Plant husbandry – Miscellaneous – Modified earth's surface – e.g. – sod – turf – reinforced
Patent
1995-06-13
1997-10-28
Melius, Terry Lee
Plant husbandry
Miscellaneous
Modified earth's surface, e.g., sod, turf, reinforced
A01G 3102, A01C 1102
Patent
active
056807279
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus to insert automatically plant supporting blocks into holes of a panel used in hydroponics.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
As shown in FIG. 10, in a panel (1) used in hydroponics, a large number of holes (2) are arranged lengthwise and sideways, and, on the other hand, a plant supporting sheet (3) is divided into a plural number of blocks (4) by cutting lines (5) arranged intermittently lengthwise and sideways and a plant P is supported in each block (4). Said panel (1) is mainly made of a polystyrene foam and said plant supporting sheet (3) is mainly made of a soft type polyurethane foam.
Hitherto, said blocks (4) have been inserted into holes (2) of said panel (1), by manually tearing off said blocks (4) from said plant supporting sheet (3) by worker's hand. Nevertheless, many workers and heavy labor have been necessary to tear off said blocks (4) from said plant supporting sheet (3) and insert respectively said blocks (4) into holes (2) of said panel (1) by hand.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
As a means to solve the above described problem in the prior art, the present invention provides an automatic planting apparatus (10) consisting of a main conveyer (11) to convey a panel (1) in which holes (2) are arranged along l number (a first predetermined number) of lines and a plural number of rows, a sub-conveyer (13) to convey a plant supporting sheet (3) divided into blocks (4) along m number (a second predetermined number) of lines and a plural number of rows by cutting lines and arranged above or below said main conveyer (11) so as to slide right and left, a block separator (25) arranged near the front side of said sub-conveyer (13) for tearing off l pieces of blocks (4) in the same row from said plant supporting sheet (3), and a block inserting unit (39) inserting l pieces of blocks (4) torn off by said block separator (25) into l number of holes (2) in the same row respectively, wherein said main conveyer (11) has a main feeder (15) to feed said panel (1) forward by a pitch between rows when all blocks (4) have been inserted into l number of holes (2) in a row, and said sub-conveyer (13) has a sliding unit (17) to slide said plant supporting sheet (3) sideways by a distance corresponding to the width of each block (4) when all blocks (4) have been inserted into holes (2) arranged in a row of said panel (1) and a sub-feeder (16) feeding said plant supporting sheet (3) forward by a distance corresponding to the length of each block (4) when all blocks (4) in the front row have been torn off, and m is an integral multiple of l.
To insert said blocks (4) into holes (2) of panel (1), l pieces of blocks (4) in the first row are torn off at an interval of n -1 pieces of blocks (4) from said plant supporting sheet (3) on said sub-conveyer (13) of said automatic planting apparatus (10). The quantity n is the number of repetitions of a movement as explained below. Then said l pieces of blocks (4) are inserted into l number of holes (2) in the first row of said panel (1) on said main conveyer (11) by said block inserting unit (39). After that, said panel (1) is fed forward by a pitch between rows by said main feeder (15) and said plant supporting sheet (3) on said sub-conveyer (13) is slided sideways by a distance corresponding to the width of each block (4) by said sliding unit (17) and the above described movement to insert said blocks (4) into holes (2) of said panel (1) is repeatedly carried out. When said movement is repeated n times, all blocks (4) in the first row of said plant supporting sheet (3) have been torn off and then said plant supporting sheet (3) is fed forward by a distance corresponding to the length of each block (4).
As above described, said plant supporting blocks (4) are inserted into said holes (2) of said panel (1) successively.
Accordingly, in the present invention, the number of workers and time to insert the plant supporting blocks into the hales of the panel used in hydroponics are greatly reduced.
BRIEF DESCRIP
REFERENCES:
patent: 5445089 (1995-08-01), Houng et al.
patent: 5488802 (1996-02-01), Williames
patent: 5557881 (1996-09-01), Bouldin et al.
patent: 5573558 (1996-11-01), Huang
Abe Yoshimi
Murai Shinji
Sakaue Toyokazu
Dowden Donald S.
Downs Joanne C.
M-Hydroponics Research Co., Ltd.
Melius Terry Lee
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