Environmentally Friendly, Electro-mechanical Controller for Adjusting Pump Stroke (2016-039)

This invention uses an electro-mechanical controller that allows the user to adjust the pump stroke on-the-go for site-specific applications. Currently, there are over two million crankshaft-type positive-displacement piston pumps in the USA which are used by row-crop and hay farmers for applying crop inputs. The outlet flow of these pumps can be changed by adjusting pump stroke manually by using specific tools provided by the company. The “on-the-go” outlet flow also can be varied by changing the drive shaft speed. However, for each manual setting, only limited range of flow rate can be achieved by changing the drive shaft speed. This limited flow range is not sufficient for applying variable-rate crop inputs in fields with tremendous amount of variations in soil types, resulting in practice that is wasteful, costly, and environmentally questionable. Clemson University researchers have developed an electro-mechanical controller for adjusting pump stroke that uses algorithms based on optical sensors which applies a fertilizer only where needed at optimum rate. This will result in reduced waste, increased profits, and enhanced environmental quality. The controller has the potential to be retrofitted on all existing piston pumps with market value of over $1 billion.