GB639292A - Improvements in or relating to hop-picking machinery - Google Patents

Abstract

639,292. Hop-picking machines. McCONNEL, HINDS, Ltd., McCONNEL, F. W., and HINDS, G. A. Feb. 10, 1948, No. 3929. [Class 6 (iii)] [Also in Group XXX] A hop-picking machine of the kind having a succession of pairs of rollers, each pair rotating faster than the preceding pair, is characterized in that the pairs of plucking rollers are arranged in groups, separated by conveying rollers which are driven at the same speed as the first pair of plucking rollers in the next group. The groups of plucking rollers 16, 22, 29 and 30 are spaced apart along a framework 10 by the conveying rollers 23, 31, 32. Bines are fed to the first group by a multiple-belt conveyer 11 entrained around one roller 12 of the first group. The bines then pass over the conveying rollers 23 which are all driven by a chain 60 from one of the first pair of rollers 24 in the second group 22. The conveyers 31 and 32 are similarly driven. The rollers of the various groups are driven, through flexible shafts 81, 82, 83, from gearboxes 20, 21, 27 and 28, each gear-box being driven from the preceding gear-box. A motor 41 drives a cross-shaft 41 from which drives are taken to the conveyer 11 and first gear-box 20. Each gear-box comprises as many pairs of sprockets as there are pairs of rollers in the associated group and all the sprockets are encircled by an endless chain which also'passes around a driving sprocket and a jockey pulley. The sprockets vary progressively in size to provide the necessary increase in speed between pairs of rollers. The plucked hops fall on to a belt 66 below the rollers, and the stems and leaves are discharged on to a lateral conveyer 68. The plucking rollers are rubber-covered and are spring-urged onto mutual contact. The distance between the conveying rollers may be altered.