JP2007236378A - Farm product washing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a farm product washing system meeting deposits' washing-off function and time and farm products' protection as well. <P>SOLUTION: The farm product washing system has the following mechanism: A farm product C is made to float up by the hydropower of a washing liquid jetted from the bottom washing nozzles 4 via spaces 2A against the farm product C and washed while setting it apart from a conveyor 2, and the farm product C thus made to float is pressed with a press conveyor 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a crop cleaning device, and more particularly to a crop cleaning device suitable for efficient cleaning without damaging the crop.

As a conventional crop cleaning apparatus, there is an apparatus for cleaning a crop by rotating a long brush while placing the crop between a plurality of long brushes and moving the crop in the axial direction of the long brush. (For example, see patent literature)
Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-75534 ([0002], [0006] and [0007], [FIG. 1])

By the way, in the cleaning device described in Patent Document 1, since the agricultural product moves on the long brush, and the long brush scrubs off the adhering matter such as mud and soil of the agricultural product, the long brush is selected. Is very important.
In other words, a long brush with stiff hair has a high function of scrubbing deposits, and therefore shortens the scraping time by increasing the movement speed of crops or shortening the long brush. Therefore, it is possible to clean the crops reliably and quickly, but on the contrary, there is a high possibility that the crops will be damaged by the hardness of the hair.
On the other hand, long brushes with soft and soft hair will greatly reduce the possibility of damaging the crops, but because the function of scrubbing off the deposits is low, the movement speed of the crops may be reduced or long. The length of scrubbing has to be extended by lengthening the brush, and the rapid cleaning of the crops is lacking.
In addition, in a cleaning device using a long brush, rotation of the long brush and rotation of the crop using contact resistance between the long brush, the surface of the crop and the long brush can be applied to all surfaces of the crop. A long brush is in contact.
However, in this method, the contact resistance force with the long brush becomes strong or weak due to the difference in the surface shape and surface roughness of each crop, so that the rotation becomes unstable for each crop and uneven washing may occur. The nature is great.
In other words, there is a limit to the conventional cleaning apparatus using a long brush to satisfy the cleaning function and cleaning time of the deposits, as well as the protection of agricultural products.

  An object of the present invention is to satisfy all of the cleaning function and cleaning time of deposits, and further protection of crops, and an object of the present invention is to provide a crop cleaning apparatus that solves this problem.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention employs the following technical means.
The first invention is a crop cleaning apparatus for spraying washing water on a crop while moving the crop, and cleaning the crop by the water force,
A conveyor having a plurality of space portions that are large enough to prevent the passage of crops in parallel along the direction intersecting the movement direction, and a portion other than the space portion as a support portion that supports the crops, and the conveyor An upper cleaning nozzle and a lower cleaning nozzle for sequentially spraying cleaning water onto the crop from the upper surface side and the lower surface side, and a holding conveyor facing the lower cleaning nozzle and the conveyor,
By washing water from the lower washing nozzle that passes through the space and sprayed toward the crop, the crop is lifted and washed away from the conveyor, and the lifted crop is suppressed by the conveyor. The crop cleaning device is characterized in that it prevents falling crops from lifting from the conveyor.

The form of the said conveyor should just be a form which has a space part of the grade which the washing water from a lower washing nozzle passes and is sprayed with respect to agricultural products.
The form of the restraining conveyor may be at least a form capable of restraining the lifted crops and preventing falling from the conveyor, but from the viewpoint of suppressing adverse effects such as scratches on the lifted farm products. In the second invention, the restraint conveyor is a crop cleaning device made of a flexible material.
Examples of the material having flexibility in the second invention include a rubber material and a soft synthetic resin material.
From the viewpoint of more reliably suppressing the adverse effects such as scratches on the lifted crops, the third invention is a crop cleaning device provided with a brush-like portion made of a flexible material on the suppression conveyor. .

  From the viewpoint of reducing the contact area of the support portion with respect to the crop and facilitating floating by the water flow of the cleaning liquid sprayed from the lower cleaning nozzle, in the fourth invention, the support portion is made of a material having flexibility. The crop cleaning device is formed so that the crop is supported by the tip of the convex portion.

  The upper cleaning nozzle and the lower cleaning nozzle may be any number of nozzles and arrangement positions as long as the cleaning liquid can be sprayed uniformly over the entire crop, but the cleaning liquid can be applied to the entire crop with the minimum necessary number of nozzles. In the fifth aspect of the invention, the upper cleaning nozzle and the lower cleaning nozzle operate so as to follow the crop while moving in the direction crossing the transport direction of the crop and the transport direction. It was made to be a crop cleaning device.

The crop cleaning apparatus of the present invention can be expected to have the following excellent effects due to the above configuration.
According to the first aspect of the invention, the upper half of the crop is washed by spraying the cleaning liquid from the upper cleaning nozzle, the crop is lifted by the jet of cleaning liquid from the lower cleaning nozzle, and the lower half of the crop is washed. .
The floating crops are prevented from being lifted further by the restraining conveyor and are prevented from falling off the conveyor.
Therefore, it is possible to provide a crop cleaning apparatus that is satisfied with respect to all of the deposit cleaning function and cleaning time, as well as the protection of crops.

  Moreover, according to the 2nd invention and the 3rd invention, the bad influences, such as a damage | wound, can be more reliably suppressed with respect to the floating crop by the flexible raw material or brush-like part.

  According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the crop can be easily lifted by the water flow of the cleaning liquid sprayed from the lower cleaning nozzle.

  According to the fifth aspect, the cleaning liquid can be sprayed evenly over the entire crop with the minimum number of nozzles.

Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the crop cleaning apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a crop cleaning device, reference numeral 2 is a conveyor, reference numeral 3 is an upper cleaning nozzle, and reference numeral 4 is a lower cleaning nozzle.

  The crop cleaning apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a conveyor 2 wound in an endless track shape in the conveyance direction of the crop C, a preliminary cleaning unit 1A located on the upstream side of the conveyor 2, and the preliminary cleaning unit 1A. An upper cleaning section 1B provided with an upper cleaning nozzle 3 located downstream, a head cleaning section 1B 'provided with a head cleaning nozzle 3' positioned downstream of the upper cleaning section 1B, and a lower cleaning nozzle 4, a lower cleaning section 1 </ b> C provided with 4, a holding conveyor 5 that faces the lower cleaning nozzle 4 and the conveyor 2, and a finish cleaning provided with a finishing nozzle 6 that is located downstream of the lower cleaning section 1 </ b> C. 1D (see FIGS. 1 and 2).

  The conveyor 2 is located on both sides of the support portion 21, the chain 22 supported endlessly around the support portion 21, and the support portion 21 in a crop support state and a crop non-support state. It comprises a rail 23 having switching portions 23A and 23B for switching to and a guide rod 24 guided by the rail.

As shown in FIG. 2, the support portion 21 is formed in a substantially comb-tooth shape, and a portion alternately arranged with the space portion 2 </ b> A in the comb-tooth shape is a support portion 21 of the crop C, and the base end of the support portion 21 The portion is integrally supported by the support rod 11A.
The support portion 21 is as shown in FIGS. It is curved so as to protrude downward, and is formed in a shape that can be supported so that the crop C to be placed does not fall.
Further, a convex portion 21A made of a rubber material or a soft synthetic resin material having a degree of flexibility that does not damage the crop C is provided on the surface of the support portion 21 on the side where the crop is placed, and this convex portion 21A is provided. When the crop C is placed on the front end of the contact area of the crop C, the contact area of the crop C with respect to the support portion 21 is reduced, and is easily lifted as described later.
Furthermore, the tip portion of the convex portion 21A is formed in a substantially spherical shape, and the contact of the crop C with the support portion 21 is set as a point contact to reduce the contact area as much as possible. The possibility of scratching is reduced.
The support rod 11A is rotatably supported across the chain 22 on the upstream and downstream sides in the transport direction.
The space 2 </ b> A has such a width that the crop C does not fall out, and its open side faces the upstream side in the conveying direction of the conveyor 2.

  The rail 23 is arranged in parallel along the upper side of the chain 22 from the most upstream side to the most downstream side, and at the upstream end of the rail 2, the support body 21 is changed from the crop non-support state to the crop support state. The switching unit 23A for switching is provided (see FIGS. 5 and 6), and the switching unit 23B for switching the support 21 from the crop support state to the crop non-support state is provided at the downstream end (FIG. 7). And FIG. 8).

  The guide rod 24 is fixed to the support rod 1A and is placed on the rail 23 to maintain the crop support state of the support portion. In the state of being placed on the rail 23, When the support portion 21 is in a crop support state (in the illustrated example, the substantially comb-shaped tip portion of the support portion is in a rearward state) and is detached from the rail 23, the support portion 21 is in a non-crop support state (in the illustrated example). The substantially comb-shaped tip of the support portion is in a downward state).

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the switching portion 23 </ b> A is formed by curving the uppermost stream side portion of the rail 23 in an arc shape along the winding direction of the chain 22. When the guide rod 24 returns to the upstream side of the rail 23, the guide rod 24 enters the switching portion 23A from the end of the switching portion 23A, contacts the surface thereof, and reaches the rail 23 while being guided along an arc. .
At this time, the guide rod 24 is guided by the arc of the switching portion 23A, so that the support rod 1A rotates clockwise, and the support portion 21 rotates in the same direction as the support rod 1A rotates. Switch to crop support status.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the switching portion 23B is formed by tilting the most downstream portion of the rail 23 downward, and when the support portion 21 in the crop support state returns to the downstream of the rail 23, The guide rod 24 enters the slope of the switching portion 23B and escapes from the end of the slope while being guided along the slope.
At this time, when the guide rod 24 escapes from the switching portion 23B, the support of the support portion 21 by the rail 23 is released, and at the same time, the support rod 1A rotates counterclockwise, and the support rod 1A rotates. Accordingly, the support unit 21 is switched to the unsupported state of the crop while rotating in the same direction, and the crop C supported by the support unit 21 is transferred onto the transport conveyor D.
In addition, the conveyance conveyor D in this form is just under the switching part 23B, and is arrange | positioned so that the crop C may be conveyed in the direction which cross | intersects the conveyance direction of the conveyor 2. FIG.

The pre-cleaning unit 1A is a part that floats or drops to some extent by adding a cleaning liquid to the soil or the like adhering to the crop C, and includes a plurality of pre-cleaning nozzles 10A arranged vertically with the support unit 21 in between. The preliminary cleaning nozzles 10 </ b> A are arranged in a plurality in parallel in the longitudinal direction of the crop C both vertically and vertically.
In addition, the pre-cleaning nozzle 10A sprays the cleaning liquid toward the crop C in the inclined direction from the four sides of the downstream side and the upstream side in the vertical direction so that the cleaning liquid acts on the entire circumference around the crop C. .

The upper cleaning unit 1B is a part that cleans the upper half of the crop C, and has three upper cleaning nozzles 3 corresponding to each of a plurality of crops C (three in the illustrated example). The washing nozzle 3 is adapted to wash one crop C corresponding to each one.
Each of the upper cleaning nozzles 3 is composed of two nozzles, a downstream nozzle 31 and an upstream nozzle 32, and these nozzles inject the cleaning liquid toward the crop C in the inclined direction from the downstream side and the upstream side. By spraying, the cleaning liquid acts on the substantially upper half around the crop C.
The upper washing unit 3 as described above is adapted to follow the movement of the crop C in the conveyance direction, and along the longitudinal direction of the crop C (in the illustrated example, the direction orthogonal to the movement direction of the crop C). The cleaning liquid is sprayed over the entire upper half of the crop C around the crop C by reciprocating in the plan view tilt direction with respect to the moving direction.
In addition, the movement range to the conveyance direction of the crop C of the upper side washing | cleaning part 3 is shown by the arrow which attached | subjected the code | symbol W in the figure.

The head cleaning unit 1B ′ is a part for cleaning the head of the crop C, and a plurality of head cleanings that inject a cleaning liquid onto the head of the crop C having a long head or a large diameter and a large head. It has a nozzle 3 '.
The head washing nozzle 3 ′ is installed in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the crop C so as to inject the cleaning liquid from the side to the head of the crop C.

The lower cleaning unit 1C is a part for cleaning the lower half of the crop C, and has three lower cleaning nozzles 4 corresponding to each of a plurality of crops C (three in the illustrated example), The lower washing nozzle 4 is adapted to wash one crop C corresponding to each one.
Each of the upper cleaning nozzles 4 is composed of two nozzles, a downstream nozzle 41 and an upstream nozzle 42, and these nozzles inject the cleaning liquid toward the crop C in the inclined direction from the downstream side and the upstream side. By spraying, the cleaning liquid acts on the substantially lower upper half around the crop C.
The upper cleaning section 3 as described above follows the movement direction of the crop C so as to follow the longitudinal direction of the crop C (in the illustrated example, the direction orthogonal to the movement direction of the crop C) while following the movement of the crop C. On the other hand, the cleaning liquid is sprayed over the entire area of the lower half of the periphery of the crop C by reciprocating in the inclined direction in plan view.
Further, the crop C is lifted and washed away from the conveyor 2 by the water flow of the washing water sprayed from the lower washing nozzle 4 through the space toward the crop C. Due to the floating of C, the crop C is separated from the support portion 21 and a gap is formed between the crop C and the support portion 21, and the cleaning liquid is allowed to act on the portion that has been in contact with the support portion 21 from this gap. it can.
In addition, the movement range to the conveyance direction of the crop C of the upper side washing | cleaning part 3 is shown by the arrow which attached | subjected the code | symbol W in the figure.

The restraining conveyor 5 has the same width as the conveyor 2 and is in the form of a belt conveyor having the same length as the moving distance along the moving direction of the crop C of the lower washing unit 1C.
Further, the restraining conveyor 5 is located at a position where the lower end surface is separated from the crop C on the support portion 21 by several centimeters, and suppresses the crop C floating as described above to prevent further floating and falling from the support portion 21. In addition, a gap of several centimeters is secured between the crop C and the support portion 21.
Further, the belt used for the restraining conveyor 5 is made of a rubber material or a soft synthetic resin material having a degree of flexibility that does not damage the crop C that comes into contact with the surface to be lifted and pressed.
In addition, the restraining conveyor 5 rotates counterclockwise in the figure to operate to convey the crop C, thereby imparting a downstream conveying force to the crop C.
As a configuration for more effectively suppressing damage to the crop C, a substantially brush made of a rubber material or a soft synthetic resin material having a degree of flexibility that does not damage the surface of the belt C. (Not shown).

The finish cleaning unit 1D is a part that finally cleans the crop C, and includes a plurality of finish nozzles 6 arranged vertically on both sides of the support unit 21. A plurality are arranged in parallel in the direction.
Further, the finish cleaning nozzle 6 performs finish cleaning of the crop C by spraying a cleaning liquid onto the crop C from above and below.

According to the crop cleaning apparatus 1 of the above-described form, when the crop C placed on the support portion 21 is transported from the upstream to the downstream, all the crops are preliminarily cleaned by the washing water jet only. Cleaning, head cleaning, lower side cleaning, and final cleaning are sequentially performed.
Further, in the upper side washing and the lower side washing of the crop C, the nozzles of the downstream nozzles 31 and 41 and the upstream nozzles 32 and 42 for each crop C follow the movement of the crop C in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, it is possible to prevent washing residue from being left on the crop C.
Further, in the lower cleaning of the crop C, the crop C is lifted by the water jetting of the cleaning liquid, and the cleaning liquid can be applied to the portion that has been in contact with the support portion 21. Unwashed can be prevented.
Further, since the contact area of the crop C with respect to the support 21 is reduced by the convex portion 21A provided on the support 21, the crop C is easily lifted and the possibility of being damaged can be reduced.

  It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiments, and can be implemented with configurations within a range that does not deviate from the contents described in the respective claims.

1 is a schematic plan view of a crop cleaning apparatus according to the present invention. The schematic side view of FIG. The principal part expanded sectional view of FIG. The principal part expanded sectional view of FIG. The principal part expanded sectional view of FIG. The principal part expanded sectional view of FIG. The principal part expanded sectional view of FIG. The principal part expanded sectional view of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1: crop cleaning device 2: conveyor 3: upper cleaning nozzle 4: lower cleaning nozzle C: crop 1B: upper cleaning section 1C: lower cleaning section 21: support section 22: chain 2A: space section 21A: convex section 5: Restraining conveyor

Claims (5)

A crop cleaning device that sprays cleaning water on the crop while moving the crop and cleans the crop by the water force,
A conveyor having a plurality of space portions that are large enough to prevent the passage of crops in parallel along the direction intersecting the movement direction, and a portion other than the space portion as a support portion that supports the crops, and the conveyor An upper cleaning nozzle and a lower cleaning nozzle for sequentially spraying cleaning water onto the crop from the upper surface side and the lower surface side, and a holding conveyor facing the lower cleaning nozzle and the conveyor,
By washing water from the lower washing nozzle that passes through the space and sprayed toward the crop, the crop is lifted and washed away from the conveyor, and the lifted crop is suppressed by the conveyor. A crop cleaning apparatus that prevents falling of a lifted crop from a conveyor.   The crop cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the restraining conveyor is made of a flexible material.   The agricultural product washing | cleaning apparatus of Claim 1 or Claim 2 which has provided the brush-like part which consists of a raw material which has a softness | flexibility in the holding conveyor.   The convex part which consists of a raw material which has a softness | flexibility in the said support part is formed, and it is made to support agricultural products with the front-end | tip part of the said convex part, The Claim 1 thru | or 3 characterized by the above-mentioned. Crop cleaning equipment.   The upper cleaning nozzle and the lower cleaning nozzle are operated so as to follow the crop while moving in a direction intersecting the transport direction of the crop and the transport direction. The crop cleaning apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims.

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