Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Agricultural device making
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-21
2002-10-08
Echols, P. W. (Department: 3726)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Agricultural device making
C056S328100, C294S019200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06460249
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method of constructing a rotary nut harvesting device and, particularly to a rotary nut harvesting device constructed having a wire basket for gathering nuts or other generally round objects lying on the ground.
The primary purpose of this invention is to provide those growers with smaller orchards to harvest their crops without having to purchase expensive equipment. It is also well known that hand operated wire baskets are used by persons manually harvesting nuts to bridge the gap between expensive nut harvesting machines and picking up nuts by hand. Such wire baskets are generally mounted to roll on the end of a long handle so that the person harvesting does not need to kneel or stoop over to harvest the nuts. Thus, wire basket nut harvester plays an important role in improving the ergonomics involved in manually harvesting nuts, which is particularly important to our senior citizens who are often employed to gather nuts or the like.
Manually operated harvesters help individuals gather many times the amount of nuts that one could gather without such tools. However, hand operated harvesters of the past have been inefficient and cost prohibitive to manufacture, or, in the alternative, such hand operated harvesters have been of low quality construction or difficult to use efficiently. For example U.S. Pat. No. 3,068,634 to Robinson discloses a popular and reasonably inexpensive method constrict a nut harvester having a basket comprising a longitudinally elongated spring wire spiral. The Robinson device seems to have several positive attributes such as ease of manufacture and low cost of construction. However, the Robinson device is inefficient in use because the device must be constantly lifted to pick up nuts. Other U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,215,293 to Kelly et al and U.S. Pat. Pat. 3.604,190 to Wray teach devices that use a wire basket that rolls along the ground for picking up objects such as nuts. However, these devices include axles within the baskets and other attributes that appear to make them more difficult and expensive to construct.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method of manufacturing a nut harvesting device. A plurality of wires of substantially equal, length are provided and arranged substantially parallel with an open ended circular configuration having an outer periphery and an inner periphery. A washer is inserted on each end of the wires about the outer periphery along with an outer sleeve. An inner sleeve is inserted on each end of the wires within the inner periphery by pressing the inner sleeve into the inner periphery of the wires. Inserting the inner sleeve causes the inner sleeve and outer sleeve to impinge against the wires. The wires are then pressed to begin the formation of an oval cylindrical chamber and then further pressed to form deformations near each end of the wires. A bolt is inserted through each of the inner sleeves and bears against the outer sleeve. A nut, metal washer, and rubber washer bearing against the inside of the wires is tightened on each end of the bolts causing the wires to form substantially flat ends of said chamber between the nuts and inner sleeves and outer sleeves. A bail attaches the chamber to a handle for use as a hand-held nut harvester that is effective, yet simple and inexpensive to construct.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2729046 (1956-01-01), Patterson
patent: 3068634 (1962-12-01), Robinson
patent: 3215293 (1965-11-01), Kelly et al.
patent: 3604190 (1971-09-01), Wray
patent: D323831 (1992-02-01), Hollis
Bellamy Brian D.
Echols P. W.
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