JP2000209969A - Device for culturing plant - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a plant culture device whose air conditioning space is small. SOLUTION: This plant culture device 1 is used for culturing plants in the room of a greenhouse. The plant culture device 1 is provided with a plant- loading section 2 disposed in a place spaced from the surface of a floor and with an air conditioner 3 for blowing out conditioned air from a place below the plant-loading section 2. A cover member 21 is vertically disposed in the side end portion of the plant-loading section 2 down to a place near to the floor. The cover member 21 is used for covering at least one portion of a side surface opening between the floor and the side end portion of the plant-loading section 2, and can prevent the escape of the conditioned air from the lower side surface of the plant-loading section 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a plant cultivation apparatus.

[0002] In this specification, the term "indoor" means both "in a room such as a greenhouse" and "in a building such as a factory".

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, plants are cultivated in factories called plant plants in order to cultivate a large amount of plants of stable quality regardless of the weather or the like. A plant cultivation device is arranged in a factory equipped with an openable and closable ventilation window, a lighting window, and artificial lighting, and the plant cultivation device includes a plant mounting portion and an air conditioner provided above the plant mounting portion. , A nutrient solution supply pipe, and an air conditioner provided above the plant mounting part.

[0004] The blower pipe of the air conditioner of the above-mentioned conventional plant cultivation apparatus is provided at a position where natural light is not introduced into the plant and there is no hindrance to artificial lighting, and the conditioned air sent out from the blower pipe is prevented from directly hitting the plant. It is provided above the inside.

[0005]

Therefore, when a conventional plant cultivation apparatus is used, the height of the plant is increased and the air-conditioned space is increased. Various problems arise when the air-conditioned space becomes large.

For example, in the winter season, it is necessary to increase the blast temperature in order to keep the temperature near the plants at a predetermined temperature. However, the blast air rises to the upper part of the plant and the warm air stagnates near the roof. As a result, most of the heat energy is consumed to raise the temperature of this portion, and there is a problem that thermal efficiency in the air-conditioned space is poor.

Further, even in summer, if the air-conditioning space is large, there is a problem that the cooling effect cannot be improved.

In addition, if the air-conditioned space is large in both winter and summer, there is a problem that a temperature difference occurs in the air-conditioned space, making it difficult to perform uniform temperature control. In addition, since the carbon dioxide gas required for the carbon dioxide assimilation action needs to be uniformly dispersed in the air-conditioned space, there is a problem that the consumption of the carbon dioxide gas increases.

[0009] An object of the present invention is to provide a plant cultivation apparatus having a small air-conditioned space which has solved the above-mentioned problems.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention In order to solve the above problems, a plant cultivation apparatus of the present invention is a plant cultivation apparatus for cultivating plants indoors, and is provided at an interval from a floor surface. A plant mounting part, and an air conditioner that sends out conditioned air from below the plant mounting part. The plant mounting part covers at least a part of the side opening between the floor and the side end of the plant mounting part. A cover member for preventing conditioned air from escaping from a lower side surface of the plant mounting portion is provided in a vertical direction of a side end portion of the plant mounting portion to near the floor.

[0011] According to this cultivation apparatus, the conditioned air is sent from below the plant mounting portion, so that the height of the plant can be reduced and the conditioned space can be reduced. Therefore, cooling and heating can be performed with energy saving, and uniform temperature control is facilitated. In addition, the supply amount of carbon dioxide gas supplied to the air-conditioned space can be reduced.

In the above apparatus, the air conditioner is connected to a blower pipe located below the plant mounting portion and blows conditioned air into an area covered by a cover member, and returns air in the blower area to the apparatus body. Return air means, outdoor air intake means, and adjusting means for adjusting the amount of return air and outdoor air to be taken into the apparatus body. This device can adjust the amount of outdoor air and indoor air to be taken in if necessary, so by increasing or decreasing the amount of outdoor intake air, the slightest pressure in the area covered by the cover member can be increased or decreased, The amount of air flowing to the mounting table can be adjusted.

Further, in the above-mentioned apparatus, the air-conditioning air is further prevented from escaping to portions other than the plant mounting table by providing the transmissive mounting portion covering member so as to be removable above and above the plant mounting portion. It becomes possible. That is, by separating the upper side of the covering member from the air-conditioned space, the air-conditioned space can be further reduced. Further, since the covering member is translucent, it does not prevent the sunlight from hitting the plants.
Further, since the covering member can be removed from above the mounting portion,
The covering member does not obstruct the evacuation or the like.

[0014] A cover member on a lower side surface of the side object mounting portion is provided along at least one side of the plant mounting portion,
It is preferable that the light is also used as a light-blocking member for the nutrient solution supply pipe that prevents the nutrient solution supply pipe that supplies the nutrient solution intermittently from direct light and prevents the temperature of the nutrient solution in the supply pipe from rising. May be used.

Further, the air conditioner has a water blowing device for blowing water into the blower pipe, and the device main body of the air conditioner has a chamber and a carbon dioxide gas blowing device provided in the chamber. This is because it becomes easy to uniformly disperse water and carbon dioxide in the air-conditioned space.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A plant cultivation apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The front side of the sheet of FIG. 1 is referred to as the front side, and the back side of the sheet of FIG. 1 is referred to as the rear side. Therefore, in FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of plant cultivation apparatuses (1) are provided in a plant plant in which a plurality of buildings are connected. The ceiling of the building has a transparent glass roof, opening and closing windows,
A light-blocking curtain, a circulation fan, an artificially-lit sodium lamp, and the like are provided.

The plant cultivation apparatus (1) is for cultivating plants in a plurality of pots (P) supported by a hollow rectangular parallelepiped member indicated by a symbol (T) as shown in FIG. .
The rectangular parallelepiped member is called a trough or a gutter,
In the following description, it is referred to as a trough. Also,
As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of troughs (T) are placed on the plant cultivation apparatus (1) at an interval in the front and rear and transported.

As shown in FIG. 1, the plant cultivation apparatus (1)
A plurality of lines arranged one by one on both sides of the strut (S) are arranged in parallel, and each line is provided at a distance from the floor with a trough transport device (2) and a lower portion of each transport device (2). And an air conditioner (3) arranged in the air conditioner. In addition, since the part located on the left side and the part located on the right side of the column in the plant cultivation apparatus (1) are different only in the left and right directions, they are the same in the part located on the left side and the part located on the right side. Are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted. Hereinafter, a portion located on the right side of the column (S) will be described.

First, the configuration and operation of the trough transport device (2) will be described with reference to FIG.

The trough transport device (2) comprises left and right frame members (25a) and front and rear frame members (25b). The left frame member (25a) is supported by a column, and the left and right frame members (25a). Supports passed between) (29)
And legs (4) provided at the left and right centers of the front and rear frame members (25b) and the support members (29), and a plurality of rails (5) extending in the front and rear direction passed between the front and rear frame members (25b). And a pulling bar (6) parallel to the rail (5), and a trough (T) transfer line is provided on the rail (5). The trough (T) is mounted on the rail (5) with an interval in front and back.

The length of the rail (5) depends on the type of the plant to be cultivated, which is mainly a vegetable, but in the present embodiment, the length is one.
It is about 14.5 m. The trough (T) is placed on the rail (5) by a supply device (not shown), and is transported forward on the rail (5) as described later, and
Plants grow while moving up. Thereafter, the trough (T) is taken out from the rail (5) by a take-out device not shown.

As shown in FIG. 4, the pulling bar (6) is divided into a plurality in the axial direction and is connected as follows. In addition, in FIG.
The front part of the divided part in (6) is denoted by reference numeral (6a), and
Shown in b).

A flange (1) is provided at the rear end of the front divided portion (6a).
3), a flange (14) is provided at the front end of the rear split part (6b). Flange (13) has rear flange (14)
A plurality of bolts (15) penetrating therethrough are screwed. The length of the bolt (15) is such that the head of the bolt (15) can leave a predetermined distance from the rear flange (14) in a state where the flanges (13) and (14) are in contact with each other, The rear divided portion (6b) can be separated from the front divided portion (6a) by this interval.

The drawing bar (6) is provided with a plurality of fingers (7) projecting in the radial direction. The distance between the fingers (7) in the transport direction in the front divided part (6a) is smaller than the distance between the fingers (7) in the rear divided part (6b). Further, the interval between the foremost finger (7) in the rear split part (6b) and the rearmost finger (7) in the front split part (6a) is indicated by a solid line in FIG. ) (14) is the same as the distance between the fingers (7) in the rear split part (6b). When the front split part (6a) and the rear split part (6b) are separated, the foremost finger (7) in the rear split part (6b) and the rearmost finger in the front split part (6a) The distance between the fingers (7) becomes wider. Thus the flange (13)
At the front and rear of the part connected by (14),
(7) The interval between them changes. A plurality of pull bars (6) having such a configuration are provided in the transport direction.

As shown in FIG. 3 (b), adjacent pulling bars (6) for carrying the same trough are connected by a connecting bar (8) via a lever (9). The pulling bar (6) located to the left is driven by the driving means (1) through the operating bar (10).
1) and driven by the driving means (11).
By rotating (6), the other bars (6) also rotate at the same time. Finger (7) in this way
Can protrude upward to take a position where the trough (T) can be hooked (the position shown in FIG. 4) and a position below the rail (5) that can be separated from the trough (T).

In the transfer device (2), the trough (T) placed on the rail (5) is hooked by the finger (7) projecting upward and sent forward. When the trough (T) is fed by a predetermined amount, the pulling bar (6) rotates and the finger (7) moves away from the trough (T). Thereafter, the pull bar (6) slides rearward. Pull bar that slides backward
(6) rotates again, and the finger (7) projects upward. This operation is repeated, and the trough (T) on the rail (5) is sent forward. However, this operation is not performed continuously, and it takes a predetermined number of days for the trough (T) to pass over the transport device (2), and the plant is grown for a sufficient period of time. I can do it.

As shown in FIG. 2, a nutrient solution supply path (28) for supplying nutrient solution to the trough (T) is provided at the right portion of the transport device (2).
Is provided. The nutrient solution supply path (28) is connected to a nutrient solution supply source (not shown). And the nutrient solution supply path
(28) rises from the lower right part of the transfer device (2) to the right part of the transfer device (2), and the upper end portion of the transfer device (2)
The portion extends along the right edge of the nut, and this portion is formed as a nutrient solution supply main pipe (18). The main pipe (18) is supported by a pipe support member (20). The main pipe (18) is provided with a plurality of branch pipes (19) spaced apart in front and behind. The branch pipe (19) extends upward from the main pipe (18), and the upper end is inverted U
A nutrient solution is supplied to the trough (T) from the tip of the inverted U-shaped portion. In addition, branch pipe (19)
Is usually composed of a vinyl tube. Also, the transport device
At the lower left and lower right of (2), a gutter (12) for collecting a nutrient solution is arranged, and the nutrient solution collected by the gutter (12) is sent to the nutrient solution supply path (28) again. A ball valve (16) and a solenoid valve (17) are provided in the nutrient solution supply path (28), and a predetermined amount of nutrient solution is supplied to the main pipe (18) by the ball valve (16) and the solenoid valve (17). Is sent.

The pipe support member (20) supports the main pipe (18) in the lower groove part and supports the inverted U-shaped part of the branch pipe (19) in the upper horizontal plate-like part. It has become. A hanging plate-like portion is provided at the upper right end of the support member (20), and a cover member (21) is vertically attached to this portion. The cover member (21) has a length such that the lower end is located near the floor or the lower end can touch the floor (in the present embodiment, the lower end of the cover member (21) is located near the floor), and A weight (22) is attached to the lower end. The cover member (21) has a light-shielding property and prevents direct sunlight from hitting the main pipe (18) to prevent the temperature of the nutrient solution from rising. Further, the cover member (21) forms a pair with a left cover member (21) (not shown), and the conditioned air on the lower side of the transport device (2) flows from the lower side of the transport device (2) to the left and right sides. It also plays a role in preventing escape. A similar cover member is also provided on the front and rear edges of the transport device (2), not shown. The cover member (not shown) serves to prevent the conditioned air on the lower side of the transfer device (2) from escaping forward or backward from below the transfer device.

On the upper side of the transporting device (2), a transparent sheet (mounting portion covering member) (23) is disposed at a height spaced from the upper end of the plant to be transported by a predetermined distance. The left end of the transparent sheet (23) is wound around a rotating shaft (27) attached to the support (S). The right end is supported by a support shaft (24) arranged on the upper right side of the transport device (2), and when the sheet (23) is unnecessary, such as in summer, the sheet (23) is rotated by a rotation shaft (27). The sheet (23) can be removed from above the conveying device (2). Note that the height position of the transparent sheet (23) is determined so as to minimize the space to be covered in a position where there is no problem in the operation and maintenance of the production line. Further, in order to simplify the configuration, in the device (1) of the present embodiment, the rotating shaft (27)
Is shared by the left and right seats (23).

Next, the air conditioner (3) will be described.

A plurality of air conditioners (3) are arranged below the transfer device (2), and as shown in FIG.
And two air ducts (32). The device main body (30) includes a blower (31), a heat exchanger (33), and a chamber (34). An outdoor air supply pipe (35) is connected to one half of the air intake of the blower (31). Outdoor air supply pipe (3
5) is open outside the ridge (B) although illustration is omitted.
The remaining half of the air intake of the blower (31) is adapted to take in the air inside the area below the transfer device (2). In order to adjust and switch the amount of air to be taken in, dampers (adjustment means) are provided at the left and right portions of the air intake. In the chamber (34), a carbon dioxide gas injection nozzle (36) connected to a carbon dioxide gas supply source (not shown) is provided. In addition, the blower (31),
Heat exchanger (33), chamber (34), carbon dioxide injection nozzle (36)
Is a known one, and a detailed description is omitted.

The blower tube (32) is a known tube obtained by forming a non-woven fabric and a resin-made support material for supporting the non-woven fabric into a tubular shape. According to this blower tube (32), the blower tube
Since the conditioned air passes through the entire circumference of (32), the transfer device
(2) The conditioned air can be supplied uniformly downward.

A water injection nozzle (37) connected to a water supply source (not shown) is provided in each blower tube (32).

In the plant plant having the plant cultivation apparatus (1), when heating or cooling is required, the blast pipe (32)
The air-conditioning air of a predetermined temperature is sent from the air conditioner, and an air-conditioned space is formed below the transfer device (2) and between the transfer device (2) and the transparent sheet (23). Since the transparent sheet (23) is translucent,
Does not interfere with sunlight. Also, since the vertical side cover member (21) prevents direct irradiation of sunlight to the main pipe (18) in the nutrient solution supply path (28), the main pipe (18) that supplies only intermittently is provided. The temperature of the nutrient solution that has stopped does not rise.

When it is necessary to raise air, a skylight or the like is opened with the transparent sheet (23) wound up. In addition, air conditioning is performed by circulating air inside the enclosed area with a transparent sheet (23) when necessary, and in the daytime in summer, the transparent sheet (23) can be removed to take in outside air to perform ventilation and air conditioning. The cooling water may be supplied into the blower tube (32) by the nozzle (37) to perform air cooling.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a plant plant using a plant cultivation apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention as viewed from the front in a transport direction.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged partial view of a main part of the plant cultivation apparatus.

FIG. 3A is a plan view illustrating a transport device of the plant cultivation apparatus, and FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view taken along line bb in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a main part for explaining a trough transport device in the animal and plant cultivation apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an air conditioner in the plant cultivation apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 (1) Plant cultivation equipment (2) Plant mounting part (trough conveying device) (3) Air conditioner (18) Nutrient supply pipe (horizontal main pipe) (19) Nutrient supply pipe (branch pipe) (21) Vertical side cover member (23) Cover member (transparent sheet) (32) Blower tube (34) Chamber (36) Carbon dioxide blowing device (carbon dioxide spray nozzle) (37) Water blowing device (water spray nozzle)

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A plant cultivation apparatus for cultivating plants indoors, comprising: a plant mounting portion provided at an interval from a floor surface; and an air conditioner for sending conditioned air from below the plant mounting portion. A cover member that covers at least a part of the side opening between the floor and the floor at the side end of the plant mounting portion and prevents air-conditioned air from escaping from the lower side surface of the plant mounting portion is close to the side end vertical floor. A plant cultivation apparatus characterized by being provided with: 2. The air conditioner is connected to a blower pipe located below the plant mounting portion and blows conditioned air into an area covered by the cover member, and returns the air in the area to the apparatus body. 2. The plant cultivation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a return air unit, an outdoor air intake unit, and an adjustment unit that adjusts the amount of in-area air and outdoor air to be taken into the apparatus main body. 3. The plant cultivation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a light-transmissive placing portion covering member provided above and above the plant placing portion so as to be removable therefrom. 4. A nutrient solution supply pipe that is provided along at least one side of the plant mounting part and supplies nutrient solution to the plant, and the temperature of the nutrient solution rises when light is applied to the supply pipe. A plant cultivation apparatus comprising: a light-shielding member for a nutrient solution supply pipe that prevents the occurrence of a cultivation. 5. The plant cultivation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the air conditioner includes a water blowing device that blows water into an air duct. 6. The plant according to claim 1, wherein the device body of the air conditioner includes a chamber and a carbon dioxide gas blowing device provided in the chamber. Cultivation equipment.