Clamp Coverer

a machine for covering field clamps and trenches (pits) with earth after root crops and potatoes have been placed in them. There are rotor and conveyor clamp coverers. In the USSR the rotor type is mainly used. The principal working parts of the rotor type are the plow-share and impeller; the conveyor type has a bucket elevator and a belt conveyor. When the rotor clamp coverer is in motion, the plowshare cuts while the impeller, rotating with fluted blades, throws the earth back a distance of 10 m and a height of up to 5.5 m; the output of this kind of clamp coverer reaches 100 cu m of earth per hour. When a conveyor clamp coverer is in operation, the bucket of the elevator picks up earth and drops it onto the belt conveyor, which then throws the earth onto the clamp. This type of clamp coverer can lift the earth to a maximum altitude of 1.5 m; its productivity is 80 to 130 cu m of earth per hour. Clamp coverers are attached to 1.4-ton tractors. Their working parts are set in motion by the tractor’s power takeoff shaft. The unit is operated by the tractor operator.