JPH09327281A - Root-cutting apparatus for farm product - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the subject apparatus designed to mitigate the labor of a relevant worker in his root-cutting work for farm products. SOLUTION: This root-cutting apparatus is so designed that a support plate 4 supported on a support frame is provided with plural openings 5A, 5B each of which is capable of fitting one piece of farm product so as to pass its root side through with their diameters differing from each other, a cutter 6 to cut the root side of a farm product is provided so that its cutting action plane lies along in close proximity to the reverse face of the support plate 4, a moving mechanism is provided so as to allow the support plate 4 and the cutter 6 to move relatively along the cutting action plane, and the respective openings 5A, 5B are designed to be switchable between such a mode as not to be superposed on the cutter 6 and another mode as to be superposed on the cutter 6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a root cutting device for crops such as lettuce.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In agricultural products such as lettuce, the outer leaves are stripped off and the root side is cut before shipping. When the cutting work is performed, there are many outer leaves to be stripped off, which may be time-consuming. Cuts the deep part on the root side to separate the outer leaf, and when the outer leaf can be easily peeled off, the outer leaf is peeled off and then the shallow part on the root side is cut.

Conventionally, there is no root cutting device for cutting the root side of agricultural products as described above, and an operator supports each agricultural product placed on a cutting board with his or her hand, and while observing the cutting line with a knife, I was disconnecting with.

[0004]

According to the above-mentioned conventional construction, since the operator cuts the base of the crop with the kitchen knife as described above, cutting a large number of crops requires a great deal of labor. Was needed.

An object of the present invention is to reduce the labor of a worker in root cutting work of agricultural products.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

[Structure] The characteristic structure of the invention according to claim 1 is that the support plate supported by the support frame is provided with a plurality of openings, each of which is capable of being fitted with a single crop in a state in which the root side thereof penetrates, with different opening diameters. Forming, a cutter for cutting the root side of the agricultural crop, its cutting action surface is provided so as to closely follow the back surface of the support plate, the support plate and the cutter relative movement along the cutting action surface. A permissible moving mechanism is provided so that the openings can be freely switched between a state where they do not overlap the cutter and a state where they overlap.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the biasing means for restoring at least one of the support plate and the cutter to a neutral position where the opening and the cutter do not overlap each other. Is equipped with.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, a cover for covering the opening of the support plate is detachably provided.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first, second or third aspects, the rotation is such that a water absorbing material for wiping off the water on the cut surface of the root of the agricultural product is detachably attached. It has a body.

[Operation] According to the structure of claim 1, when the number of outer leaves to be stripped is large and the stripping is likely to be time-consuming, the root side of the crop is fitted into the opening having a large opening diameter formed in the support plate. Then, the deep portion on the base side is exposed to the cutter, and the support plate and the cutter are relatively moved along the cutting action surface to cut the deep portion. This allows the outer leaves to be stripped off to be separated from the crop. When it seems easy to remove the outer leaf,
After peeling off the outer leaf, insert the root side of the crop into the opening with a small opening diameter, expose only the shallow part of the root side to the cutter, and move the support plate and the cutter relatively along the cutting action surface. , Cutting the shallow part.

That is, according to the first aspect of the invention, it is possible for the worker to shallowly or deeply cut the root side of the agricultural product without visually checking the cutting line.

According to the structure of claim 2, in addition to the same effect as that of the structure of claim 1, the support plate and the cutter can be moved to a neutral position where the opening and the cutter do not overlap. Since at least one of the above is restored by the biasing means, it is possible to save the operator the trouble of performing the restoration operation and to prevent the cutter from looking through the opening.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the same operation as that of the first or second aspect can be achieved, and in addition, the cover for covering the opening of the support plate is detachably provided. By covering the opening with a cover, it is possible to prevent the cutter from looking through the opening.

According to the structure of claim 4, the above-mentioned claim 1,
In addition to being able to perform the same operation as the operation by any one of 2 or 3, it is possible to wipe off the water on the cut surface of the root of the crop by attaching a water absorbing material to the peripheral surface of the rotating body. Compared with the case where a water absorbent material such as a towel is prepared and wiped off, the work is easier and the water absorbent material is not lost. When the water absorption amount of the water absorbing material increases, the water absorbing material can be removed from the rotating body, attached again to the rotating body by squeezing, or replaced with a new water absorbing material.

[Effect] Therefore, according to the structure of claim 1, the labor of the worker in root cutting work of agricultural products can be reduced.

According to the structure of claim 2, in addition to the same effect as that of the structure of claim 1, it is possible to prevent the cutter from looking through the opening. It prevents other objects from touching the cutter and prevents them from being damaged.

According to the structure of claim 3, in addition to the same effects as the effects of the structure of claim 1 or 2, the opening is covered by the cover, so that other than crops is cut by the cutter. It is hard to touch and can prevent them from being damaged.

According to the structure of claim 4, the above-mentioned claim 1,
In addition to the effect similar to that of the configuration of any one of 2 and 3, the efficiency of the work of wiping off the water on the cut surface of the root of the agricultural product can be improved.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4,
At the upper end of the inclined support leg 1 made of a round pipe, a box-shaped frame 2 having upper and lower openings is supported in a state of being inclined along the support leg to form a support frame 3, and a rectangular support plate 4 is provided. While supporting the upper opening of the box-shaped frame 2 in a state of being able to fit one lettuce in a state where its root side penetrates, two large and small circular openings 5A, 5B are formed in the longitudinal direction of the support plate 4. The disk cutters 6 formed on both end sides and driven and rotated by the electric motor M to cut the root side of the lettuce are provided in the central portion of the box-shaped frame 2 and their cutting action surfaces are close to the back surface of the support plate 4. A slide movement mechanism 7 is provided to allow the support plate 4 to move in the longitudinal direction along the cutting action surface by a manual operation, and each opening 5A, 5B is provided.
Is provided so that it can be switched between a state where it does not overlap the cutter 6 and a state where it overlaps, and a biasing means 8 for restoring the support plate 4 to a neutral position where the openings 5A, 5B and the cutter 6 do not overlap is provided, and is not used. Sometimes each opening 5 in the support plate 4
A cover 10 covering A and 5B is detachably provided via a hinge 11 to constitute a lettuce root cutting device.

The slide moving mechanism 7 bends the upper end portions of both side plates 12 in the width direction of the box-shaped frame 2 outward to form guide walls 12a, and folds both width direction end portions of the support plate 4 downward. While bending, bolts 14 are attached to each bent wall 4a.
And a plurality of rollers 15 for guiding and rotating the support plate 4 mounted on the upper end of the four corners of the box-shaped frame 2 are provided. A pair of bolts 16 as stoppers respectively contacting the box-shaped frame 2 at both stroke ends at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the plate 4 are separately protruded downward.

As shown in FIGS. 6 (a) and 6 (b), the urging means 8 is located outside the box-shaped frame 2 on one end side in the width direction of the support plate 4 from the center position in the longitudinal direction to both ends in the longitudinal direction. The inclined cam surface 17 is formed so as to become higher as the distance to the side increases, and the inclined cam surface 17 is moved along with the sliding movement of the support plate 4 in a state of being urged toward the lower end side of the box-shaped frame 2 by the spring 18. The roller 19 that rolls is provided. The roller 19 is connected to a connecting plate 20.
The connecting plate 20 is provided in the connecting plate 20 with a first long hole 22 for avoiding interference through which a rotating shaft 21 a of a rotating drum 21 described later is inserted, and in the side plate 12 of the box-shaped frame 2. The second elongated hole 24 through which the guide pin 23 is inserted is formed to be vertically long.

As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of rotating plates 27a,
A rotary drum 21 (an example of a rotary body) that is driven and rotated by the electric motor M around a horizontal axis via a friction type transmission mechanism 27 including 27b and 27c is provided on the outer side of the box-shaped frame 2. Towel 2 to wipe off water on the cut surface of root
5 (an example of a water absorbing material) is detachably attached. A spring 26 for keeping the frictional force of the transmission mechanism 27 at a certain level or more is fitted on the rotating shaft 21 a of the rotating drum 21. The towel 25 is wound around the rotary drum 21 with one end thereof being inserted into the cutout 21b formed in the peripheral portion (see FIG. 3).

With the above construction, when the lettuce has a lot of outer leaves to be stripped and it is likely to take time to strip it,
A switch (not shown) is set to “ON” to drive the electric motor M, and the root side of the lettuce is fitted into the large opening 5A of the support plate 4 (FIG. 5 (A)), so that the deep part on the root side is removed. An operator presses the support plate 4 in the longitudinal direction by hand so as to face the cutter 6, and cuts the deep portion (FIG. 5).
(B)). This allows the outer leaves to be stripped off from the lettuce. When it seems that the outer leaf can be easily peeled off, after peeling off the outer leaf, the root side of the lettuce is fitted into the opening 5B having a small opening diameter so that only the shallow portion of the root side faces the cutter 6 and supported. The plate 4 is similarly pressed to cut the shallow portion.

[Other Embodiments] The number of the openings 5A and 5B is not limited to the above number, and may be two or more.

As shown in FIG. 7, a swing plate 28 is provided on a support plate 4 having one large diameter opening 5 and a vertical axis X.
Large, medium, and small openings 5A, 5B, and 5C that are rotatably overlapped around and overlap with the large-diameter opening 5 by changing the position due to the swing
May be formed on the swing plate 28 so that the large, medium, and small openings 5A, 5B, and 5C can be selected.

The support plate 4 may be fixed in position and the cutter 6 may be moved along the cutting surface.

The cutter 6 may be of a reciprocating type, or may be constructed so as to be cut by the sliding movement force of agricultural products without being driven.

The electric motor M may be configured so that when the support plate is moved, the switch is turned on to drive the rotation, and when the support plate is stopped, the switch is turned off to stop the rotation.

The support plate 4 may be slidably driven by an actuator such as a drive hydraulic cylinder.

The present invention can be applied to agricultural products other than lettuce, such as cabbage.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a lettuce root cutting device.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a lettuce root cutting device.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a root cutting device for lettuce;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal side view of a root cutting device for lettuce;

[FIG. 5] (a) Vertical sectional front view showing a state before cutting of lettuce (b) Vertical sectional front view showing a cutting state of lettuce

6 (a) is a front view showing the urging means. (B) is a front view showing the urging means.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 Support Frame 4 Support Plates 5A, 5B Openings 6 Cutter 7 Moving Mechanism 8 Energizing Means 10 Cover 21 Rotating Body 25 Water Absorbing Material

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A support plate supported by a support frame is provided with a plurality of openings, each of which is capable of fitting one crop in such a state that the root side thereof penetrates, with different opening diameters, and the root side of the crop is cut. The cutter for cutting is provided so that its cutting action surface closely follows the back surface of the support plate, and a moving mechanism that allows the support plate and the cutter to relatively move along the cutting action surface is provided. A root-cutting device for crops that can be switched between a state where the openings do not overlap the cutter and a state where the openings do not overlap. 2. The root-cutting device for crops according to claim 1, further comprising a biasing unit that restores and operates at least one of the support plate and the cutter to a neutral position where the opening and the cutter do not overlap each other. 3. The root-cutting device for crops according to claim 1, further comprising a cover that covers the opening of the support plate in a removable manner. 4. The root-cutting device for crops according to claim 1, further comprising a rotating body on which a water-absorbing material for wiping off water on the cut surface of the roots of the crops is detachably mounted.