Planting – Plant setting – Plant dispensing
Patent
1995-11-01
1997-07-08
Melius, Terry Lee
Planting
Plant setting
Plant dispensing
221 79, 221 88, 414417, A01C 1100
Patent
active
056449992
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic transplanter. More specifically, the invention relates to a mechanism for transferring seedlings or plants from plant trays or flats ("trays" and "flats" are used interchangeably in the art and in the application) in which they have been grown or propagated onto a conveyor for delivering to means for effecting transplanting into a field.
2. Related Art
Related prior art transplanters have included indexing mechanisms that engage on the ends and sides of trays containing seedlings or which engage a single contact point on the back of such trays. Therefore, these previous transplanters require a mechanism for ejecting the seedlings from the trays that is separate from the indexing mechanism. An inherent disadvantage of these previous transplanters is the frequency of misalignment between the seedling ejection apparatus and the rows of seedlings in a particular tray. This misalignment results from variations in the center-to-center distance between rows of seedlings in a tray and the center-to-center distance between the last row of seedlings on one tray and the first row of seedlings on a second succeeding tray being fed into position for ejection of the seedlings. Previous transplanters have relied on gravity for the feeding of a second tray into contact with the indexing mechanism after a first tray has been completely emptied. Consequently, soil or foliage trapped between the two trays often causes significant misalignment of the seedling ejection mechanism with the rows of seedlings in the tray; such misalignment can result in a multitude of malfunctions, none of which are beneficial.
Previous transplanters have employed feed mechanisms which require the use of hard plastic trays rather than trays made from materials such as expanded polystyrene which is of insufficient strength to withstand the forces exerted by such feed mechanisms because of the relatively soft nature of the expanded polystyrene. However, expanded polystyrene trays are desirable to use because of their light weight and lower cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The transplanter of the present invention is adapted to be mounted on a supporting vehicle such as a tractor capable of movement along a row and having planting means which receives seedling plants from the present invention and inserts them in the soil in conventional manner. Disadvantages of earlier transplanters are overcome by providing an indexing mechanism and a seedling or plug ejection mechanism which are positively located relative to each other and relative to a common datum surface on the plant tray. An expanded polystyrene plant tray of the type used with the present invention is of rectangular configuration having a longer longitudinal dimension and a shorter transverse dimension. Each plant tray includes a plurality of plant or seedling cells for containing plugs of growing medium arranged in a matrix of spaced perpendicular longitudinal and transverse rows of the seedling cells. The seedling cells each have a centrally located drain hole on the bottom surface of the plant tray. These plant trays have drive grooves located between adjacent longitudinal rows of cells across a substantial part of the bottom surface of the tray (which is oriented in a vertical plane when in the apparatus of the present invention).
The indexing mechanism of the transplanter according to the present invention includes a rotary indexing drum adapted to engage with the drive grooves of the tray and actuation means arranged to index the indexing drum and hence move the plant tray in sequential steps along a predetermined vertical path perpendicular to the longitudinal rows of seedling cells. An entire longitudinal row of plants is ejected from the tray during each dwell of the indexing drum. In the preferred embodiment the drive grooves comprise parallel indexing grooves in the bottom surface of the plant tray located on either side of the longitudinal rows of cells so that a drive groove is
REFERENCES:
patent: 4388035 (1983-06-01), Cayton et al.
patent: 4443151 (1984-04-01), Armstrong et al.
patent: 4893571 (1990-01-01), Hakli et al.
Melius Terry Lee
Novosad Christopher J.
Speedling, Inc.
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