Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Helical or random winding of material – For web material
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-06
2001-09-18
Marcelo, Emmanuel M. (Department: 3653)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Helical or random winding of material
For web material
C242S397300, C242S403000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06290163
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a device intended for picking up covering fabrics from plantation fields, comprising a shaft mountable on a wheel-borne vehicle, which shaft is rotatable with the purpose of guaranteeing winding the fabric into a roll.
PRIOR ART
Recently, it has become usual to cover outdoor cultivations with fabrics with the purpose of ensuring a good heat generation in the immediate proximity to the crops, as well as protecting the crops against insect or bug attacks. The improved heat generation yields early and safe harvests and by the fact that insects are kept away from the crops, the use of chemical insect control means may be made unnecessary. For the last-mentioned reason, the covering fabrics are used with a particular advantage in ecological cultivations. The fabrics may consist of a fibrous fabric or a perforated plastic film, which in both cases is delivered in long lengths having a large width. In practice, these fabrics usually have a width within the range of 10-13 meters and a length of 150-250 meters or more. At delivery, the fabrics are folded and wound into rolls the width of which may attain approx. 2 meters. To put out such fabrics on the plantation field is comparatively simple, but problems arise when the fabrics are to be taken in from the field towards the end of the cultivation season so as to be reused during a following cultivation season. Most often, the handling is done manually, more precisely by several men successively pulling out smaller portions of the fabric, after loosening existing anchorages, to one edge of the plantation field and there fold and pack said fabric together step by step along the entire length thereof. This procedure is not only laborious and time-consuming but also associated with high risks of sensitive crop being damaged. With the purpose of removing the need for the difficult manual handling of fabrics, simpler machine equipments have been developed for partly mechanized picking up the fabrics. More precisely, these equipments consist of rotatable shafts which are drivable by means of, for instance, the ordinary hydraulic system of a tractor and which are included in a stand mountable on the rear of the tractor. However, such shafts merely permit a partial facilitation of the work inasmuch as the fabric may be wound to itself and be transported away from the field only when it still has been folded together manually to a limited width (approx. 2 meters) which corresponds to the length of the shaft. In other words, this mechanized method still requires manual folding of the fabric before winding it onto the shaft.
OBJECTS AN FEATURES OF THE INVENTION
The present invention aims at obviating the above-mentioned problems and at creating a device for picking up fabrics which radically decreases the need for manual work in conjunction with the removal of covering fabrics from plantation fields, as well as reduces the risks for damages to the crops as well as the fabrics to a minimum. Thus, a primary objection of the invention is to provide a device for picking up fabrics which permits that the fabric in the existing, spread out state is taken up directly from the field and taken care of in an immediately storable form without having to be handled by many people. A further object of the invention is to create a picking up device permitting a simple, fast and effective picking up work by one single man, viz., a driver of a tractor or a similar vehicle. In doing so, the driver should be able to deliver the fabric modified to a storable shape without having to leave the vehicle. It is also an object of the invention to create a picking up device permitting picking up covering fabrics independent of the current weather, in particular with regard to wind-force and precipitation conditions.
According to the invention, at least the primary object is attained by a device for picking up a spread out sheet of fabric from a farm field, comprising a shaft which may be mounted on a tractor or the like, with the shaft being rotatable for winding the fabric onto a roll. The apparatus includes an elongate arm which may be mounted to extend from the front of the vehicle, and which has a fabric capturing device such as a loop at its front end. The fabric may be drawn through the loop thereby forming a narrow strand. The rotatable shaft is axially mounted to the vehicle, to received as well as liberate a separate reel for winding the bunched up fabric by driving the vehicle in a direction backwards or forwards. Between the capturing device and the shaft are placed one or more members for guiding the fabric strand in its gathered state from the capturing drive to the reel. These members include a passageway for the fabric which is restricted in size relative to the capturing device, for bunching the fabric into a comparatively narrow strand. A mechanism is arranged in proximity to the shaft to evenly distribute the arriving strand of fabric onto the reel. Preferred embodiments of the device for picking up fabrics according to the invention include the capturing device consisting of an endless frame or ring. Further, the capturing device may be placed in front of the front wheels of the tractor or similar vehicle to which the registration arm is mounted.
In one particularly preferred embodiment, the separate reel comprises a central pipe for application onto the shaft, and includes two opposite gables on either end. The shaft is vertically tiltable and includes a dog having one or more fingers which automatically engage one of the gables when an end portion of the reel approaches an inner end position in proximity to the dog, as the shaft is tilted to a position pointing obliquely outwards and upwards. With this arrangement the reel may be released from the dog when the shaft is tilted to a position pointing obliquely outwards and downwards. The gables may consist of an external ring and a plurality of spokes.
In a further aspect, the guiding means may consist of one or more pipe pieces e.g., hollow members such as hollow cylindrical members, which are somewhat elongate. Preferably at least one of these pipe pieces includes an elbow for guiding a strand of fabric from a motion path which is axial to the direction of travel of the tractor, to one which is transverse to this direction for winding up on the reel. Preferably, the apparatus includes mounting means in which the shaft and reel are at the rear of the vehicle. The fabric guiding means and distribution mechanism are mounted on the framework along one side of the vehicle and projecting laterally from the vehicle.
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Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Frösö Trädgård AB
Marcelo Emmanuel M.
LandOfFree
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