JPH0538231A - Raising seedling mat packing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the title system designed to pack raising seedling mats in a good posture, made up of (A) a means to convey plural raising seedling boxes, (B) a sliding table to allow the fibrous mats to slide and impinge on the front inner walls of the respective boxes, and (C) a brush roll to press down the mats in the respective boxes. CONSTITUTION:The objective system designed to pack respective raising seedling boxes with fibrous mats, such as of rock wool, to be used as bed soil for e.g. seedlings for rice transplanter, is equipped with (A) a means 50 such as a belt conveyor to successively carry plural raising seedling boxes 61-63, (B) a sliding table 30 designed to allow the fibrous mats 21-23 to impinge on the front inner walls of the respective boxes being carried, (C) a brush roll 74 to press down a fibrous mat 27 slided into the box 63, and (D) an elastic roll 83 to press a fibrous mat 26 in the box 62. The brush roll 74 is revolved in the same direction as the moving direction for the boxes and in somewhat higher speed than the traveling speed for the means 50, thus packing the mats in the respective boxes in a good posture.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for filling a seedling raising box with a fibrous mat such as rock wool which is used as bed soil for seedlings for rice transplanters.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of rice transplanters, seedlings using a nursery box have been adopted. In order to grow seedlings in a nursery box, the soil filled in the nursery box is leveled, then watered, sowed and covered with soil to keep the seedlings in a growing environment.

The process from filling the soil to covering the soil is automated.
In order to save labor, various devices have been proposed so far. For example, in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 60-38333, as shown in FIG. 1, a soil filling device 2, a leveling device 3, an irrigation device 4, along a conveyor line of conveyors 1a to 1c for feeding a nursery box from one to the other. In the seeding plant in which the seeding device 5 and the soil covering device 6 are arranged, the seedling raising box mounting frame 7 provided so as to be freely inserted and removed along the guide rail 7a is introduced. As the leveling device 3, a leveling roll brush rotatably supported by the same frame as the soil filling device 2 is adopted, and is driven by a motor 3a provided on the lower side.

A plurality of seedling raising boxes are placed on the seedling raising box placing frame 7 drawn out from the guide rails 7a, and fed one by one onto the conveyor 1a. While being conveyed by the conveyors 1a to 1c, the respective nursery boxes are filled with soil, and leveling, watering, sowing, and covering with soil are performed. The seedling raising box for which the sowing operation has been completed is sent out of the device by the roller conveyer 1d and conveyed to a predetermined raising environment.

A seeding plant in which the transportation of a nursery box is automated is introduced in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 1-98550.
This seeding plant is detachably equipped with an automatic feeder for feeding the seedling raising boxes to the transfer line one by one and a stacking device for stacking the seedling raising seedlings which have been seeded.

[0006]

The conventional seeding plant has been developed on the assumption that natural soil is filled as bed soil. By the way, it is partially considered that a mat in which fibers such as rock wool are entangled with each other is used for the floor soil instead of the natural soil. Rock wool is a constant quality material made from raw materials such as blast furnace slag and does not pollute the working environment. Moreover, the soil filling process and the leveling process are omitted, and the seeding plant itself can be simplified.

However, unlike natural soil in which the particles are scattered, it is difficult to automatically and evenly fill the seedling raising box with rockwool in which fibers are entangled. For example, if rock wool is not correctly fed into the inner space of the nursery box, a gap will be created on one side and rock wool will rise on the other side.
Therefore, manual work for correcting the posture of the rock wool in the seedling raising box is required, and the work efficiency of the whole sowing work is reduced.

The present invention has been devised in order to solve such a problem, and by pushing down the mat slid into the nursery box by using falling energy, the mat is pushed forward while being pushed forward in the traveling direction. The purpose is to automatically fill the inside of the nursery box with a mat such as rock wool in a good posture.

[0009]

The seedling-growing mat filling device of the present invention comprises a transporting means for sequentially transporting a plurality of seedling-growing boxes and a fibrous mat so that the tips collide with the inner wall surface of the tips of the seedling-growing boxes being transported. And a brush roll for pressing down the fiber mat slipped into the seedling raising box, the brush roll being in the same direction as the moving direction of the seedling raising box and the traveling speed of the conveying means. It is characterized by rotating at a slightly faster speed than.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. As a mat to be filled in a nursery box, a packing density of 65 kg / made from blast furnace slag /
m ^2, average fiber length 80 mm, average fiber diameter 0.04mm rock wool longitudinal 580 mm, horizontal 280 mm, thickness 18
What was cut into mm was used.

The mats 21, 22 made of rock wool
Thirty sheets of 23 ... Are superposed in the lateral direction and placed on the horizontal top 31 of the slide 30 as shown in FIG. The two mats 21 and 22 on the front side are kept in a predetermined upright posture by locking devices 40 provided on the upper, lower, left and right sides.
A push plate 32 is applied to the surface of the rear mat 2n, and a compression spring 34 is interposed between the push plate 32 and the reaction force receiver 33. The elastic force of the compression spring 34 is transmitted to the mats 21, 22, 23 ... Through the push plate 32, and acts as a force that always urges the mats 21, 22, 23.

The slide table 30 includes a downhill portion 3 inclined downward.
It is equipped with 5. The slidable portion 35 is inclined at an angle such that the tips of the mats 21, 22, 23, ... Sliding down on the mats come into contact with the inner walls of the tip end side of the seedling raising boxes 61, 62, 63, ... is doing. In addition, the mats 21, 2 are provided on the left and right sides of the horizontal top 31 and the downhill part 35.
Side walls for positioning or guiding the lower portions of 2, 23 ... Stand upright.

The locking device 40 includes a horizontal top portion 31 and a downhill portion 3.
It is provided near the boundary with 5. In the locking device 40, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, a rotating shaft 41 is pivotally supported by a pair of bearing portions 37 and 38 projecting from a side wall 36 of the sliding table 30. A pair of arms 42 radially from the rotary shaft 41,
43 is projected, and cylindrical portions 44 and 45 are provided at the tips of the arms 42 and 43. The tubular portions 44 and 45 include
Locking needles 46 and 47 are inserted across the slide table 30 so as to be able to move back and forth.

Forward and backward movement of the locking needles 46 and 47 is performed by an appropriate drive device (not shown). For example, when the tip of the seedling raising box 64 conveyed on the conveyor 50 reaches a predetermined position, the sensor 48 detects the tip of the seedling raising box 64. The traveling of the conveyor 50 is performed by the sliding speed of the mats 21, 22, 23 ...
It may be continuous or intermittent as long as there is a sufficient speed difference between the moving speeds of 1, 62, 63 ...

The detection signal of the sensor 48 is input to the drive device as a control signal, and the operation of pulling out the locking needle 46 stuck in the front mat 21 through the tubular body 44 in the direction of arrow a is started. At this time, the other tubular body 45
The locking needle 47 inserted in the
It pierces the second mat 22 from the front side.

The mat 21 from which the locking needle 46 is removed is
The restraint state is released, and as shown by the arrow b, the downhill portion 35
Slide down. Here, the seedling raising box 6 in which the tip of the mat 21 that has slid down the sliding portion 35 is conveyed to the lower end of the sliding portion 35.
4, the time during which the seedling raising box 64 is conveyed from the tip of the seedling raising box 64 detected by the sensor 48 to the lower end of the downhill portion 35 so as to collide with the mat 2 along the downhill portion 35.
Keep timing with the downhill time of 1.

When the locking needle 46 is pulled out from the cylindrical body 44, the locking device 40 is rotatable about the rotation shaft 41. Then, the compression spring 34 urges the mat 22 on which the locking needle 47 is pierced to move forward. Therefore, the locking device 40 rotates about the rotation shaft 41 in the arrow c direction. As a result, the mat 22 to which the locking needle 47 penetrating the tubular body 45 is pierced and moves forward on the slide base 30 by one pitch while being slightly lifted. On the other hand, the locking needle 4 that has been pulled out is attached to the tubular body 44 that has moved to the rear side by rotation.
Penetrate 6 again. Then, the mat 23 that follows is pierced by the locking needle 46. In this way, the next mat 22 is ready for sliding.

In order to make the locking device 40 rotate smoothly, a spring or the like for urging the rotary shaft 41 in the direction of arrow c can be incorporated. The locking needles 46, 47 can be inserted into or removed from the cylindrical bodies 44, 45 through an appropriate cam mechanism.

The mat 27 that has slid down the sliding portion 35 is sent to the seedling raising box 63. Here, when the tip portion of the mat 27 collides with the inner wall surface on the tip side of the seedling raising box 63,
The tip side inner wall surface of the seedling raising box 63 and the tip portion of the mat 27 are aligned. However, the rear side of the mat 27 may be caught on the side wall of the nursery box 63 and floated up. Therefore, in order to hold down the raised mat 27,
A mat retainer 70 is arranged downstream of the slide table 30.

In the mat pressing device, as shown in FIG. 4, a brush roll 74 is suspended from a fulcrum 72 of a frame 71 by a spring 73 so as to be vertically movable. On the peripheral surface of the brush roll 74, a large number of elastic needles 75 such as nylon are planted. Further, a driven pulley 76 coaxial with the brush roll 74 is provided, and a belt 78 is stretched around the transport roll 51 and a drive pulley 77 coaxial with the belt. A tension roller 79 is pressed against the belt 78 so that the belt 78 circulates between the pulleys 76 and 77 with a constant tension.

The rotation of the transport roll 51 is transmitted to the brush roll 74 via the belt 78, and rotates the brush roll 74 in the same direction e as the traveling direction D of the conveyor 50.
At this time, the diameter of the driven pulley 76 is set to be slightly smaller than the diameter of the drive pulley 77. As a result, the rotation speed of the brush roll 74 becomes faster than the moving speed of the seedling raising box 63. As a result, while the mat 27 slid into the seedling raising box 63 is pressed against the inner wall surface on the tip side of the seedling raising box 63, the mat 2
The rear end of 7 is pressed into the nursery box 63.

That is, the tip of the mat 27 and the nursery box 63
While ensuring the state of aligning with the inner wall surface of the tip side of
Since the mat 27 is pressed into the nursery box 63, the mat 27 is filled in the nursery box 63 in a good positional relationship. In addition, a large gap is prevented from locally occurring between the filled mat 27 and the inner wall surface of the seedling raising box 63. In addition, the brush roll 74 for the surface of the mat 27
The pressing force of can be adjusted by displacing the belt 76 with the tension roll 79 and moving the brush roll 74 downward.

In the illustrated example, the rotational force of the brush roll 74 is obtained from the transport roll 51. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the brush roll 74 can be rotated by a dedicated drive motor. In this case, the rotation speed of the drive motor is controlled using the traveling speed of the belt conveyor 50 as a control signal.

A leveling device 80 is provided downstream of the mat pressing device 70. The leveling device 80 includes an elastic roll 83 such as a rubber roll suspended from a fulcrum 81 by a spring 82. The elastic roll 83 has a certain weight and contacts the surface of the mat 26 filled in the seedling raising box 62. The part where the mat 26 is raised receives a large pressing force from the elastic roll 83, and is leveled in the same state as the other parts.

In this way, the mat 25 is filled in the seedling raising box 61 sent from the belt conveyor 50 while maintaining the desired positional relationship. Therefore, the seedling raising box 61 filled with the mat 25 can be sent to the lower process such as irrigation, sowing, and soil covering as in the case of FIG. That is, even when a fibrous mat such as rock wool is used as the floor soil, it is possible to automate the entire process and save labor.

[0026]

As described above, in the present invention, the mat is pressed into the seedling raising box while the tip of the mat slid into the seedling raising box is pressed against the inner wall surface on the tip side of the seedling raising box. Therefore, it is possible to automatically perform the work of filling the mat in the nursery box with high position accuracy without the need to manually finely adjust the position of the fibrous mat.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a conventional seeding plant using natural soil.

FIG. 2 shows a main part of an apparatus for filling a seedling raising box with a fibrous mat in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 also shows an example of a locking device.

FIG. 4 also shows an example of a mat holding device.

[Explanation of symbols]

21, 22, 23 ... Mat 30 Sliding table 50 Belt conveyor (conveying means) 51 Conveying roll 61, 62, 63 ... Seedling raising box 70 Mat pressing device 74 Brush roll

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transport means for sequentially transporting a plurality of nursery boxes, a slide table for sliding down a fibrous mat so that the tip collides with the inner wall surface of the leading edge of the nursery box being transported, and a slide table slid into the nursery box. A brush roll for pressing down the fibrous mat is provided, and the brush roll is rotated in the same direction as the moving direction of the seedling raising box and at a speed slightly higher than the traveling speed of the conveying means. Seedling mat filling device.