Harvesters – Fruit gatherer – Berry strippers
Reexamination Certificate
2003-05-05
2004-12-28
Kovács, Árpád Fábián (Department: 3671)
Harvesters
Fruit gatherer
Berry strippers
Reexamination Certificate
active
06834487
ABSTRACT:
RELATED U.S. APPLICATIONS
Not applicable.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not applicable.
REFERENCE TO MICROFICHE APPENDIX
Not applicable.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns a leaf stripper, more specifically designed for vine leaf stripping.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Leaf stripping is a technique that consists of removing the leaves located in the fruit-bearing area of the plants. Made manually for years in some vineyards, this operation that is aimed at improving the quality of the harvest and at facilitating the thinning and picking work has become of growing interest with the development of mechanical leaf stripping.
The advantages of leaf stripping are multiple:
To promote grape bunch aeration so as to reduce rot.
To promote thinning in order to improve coloration (thicker grape skin).
To thin the plant cover in the fruit-bearing area for better penetration and location of treatments (botrytis-oidium-grey rot-grape caterpillars-mildew . . . ).
To improve ripening of the bunches through better sun exposure (heavier bunches, more developed aromas, and better health status of the harvest).
To favor access to the grape bunches so as to reduce labor time on manual operations such as thinning (−50%), manual harvesting (−30%-40%).
To reduce foliage so as to limit juice losses upon leaf aspiration from the remainder of the mechanically harvested vintage.
To facilitate drying when raining through better sun exposure and better aeration.
Leaf stripping thus proves to be a very interesting operation that responds well to the concern for task optimization and harvest quality.
Several machines and processes have been proposed to date and some of them are actually still used for the performance of this work.
In document FR-2,147,932, a leaf stripping device is described that uses a grid-type rotating cylindrical cage designed to roll over the plant cover and inside which a hollow cylinder provided with an opening is housed in a fixed manner. An aspirator mounted above the interior hollow cylinder is used to create, inside the latter, a negative pressure for the purpose of aspirating foliage leaves and blow them against the grid-type rotating cage. Rollers mounted on hinged brackets are arranged under pressure against the lateral surface of the cage and driven by the latter in a rotating manner. The leaves become jammed between the grid-type drum and the rollers and are torn from the branches under the tractive force resulting from the movement of the machine.
A priori, the principle of foliage stripping using the suction flow of a turbine through a grid-type rotating drum designed to pull and blow the leaves against the lateral surface of said drum seems judicious and power-efficient. However, it does not seem that the machine described in document FR-2,417,932 has been put on the market and to the knowledge of the deponent, no leaf stripper using that principle is marketed today.
The lack of success of this machine results certainly from the fact that the leaf tearing principle using friction rollers does not seem to be concretely applied for several reasons:
according to the description and the drawings of document FR-2,417,932, the hinged supports mounted on springs with rollers are intended to be positioned in the plant cover during operation; this arrangement is not applicable since said supports rub in the plant cover and hinder aspiration of the leaves as they push back the vegetation; it is not possible to position mechanical components in the plant cover beyond the wall of the rotating cage as they would telescope and be torn by various obstacles located in the axis of the vine row, such as stakes, wire tighteners and mainly posts;
because a relatively large effort is necessary to tear off leaves, it is unlikely that the effort created by the friction of the rollers on the drum is sufficient, especially if leaves or stems come between the cage wall and the rollers; and
this device, because of its location in relation to the plant cover and of its principle of severing leaves by tearing them off, can only cause plugging of the system through plant accumulation and damage the vine.
Document FR-2,390,084 describes a mechanical leaf stripper based on aspiration of the leaves with a turbine trough, a fixed grid, placed in front of the blades of the latter. The sharp blades of the turbine helix are used as means of severing the leaves. This system is well-known and most leaf strippers currently marketed are based on this principle.
These machines require a significant negative pressure to suck the leaves into the severing system made up by the turbine blades. These heavy and bulky machines are not equipped with a positioning system of the leaf stripping turbine in relation to the plant cover. The dexterity of the driver through the accuracy of his driving, necessarily at low speed, ensures the quality of stripping. This principle makes the stripping rate approximate and the injury rate to grape bunches high; the high suction power required for efficient stripping limits the speed of advance of the leaf stripper. The projections of shredded leaf particles and the dust raised by this type of machine are major disadvantages from a health point of view.
In document FR-2,406,384, a vine stripping machine is described that uses the blast of a fan through the plant cover to push the leaves through a grid-type rotating drum installed opposite thereto. The grid-type drum rolls over the plant cover while the leaves pushed by the blower through the rotating drum wall featuring horizontal bands are severed by cutters rotating inside it.
This solution has several disadvantages that probably explain its absence on the market, such as for example:
the difficulty to accurately channel the flow of air blowing through the plant cover, as stems, bunches and posts located between the fan and the cage or drum disturb and deviate the flow of air, thus preventing the leaves from entering the facing cage;
as described and drawn in document FR 2,406,384, the rotating cage that severs the leaves is mounted on the opposite side of the tractor; thus the operator has no visibility on the stripped area and this heavy and bulky architecture is thus inappropriate for this operation that requires continuous monitoring of the rate of leaves removed and of potential injuries to the grape bunches; and
finally, no device is provided for the discharge of the leaves cut inside in the cage and therefore rapid plugging can be expected due to the accumulation of cuttings inside the drum.
Document EP-0,597,253 describes very summarily an automatic vine leaf stripper comprising a foliage suction system using a centrifugal aspirator and a linear suction port, a leaf severing device with a reciprocating cutting blade placed close to said linear suction port, a roller installed in front of the suction system to be able to separate the leaves from the grape bunches and a conveyor belt placed in front of the stripping head whose moving speed is synchronized with the moving speed of the leaf stripper. This conveyor belt makes it possible to bear on the plant cover without causing any friction onto the grape bunches.
However, the leaf strippers currently marketed based on the arrangements described in that document are not equipped with the conveyor belt whose presence is the cause of disadvantages in view of which the result strived for seems secondary. In fact, the action of the belt upstream of the stripping head channels and probably pushes back leaves and bunches, but the belt stops in front of the suction port. When this vegetation passes in front of the suction port where the cutter blade is located, the belt no longer operates. The presence of this belt in front of the plant suction and severing system thus loses all efficiency with regard to the separation of leaves and bunches.
To separate the leaves from the bunches, a vertical roller is installed in the front of the suction and cutting system, between the conveyor belt and said system but after this roller goes by
Bonnard Christian
Pellenc Roger
Harrison & Egbert
Kovács Árpád Fábián
Pellenc (Societe Anonyme)
LandOfFree
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