US 11,805,716 B2
Tilling apparatus
Niels Peter Olsen, Hallora (AU)
Assigned to SOIL-KEE PTY. LTD., Victoria (AU)
Filed by SOIL-KEE PTY. LTD., Hallora (AU)
Filed on Oct. 25, 2016, as Appl. No. 15/333,599.
Application 15/333,599 is a division of application No. 14/185,330, filed on Feb. 20, 2014, granted, now 9,516,799.
Application 14/185,330 is a continuation of application No. PCT/AU2012/001048, filed on Sep. 5, 2012.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/535,555, filed on Sep. 16, 2011.
Claims priority of application No. 2011903588 (AU), filed on Sep. 5, 2011.
Prior Publication US 2017/0034984 A1, Feb. 9, 2017
Int. Cl. A01B 33/02 (2006.01); A01B 49/06 (2006.01); A01B 33/10 (2006.01); A01C 7/00 (2006.01); A01B 49/02 (2006.01); A01C 5/06 (2006.01); A01C 7/08 (2006.01)
CPC A01B 33/021 (2013.01) [A01B 33/02 (2013.01); A01B 33/103 (2013.01); A01B 49/022 (2013.01); A01B 49/06 (2013.01); A01B 49/065 (2013.01); A01C 5/064 (2013.01); A01C 7/006 (2013.01); A01C 7/08 (2013.01)] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of reducing compaction through at least one of tilling, cultivating or renovating of soil that has been exposed to passing farm machinery that has at least one ground wheel rotatably coupled thereto, the method comprising:
configuring a tilling apparatus to be towed by a tractor that makes up at least a portion of the farm machinery, the tilling apparatus comprising:
a rotatable shaft that is responsive to rotational power provided thereto by the tractor; and
a plurality of cutters secured to the rotatable shaft and spaced apart from one another along an axial dimension thereof, wherein each of the cutters defines a disc with a plurality of tines secured on opposing surfaces and about the periphery thereof, each of the plurality of tines defining an L-shaped construction with a disc-engaging shank that extends radially outward therefrom to terminate with a blade that extends in a substantially perpendicular direction from the shank, wherein the blades of circumferentially adjacent tines about the disc extend in alternately opposite directions to one another; and
upon having the tilling apparatus traverse over the soil that is in the path of the at least one ground wheel, using the rotational interaction of the plurality of cutters to comminute the soil through rotational interaction therewith such that an entirety of the reducing compaction of the soil is achieved through the plurality of cutters while a plurality of rows of worked soil are formed in unworked soil at least a portion of which has been compacted by contact with the at least one ground wheel, wherein each of the plurality of rows defines a trench comprising a first granulated soil part and a second granulated soil part such that the first granulated soil part comprises an aerated array of soil particles within each of the trenches while the second granulated soil part forms a deposited layer of aerated soil particles onto a portion of the unworked soil that is present on opposing sides of each of the trenches.