GB673833A - Improvements relating to hop-picking devices - Google Patents

Abstract

673,833. Hop picker. HARRISON, R. V. March 9, 1950 [March 9, 1949; May 23, 1949; Oct. 25, 1949], Nos. 6432/49, 13719/49 and 27395/49. Classes 6(iii) and 58 A device for picking hops comprises a body 2 with one or more openings 5 to which suction can be applied, mechanically operated stalksevering or plucking means associated with each opening for acting on the stalks drawn therethrough, and nozzles 21 for directing jets of compressed air towards the zone, outside each opening, from which the hops are drawn into the body by suction. In the construction shown the body 2 is fitted with a handle 1 and has two openings 5 and a single neck portion 3 to which a flexible suction hose can be connected. To the head of the device is fitted a cap piece 4 which, as shown in Fig. 4, is fitted with fixed annular knives 7, and is suitably shaped to provide annular air chambers 18 and grooves 13 for receiving the spigots 12 of rotatable rings 9. The latter are formed with stalk-collecting slots 10 and also with gear teeth 11 which mesh with gearing 15 driven by a flexible shaft 16. The chambers 18 are covered by a plate 17 and are supplied with compressed air by a pipe line passing between the two halves of the handle 1; the nozzles 21 communicate with the chambers 18. In use the compressed air prevents clogging of the openings 5 and the hops sucked in through the openings are caught by the slots 10 and their stalks are severed by the knives 7 and then pass through the portion 3. A filter device filters the hops from the air travelling towards the suction fan. In a modification, Figs. 5, to 7( not shown), the knives and the collector 9 are rotated in opposite directions. In another modification the knives project axially, and in another arrangement small knives are provided in the slots 10 and rotate therewith.