

- In the case of the carpet machine, the dosing system and the applicator do not carry pressure and operate by gravity. To this is added that the machine applies herbicide selectively on weeds and it does not touch the productive plants. - The selectivity instead of being given by the herbicide, is given due to the difference in height between the weeds and the pasture that you want to protect. The regulation of the application height is obtained by varying the height of the three-point hitch of the tractor.

- Another difference with the common sprayer, is that no component of the sprayer type sprayer touches the weeds, however in the carpet machine, the carpet touches the weeds and scratches the surface of the leaf facilitating the action of the herbicide.

When comparing the carpet machine, with the rope machine, the rope machine although it deposits the herbicide in a similar way, it differs in that the rope machine works with a much higher herbicide concentration of 33%, while the carpet machine does 10% ago

Weeds do not break the carpet machine while working and also does not drip.

The rope machine has the disadvantage when working with weeds such as Sida rombifolia (Sida) and similar ones that have hard twigs; the twigs hook the ropes, detaching them from the pipes, which produces a blasting of herbicide on the pasture, causing the death of a significant amount of pasture plants. Besides the cost that this represents and the damage to the pasture, a lot of operative time is lost, trying to solve this damage. The action of the herbicide is reinforced because scrape turns the leaves, applying the herbicide also below the leaves. The carpet machine, touching the weeds, as it has a ratio of 1.5 between the width of the carpet and the width of the chassis, has a curvature in the carpet that causes it to caress the weeds, turning the leaves in many cases and also applies the herbicide to the abaxial face (below) of the leaf. This in some weeds like Cynara cardunculus (Thistle of Castile) is excellent since the adaxial face (above) has an important waxy cover that hinders the penetration of the herbicide. The carpet is also a rough and slightly abrasive element that, unlike the ropes, scrapes The surface of the weed leaf, helping the action of the herbicide.

- The carpet machine is an ultra low volume (UBV) machine especially suitable for applying total herbicides, without causing damage to other sensitive crops. If we compare the carpet applicator, with ultra low volume (UBV) machines, common UBV machines apply less than 15 liters per hectare and the carpet machine applies stock volumes of 4 to 10 liters per hectare. For this reason it can be considered as an ultra low volume (UBV) machine. The advantage of the carpet over that of conventional UBV, is that the carpet is not affected by the wind and does not suffer any type of drift the application of the herbicide. There is also no risk of the herbicide evaporating, because the drops produced by the drippers are large and do not evaporate like those of UBV equipment that are very small. The drops after reaching the carpet are distributed evenly and are transferred to the weeds that are touched. The very small droplet size of common UBVs has very serious wind drift limitations. For this reason it is that common UBV machines are not recommended to apply herbicides due to the drift problem. The carpet machine also applies less than 15 liters per hectare, but has no drift problem with the wind. The carpet machine can be considered as a UBV without drift problems which makes it suitable for herbicide application.

The carpet machine represents an advantage from the economic point of view, since a very low cost herbicide can be used, at very low doses to control weeds in grasslands. If selective herbicides were used in these pastures, the cost would be very high or technically very difficult due to the botanical composition of the grasslands. In a meadow of grasses (type Festuca) and legumes (type white clover and lotus), to control thistles or senecio in the second year of the pasture, control is expensive for the cost of herbicides to be used and good control is hardly achieved, without affecting any of the botanical components of the pasture. With the use of the carpet machine weed control is simple, cheap and with very good results.

The same goes for improvements in the coverage of forage legumes, where to control weeds such as mine and the carqueja, if we use the classic methods of spraying herbicides, we will affect the legumes of the cover. In this case using the carpet weed killer machine, we achieve an effective and cheap control without affecting the legumes of forage improvement at all.

Among the characteristics that make the carpet machine a reliable and useful tool, the following can be mentioned: a - Water and herbicide (broth) can be regulated per hectare to apply volumes of 4 to 10 liters per hectare, which ensures that we wet weeds but do not drip on the pasture. This is achieved with the faucets in parallel and with the use of calibrated drippers. b - Being able to know the herbicide expenditure per hectare, the working width of the machine and the working speed of the tractor, a cost calculation can be made, to know how much it costs to use this machine per hectare, in a given property. c - The shape of the fall of the carpet that hangs from the chassis, determines a relationship between the width of the carpet and the width of the chassis, whose default value is 1.5. This causes the broth that comes out of the drippers to spread perfectly through the carpet and wet it completely and evenly, avoiding blasting. d - Selectively control large weeds, something that selective herbicides cannot do because they need the weed to be too small or a seedling to kill it. e - It is not affected by the wind during application. f - It can be used in pastures and improvements in coverage of already established forage legumes, without affecting them. g - It allows to lower the treatments because it uses low amounts of herbicide per hectare and the herbicides it uses are cheap. h - By applying such small volumes of herbicide (1 liter per hectare) and in such a localized way (only weeds touched) this machine is a tool that helps the care of the environment, which represents an ecological advantage. The carpet weed killer machine can be used in natural fields to clean weeds and enhance the most productive species. The low maintenance cost of this machine is another of the qualities that should be highlighted. The carpet machine also does not require agricultural tractors with great engine power to be used, so it represents an economy in tractor fuel consumption and can be used with any small agricultural tractor.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To complete the description that is being made and in order to help a better understanding of the characteristics of the Model, a set of DRAWINGS with an illustrative but not limiting character is attached to the present descriptive report.

Claims

1.-Herbicide applicator machine for weed control in grasslands, natural fields, cover improvements, seedlings and other types of forage improvement; touching weeds only without affecting the pasture, characterized by being constituted by a tool holder chassis (A - figure 1) that carries a 200 liter tank (B - figures 1 and 2) for water and herbicide (broth).

2.- Machine that allows the application of herbicides by touching only the weeds without affecting the pasture according to claim L- characterized by having a parallel tap regulation system (C - figure 2) that allows to safely and reliably regulate the flow of liquid that reaches the drippers.

3.- Machine that allows the application of herbicides by touching only the weeds without affecting the pasture according to claims 1 and 2 characterized by having a dropper dosing system (D - figure 2) formed by a series of parallel tappers and a set of drippers calibrated that allow an exact and lasting calibration.

4.- Machine that allows the application of herbicides by touching only the weeds without affecting the pasture according to claims 1, 2 and 3 characterized by having an applicator system (E - figure 3) of rectangular shape with a drop towards the center in the form of a belly , which improves contact with weeds and wetting them; its width being once and a half the width of the chassis (ratio of 1, 5)