GB1291822A - Soft fruit harvesters - Google Patents

Abstract

1291822 Fruit harvester NATIONAL RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CORP 15 Oct 1969 [15 July 1968] 33671/68 Heading A1F A harvester for harvesting fruit e.g. blackcurrants on standing bushes by bending them in a direction transverse to the harvester travel direction to an angle out of the vertical and not substantially horizontal and shaking the fruit therefrom by rapid oscillatory motion has a frame which comprises a chassis 13, arch structures 15, beams 17, and a framework movable through an angle of 12‹ about pivot 23 and comprising- longitudinal members 19 and transverse members 21. Drums 27, freely rotatable about their longitudinal axis and carrying a number of dog-leg shaped steel fingers 29, are journalled into the framework on shafts 33 whose longitudinal axis is normal to the direction of harvester travel and preferably is inclined at a preset angle within the range 33‹ to 57‹ to the vertical. Nose guide member 77 splits the bush and bends the bush portion nearest the harvester in towards the underside of drums 27, the motion of the harvester causing the drums 27 to rotate as the bush moves past. Picked fruit drops down to onto conveyor 73 from whence it moves via a second conveyor to a packing station at the rear of the harvester. The rapid oscillatory motion is applied to drums 27 by means of a generator 37 comprising a housing 39 at the centre of which there is a tubular drive shaft 41 coaxial with, but rotating independantly of shaft 33 and which is rotatingly driven by a hydraulic motor via toothed belt 47 and pulley 45. Slave shafts 51, 53 are journalled in housing 39 and are rotatingly driven in common speed and sense with shaft 41 via chains 55 and sprockets 57, and each slave shaft carries an eccentric mass 59, 61 respectively which when rotating set up an oscillatory motion about axis 41 which is transferred to each drum 27 through two rigid elements 63 and 65, each with upstanding lugs 67, 69 respectively (Fig. 5), in between which is placed elastomeric material, e.g. rubber 71. Limited rotary motion of flange 65 relative to element 63 takes place about bearing 44. In further embodiments two drum frameworks can be provided and the harvester can either straddle a row of bushes and split and bend them away from its longitudinal axis, or pass between two rows and bend them towards it. The fingers 29 may alternatively be of glass fibre reinforced plastics material.