Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01D—HARVESTING; MOWING
  • A01D46/00—Picking of fruits, vegetables, hops, or the like; Devices for shaking trees or shrubs
  • A01D46/26—Devices for shaking trees or shrubs; Fruit catching devices to be used therewith
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01D—HARVESTING; MOWING
  • A01D46/00—Picking of fruits, vegetables, hops, or the like; Devices for shaking trees or shrubs
  • A01D46/26—Devices for shaking trees or shrubs; Fruit catching devices to be used therewith
  • A01D46/264—Devices for beating or vibrating the foliage; Fruit catching devices to be used therewith
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01D—HARVESTING; MOWING
  • A01D46/00—Picking of fruits, vegetables, hops, or the like; Devices for shaking trees or shrubs
  • A01D46/28—Vintaging machines, i.e. grape harvesting machines

Definitions

• Object of the present invention is a novel machine for continuous harvesting fruits hanging from trees of any dimensions, such as olive tree, walnut tree, almond tree and similar, without causing any damage to fruits or tree.
• Said machine is mainly made up of a plurality of articulated arms actuated by hydraulic pistons and which constitute the support of a brush-shaped shaker which, in turn, is in contact to the tree foliage.
• shakers commonly used and manually actuated by operators of the agricultural field.
• Such shakers usually consist in an arm actuated manually by the operator, whose end part in various shapes (as comb, as pliers etc.) is brought in contact to and vibrated in the tree foliage, thus causing the fruits falling down.
• the main disadvantage of the applications known at the state of the art is basically that the machines cannot guarantee the continuous harvesting of hanging fruits; moreover, in the most cases the machines are of little dimensions (so called shakers) which have to be actuated by single operators who are also physically burdened by their weight during fruits harvesting.
• Patent US5946896 which describes a machine for continuous harvesting fruits hanging from trees, comprising a plurality of oscillating shakers for fruits removal, said shakers being coupled to an articulated telescopic arm mounted on a self-propelled frame and comprising, in turn, a plurality of interception and harvesting means of falling fruits.
• the oscillating movement of said oscillating shakers is generated by the rotation of a motor in which an outer plate is aligned eccentrically with the driving shaft.
• aim of the present invention is to overcome such drawbacks and to guarantee a continuous harvesting thus reducing possible stop steps both for the shaker movement and for the fruits picking.
• Another aim of the invention is to guarantee and concentrate the finalization of all the various working steps concerning hanging fruits harvesting in only one machine: fruits falling from the tree by means of shakers or beaters, crop sorting and conveyance .
• Another aim of the proposed invention is to work by means of the novel machine on trees of any shape and dimension as well as in any planting distance such as super-intensive, espaliered, intensive and past ones with a continuous harvesting speed sufficiently high to concentrate the harvesting time in the time interval when the yield and fruit quality parameters are optimal for a maximum product profitability.
• the present invention reaches the prefixed aims since it is a machine for continuous harvesting fruits hanging from trees, as better specified in the main claim appended to the present detailed description .
• figure 1 shows an overview of the machine with the main parts highlighted, such as fixed frame, articulated arms and rotating brush-shaped shaker;
• figure 2 shows another overview of the machine similar to the previous figure 1, with other parts highlighted, such as the cage for fruits interception which covers the brush, the cage for fixed interception in the lower part of the machine, the tank for fruits collecting, the operator position;
• figure 3 shows schematically the mechanism generating the combined movement of the brush both rotating and oscillating
• figure 4 shows a detail of the cam mechanism apt to transform the rotating motion of the hydraulic motor in the motion of the brush both oscillating and rotating;
• figure 5 shows schematically a top view of the working cycle of the machine object of the proposed present invention, in an agricultural field.
• the machine (100) is firstly made up of a fixed frame (1) apt to support a vertical structure on which there are mounted a rotating brush-shaped shaker (10) and a movable demountable frame (2), which is apt to support the tank for fruits collecting.
• Both said fixed (1) and movable frame (2) are housed on dampened wheels (3) for an optimal management of the loads on irregular fields.
• said wheels (3) can be also actuated by hydraulic motors.
• Said fixed frame (1) is provided with a plurality of coupling means (4) both on the front of the machine for towing the same machine by means of a tractor for example, and on the back for positioning the operator position, who is responsible of the actuation of the machine.
• said coupling means (4) are in number of three both on the front and on the back.
• the movable frame (2) is usually mounted after transporting the machine (100) on the place intended, and it is demounted at the end of the operations to bring back the same in an easier way.
• the movable frame (2) is coupled to the fixed frame (1) by simply clutching and blocking by means of pins or stops (15) .
• hydraulic pistons can be used.
• the movable frame (2) is provided with a dampened wheel (3) and its main function is to serve as support for transporting the tank (26) apt to collect fruits fallen down from the tree after the movement of the brush (10), which will be described in the following.
• the fruits collecting in the tank is made easier by using a suitable cage of cloths in nearly trapezoidal shape, whose horizontal plane is anchored on the fixed frame (1) .
• the base fixed frame (1) serves as carrier structure for a structure with articulated arms comprising at least a fixed arm (5) and a couple of movable arms (6) and (7) actuated by a couple of hydraulic pistons (8) and (9), respectively.
• the fixed arm (5) has a more complex and resistant structure with respect to the other two movable arms, since it has to support the whole machine as well as it has to dampen the efforts generated by the movement of the brush (10) . It is also provided with a hydraulic piston (8) apt to move the first movable arm (6) which is hinged to the tip of the fixed arm (5) .
• said first movable arm (6) is hinged to the fixed arm (5) and is connected thereto by means of a hydraulic piston (8), and, in turn, is connected to the second movable arm (7) from the opposite end by means of a hinge (11) and a second hydraulic piston
• the second movable arm (7) is the articulated arm nearest to the tree crown on which the harvesting has to be carried out, and it serves also as support for the shaker or brush (10) having main vertical axis of the shaft (12) nearly parallel to said second movable arm (7) .
• Said brush (10) starts from the top of said second movable arm (7) and is made up of a shaft (12) having central axis nearly parallel to the movable arm (7) having length about 2 meters and diameter equal to about 10 cm; the material is of light type with high resistance to torque, such for example special steel, nylon, aluminum alloys, polymeric materials.
• Said brush (10) is provided with a plurality of beaters (27) or shakers in form of elongated pole which are developed in radial direction outwards starting from the central axis of the shaft (12) and having the function to beat and make the fruits detach from its peduncle.
• Said beaters (27) are mounted on the shaft (12) of the brush (10) in form of discs about 10 cm spaced from each other.
• each disc can contain a maximum of twelve beaters, about 30 grades spaced from each other along the circumference, up to about 250 beaters totally mounted along the whole brush.
• the parallelism between the shaft (12) of the brush and the second movable arm (7) is guaranteed by using a plurality of brackets (29, 32, 33) horizontally arranged and at different heights starting from the second movable arm (7) towards the shaft (12) of the brush (10) .
• Said brackets are connected to the brush by means of motor bearings and supports (30), while the connection to the movable arm (7) is realized by means of hinges provided with elastic means (31) to dampen the stresses which the brush in movement can transfer to the movable arm (7) .
• FIG 1 it is shown a first bracket (32) at the lower base of the brush (10) having the function to support the whole weight of the brush (about 80 kg); a second intermediate bracket (29) which has to avoid possible twisting of the axis of the brush; a third bracket (33) in the upper portion of the brush, having the function to support a case (34) for housing brush actuation motors, which will be described in the following.
• the brush (10) provided with beaters (27) is delimited outside by a semi- cylindrical vertical cage (16) which allows the interception of the fruits detaching from the tree by means of the beaters, and their following conveyance downwards inside a fixed lower interception net (19) anchored to the base frame (1) .
• the semi-cylindrical upper interception net (16) is anchored to the second movable arm (7), surrounds outside about half side surface of the brush (10) from the side of the anchorage to the movable arm (7) and is moved integrally with the brush thanks to the movement of the articulated arms (6 and 7) actuated by respective hydraulic actuators.
• the material of the cylindrical cage is a cloth in transparent plastic material tensioned by flexible rods, as well in plastic material.
• a cloth (19) is arranged horizontally in nearly trapezoidal form and tensioned by a plurality of flexible tubular elements (22) in nylon, in turn anchored to the carrier structure of the base fixed frame by means of bushings (25) .
• the aim is to form an inclined floor of cloth under the brush (10), which can receive all the fruits falling inside the upper cage and which define their travel on the horizontal cloth (19) by rolling owing to the cloth inclination up to be collected in the underlying tank, by a slit opening (13) .
• an air jet sorting device (21) arranged inside the interception cage at the opening (13) of the tank.
• Said sorting device (21) has to be calibrated with an air jet power sufficient to move away undesired leaves and branches in the crop, and at the same time insufficient to deviate the trajectory of the fruits falling down.
• the whole movement of the brush (10) is a combination of two movements: a slow rotating movement about the main axis of the shaft (12) of the brush (10) and an oscillating movement generated by a plurality of mechanical organs hydraulically actuated and arranged inside a case in the upper portion of the brush (10) .
• the rotating movement can be about 20 revolutions per minute about the main axis of the brush, while the oscillating movement can have a frequency of about 300 revolutions per minute.
• the mechanical and hydraulic organs apt to the generation of the brush movement are all positioned in a metal case (34) arranged in the upper portion of the brush (10) and anchored to the movable arm (7) by means of a plurality of brackets (33), as yet described and shown in figure 2.
• the slow rotating movement of the brush about its axis is generated by a first hydraulic motor (36) comprising an outer gear (39) keyed on the driving shaft (36) .
• the gear (39) meshes with a fifth wheel with inner ring gear (38) which is actuated and rotated as a consequence by the action of the first hydraulic motor (36) .
• the first hydraulic motor (36) is integral with the case (34) by being fixed thereto by bolts (37) .
• a second hydraulic motor (40) is integral with the fifth wheel (38) by means of bolted connections (41) and rotated by the fifth wheel (38), in turn actuated by the gear (39) keyed on the shaft of the first hydraulic motor (36) .
• the rotation of the second hydraulic motor (40) occurs about a rotation hydraulic joint (45) having the function of a pin for the rotation.
• the rotation hydraulic pin (45) is positioned at the shaft (12) of the brush (10) and is made up of a fixed upper portion and integral to the case by means of a first bracket (47) and of a rotating lower portion and integral to the fifth wheel (38) by means of a second bracket (48) connected to the fifth wheel (38) by means of bolts. It is provided a hydraulic connection between the hydraulic joint (45) and the second hydraulic motor (40) for hydraulic oil passage from a portion to the other one. In this way, the second hydraulic motor (40) rotated by the fifth wheel (38) to which it is integral, is able to rotate about the hydraulic joint (45) inside the case without the risk of interference with the first hydraulic motor (36) since it is positioned at a lower height.
• the oscillating movement is generated instead by other mechanical elements interposed between the second hydraulic motor (40) and the shaft (12) of the brush (10) .
• the shaft (23) going out from the second hydraulic motor (40) is provided at its end with at least a cam (42), preferably with two lobes, which, when rotated by the hydraulic motor (40) acts on a couple of metal plates (43) orthogonally welded in suitable grooves obtained on the shaft (12) of the brush (10) .
• FIG 4 it is shown a detail of a preferred embodiment of the just described mechanism comprising three lobed cams (42) keyed on the shaft (23) going out from the second hydraulic motor (40) and a double couple of metal plates (43) .
• Said metal plates (43) are welded on one end on the spline sleeve of the shaft (12) of the brush and are arranged so that they form an angular space to each other inside which each cam (42) is able to rotate and interact firstly with a plate (43) and then with the other one on the opposite side.
• the displacement of the metal plates (43) in contact with the flat cams (42) during the rotation causes an oscillating movement on the shaft (12) of the brush (10), which is summed up to the slow rotating movement of the brush itself and the result is a whole movement of the brush (10) both rotating and oscillating.
• the position of the operator of the machine is mounted downwards of the machine, as represented in figure 2. It is obvious that the operator position can be installed also upwards of the machine on the opposite side in specaular way.
• the position of the operator of the machine comprises a dampened seat (50) anchored to the three coupling means (4) which the machine (100) is provided with and previously described.
• the anchorage between seat (50) and fixed frame of the machine is realized by using a plurality of brackets (51) locked by pins to respective coupling means (4) .
• valves and lever commands (52) are able to control the movements of the machine by means of valves and lever commands (52), thanks to the complete view, which is never hindered by cloths, since they are preferably realized in transparent materials and in a completely safe position.
• the operator can control both the slow rotating speed of the first hydraulic motor (36) of the brush (10) and the one of the second hydraulic motor (40), considering for example as reference the quantity of fruits and leaves falling down from the tree. For example, whenever the fruits are not ripe enough it is sufficient to increase the speed to cause their falling calibrating the optimal speed regime to avoid an excessive defoliation.
• the operator can control the stroke of pistons (8, 9) and actuate the movements of the movable arms (6, 7) and, as a consequence, also the brush (10), thus optimizing the height of the same on the basis of the tree geometry and in particular the fruits richest crowns.
• the machine (100) object of the present invention is actuated and connectable to a common agricultural machinery (101), preferably a tractor, thus being able to move between rows and to carry out the operations of knocking down and harvesting of fruits hanging from the trees (102) .
• the machine (100) is connected on the rear of the agricultural machinery (101) and the position of the operator (50) is positioned in turn on the rear of the same machinery (100) .
• the machine (100) is positioned at the front of the agricultural machinery (101), by means of a rapid connection. In such case, the position of the operator (50) results even needless, since the actuation of the machine (100) could occur directly by the same driver of the agricultural machinery (101) .
• a method for continuous harvesting, which can be carried out by means of the machine object of the present invention is the following:

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• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Environmental Sciences (AREA)
• Apparatuses For Bulk Treatment Of Fruits And Vegetables And Apparatuses For Preparing Feeds (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=61024843

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

Families Citing this family (4)

Family Cites Families (4)

• 2017
  • 2017-08-08 IT IT102017000091331A patent/IT201700091331A1/it unknown
• 2018
  • 2018-07-26 WO PCT/IB2018/055590 patent/WO2019030596A1/en unknown
  • 2018-07-26 EP EP18753251.0A patent/EP3664595A1/en not_active Withdrawn

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