GB789307A - Apparatus for forming soil pots - Google Patents

Abstract

789,307. Moulding soil pots. WINGERDEN, A. VAN, and HOLLANDER, J. C. DEN. July 12, 1955 [July 12, 1954], No. 20190/55. Class 87(2). A compression moulding machine, especially for making soil pots, comprises a platform 9 for a tray 12 filled with soil, a grid 25, 26, compression plates 28 and socket-forming pegs 30, the platform 9 being movable relatively to the grid 25, 26 and the compression plates 28 being connected to a movable ejector plate 15. The grid 25, 26 is in the form of a frame comprising vertical walls 25 and vertical walls 26 at right angles thereto and intersecting them to form cells 27, the lower edges of the walls being tapered to a sharp edge. The walls 25 depend from the transverse bars 24 of a frame 23, 24 which is fixed by sleeves 22 to vertical corner rods 7. The platform 9 has sleeves 10 at its corners slidable on the rods 7, and has elevating posts 14 for engaging with the ejector plate 15. Each compression plate 28 is vertically movable in a cell 27 and is connected to the plate 15 by rods 29, and each has an opening for the passage of the corresponding peg 30. The pegs 30 depend from the transverse bars 24. On the operation of a stem 43, by a handle 44, a valve 42 is opened to allow hydraulic fluid to be forced by a pump 35 to the bottom of a cylinder 21, so raising the platform 9 until the soil engages the compression plates 28 and the lower edges of the walls 25, 26. The posts 14 are of such a length that they engage the plate 15 after the soil has been compressed, so raising the plates 28 while the walls 25, 26 and pegs 30 penetrate the soil, Fig. 5. The stem 43 is then moved to close the valve 42 and open the valve 41, whereupon the plate 15 descends by reason of the downward movement of the piston in the cylinder 18 and the platform 9 is moved downwards, Fig. 6, leaving the soil compressed into soil pots with sockets for plants or seeds. In a modification the soil, after being divided and compressed, is raised while still in the spaces between the walls 25, 26, Fig. 11, and aluminium foil is then arranged on the tray, whereupon the parts 25, 26, 28 and 30 with the soil pots are again lowered and the foil is pressed downwards to form a lining for the tray. Specification 636,001 is referred to.