Patent ID: 8166896

Claim:
A seed meter comprising: a generally circular vacuum housing coupled to a vacuum source; a generally circular seed disc having first and second opposed surfaces and plural spaced apertures disposed adjacent to and about its outer periphery, each aperture adapted to receive a seed, wherein said seed disc is attached about its outer periphery in a sealed manner to said vacuum housing so as to define a vacuum chamber adjacent the first surface of said seed disc; a generally flat finger wheel disposed in said vacuum chamber intermediate said vacuum housing and said seed disc, and in facing relation to the first surface of said seed disc, said finger wheel including plural radially extending, spaced, resilient fingers each adapted for deflecting in a direction along an axis extending through aligned centers of said vacuum chamber, seed disc and finger wheel, each of said resilient fingers including a respective distal end portion; a seed hopper disposed adjacent said seed disc for providing seeds to the second surface of said seed disc, wherein the vacuum formed on the first surface of said seed disc causes seeds to adhere to the second surface of said seed disc over the peripheral apertures of said seed disc, said seed hopper including a seed discharge portion; a spindle connected to a rotary drive source and to said vacuum housing, seed disc and finger wheel for rotationally displacing said vacuum housing, seed disc and finger wheel about said axis in unison; a fixed member disposed in said vacuum chamber adjacent said finger wheel for sequentially deflecting each resilient finger of said rotating finger wheel toward said seed disc, wherein the distal end portion of each resilient finger is sequentially positioned into engagement with an aperture on the first surface of said rotating seed disc at a designated location thereby interrupting vacuum communication with said peripheral aperture and releasing a seed positioned thereon at said designated location, and wherein said designated location is aligned with the seed discharge portion of said seed hopper.