NZ575196A - Combined cutter and sprayer for the control of woody growths or weeds - Google Patents

Abstract

Equipment for the control of woody growths is disclosed. The equipment has a support shaft adapted to be carried by an operator, and mounted on the shaft is a cutter, a motor for driving the cutter, the pump, a spray nozzle connected to a pump and mounted adjacent the cutter, and a control means for switching the cutter and the pump on and off. The equipment also includes a means for supplying fluid to be sprayed to the pump, including a backpack reservoir adapted to be worn by an operator.

Description

Received at IPONZ 23 September 2010 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION NEW ZEALAND PATENT APPLICATION NO: 575196 FILED: 26 FEBRUARY 2009 TITLE: EQUIPMENT FOR THE CONTROL OF WOODY GROWTHS Technical Field The present invention relates to equipment for the control of woody growths such as seedling trees, shrubs, and regrowth on tree stumps. The present invention has been developed especially for use with the control of unwanted seedling trees, and will be described with particular reference to this application. However, it will be appreciated that the equipment of the present invention is equally useful in the control of unwanted shrubs or in controlling regrowth on tree stumps.

Background Art Typically, the control of unwanted seedling trees has been achieved using chainsaws, axes or loppers. However, these methods are slow and labour-intensive and are not suitable for use in situations where very large numbers of unwanted seedlings have to be killed. In particular, effective control of wilding conifer seedlings may require work over large areas of land. To overcome this problem, scrub cutters have been used; this is significantly faster than using chainsaws or hand tools, but unless the seedlings are cut close to the ground, so that all green material is removed from the stump, the seedling is likely to regrow. Using a scrub cutter to cut very close to the ground is potentially dangerous:- the rotating blade can strike stones, which puts the operator at risk, and which may also damage the blade.

Controlling seedling trees using a chemical spray alone is impractical:- to reliably prevent regrowth, very heavy coverage of the seedling is required, so that large amounts of chemical are needed. Much of the land to be treated is unsuitable for vehicle access, and chemical sprays are heavy to carry. Further, using large quantities of chemical sprays is ecologically undesirable. 1 Received at IPONZ 23 September 2010 Disclosure of Invention An object of the present invention is the provision of equipment which permits the rapid and effective control of unwanted seedlings, which is suitable for use by operator working on foot, but which overcomes the above described disadvantages.

The present invention provides equipment for the control of woody growths, said equipment including a support shaft adapted to be carried by an operator, said support shaft having mounted thereon: - a cutter; - a motor for driving the cutter; - a pump; - a spray nozzle connected to said pump and mounted adjacent said cutter; - control means for switching the cutter and the pump on and off; said equipment further including means for supplying fluid to be sprayed to said pump, which means includes a backpack reservoir which can be worn by the operator.

The cutter may be of any suitable type e.g. a rotatable cutting disc (smooth-edged or edged like a chainsaw blade), or a chainsaw-type cutter.

Preferably, the cutter is a rotatable disc and the longitudinal axis of the support shaft is at an acute angle to the axis of rotation of the cutter.

Preferably, the cutter and the pump have separate control means. Preferably, these control means are mounted on one or more control handles secured to the support shaft.

The cutter and the pump could be driven from the same motor, but preferably the pump has its own power source, e.g. a battery.

Optionally, said supply means includes a manually operated primer for the pump. Preferably also, the pump is connected to the spray nozzle by a pipe carrying a pressure activated valve.

Brief Description of Drawings By way of example only, the preferred embodiment of the present invention is described in detail, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- 2 Received at IPONZ 23 September 2010 Figure 1 is a side view of equipment in accordance with the present invention; Figure 2 is a side view of the lower part of the equipment of Figure 1, on a larger scale; and Figure 3 is a side view of the upper part of the equipment of Figure 1, on a larger 5 scale.

Best Mode of Carrying out the Invention Referring to the drawings, the equipment 10 includes a main support shaft 11 which carries a petrol driven motor 12 at one end and a cutter mounting 13 at the other. The 10 cutter mounting 13 supports a driven spindle 14 on which is mounted a cutter 15 of known type. Typically, the cutter is a flat plate with a central hole for engaging the spindle 14 and a tungsten carbide tipped cutting edge around its circumference.

The motor 12 has a fuel tank 12a associated therewith. The motor 12 is arranged to 15 drive a driveshaft (not visible) which extends down the centre of the shaft 11 to drive the spindle 14. The longitudinal axis of the spindle 14 is set at an acute angle to the longitudinal axis of the shaft 11 so that when the equipment is held in the position approximately as shown in Figure 1, the plane of the cutter 15 is substantially horizontal.

In use, the equipment of 10 is supported from the operator by a harness and is controlled by two spaced handles in the same manner as a conventional scrub cutter. The handles (not shown) are mounted on a bracket 16 on the shaft 11, and one of the handles also carries controls for the cutter 15 and the sprayer hereinafter described.

The controls for the motor 12 and switching on and off the drive to the cutter 15 may be of any suitable type, (e.g. as for a conventional scrub cutter) and are not described in detail.

The part of the shaft 11 between the motor 12 and the handle bracket 16 carries a mounting bracket 11a which supports a pump 18 which is powered by a battery 19 mounted alongside. The on/off controls for the pump 18 are mounted on one of the handles; these controls are of any known suitable type and are not described in detail.

Herbicide to be sprayed is supplied to the pump via a supply pipe 20 which is connected to a backpack reservoir (not shown) worn by the operator. If needed, a 3 Received at IPONZ 23 September 2010 hand primer 21 in the form of a flexible squeeze bulb is mounted in the line 20 just before the pump, for priming the pump at start up:- the operator squeezes the bulb to draw herbicide from the reservoir down the pipe 22 the pump. However, it is preferred to use a herbicide reservoir which can gravity-feed into the pipe 20 without leakage; in 5 this case, the hand primer 21 is not needed, and can be omitted.

The pump supplies pressurised herbicide to a spray pipe 22 which is supported down the length of the shaft 11 and terminates in a conical spray nozzle 23 slightly above, and offset to one side of, the cutter 15. The spray nozzle 23 is mounted on a support 10 plate 24 which lies in a plane parallel to the plane of the cutter 15 and is mounted on the cutter mounting 13.

A pressure activated diaphragm valve 24 is mounted in the spray pipe 22 just before the nozzle 23. The valve 24 closes off the spray pipe 22 from the nozzle 23 until a 15 predetermined pressure is exceeded, so that in use herbicide cannot drip uncontrollably from the nozzle 23.

The above described equipment is used as follows:- the operator walks around all the designated area with the equipment supported on the harness, in the position shown 20 in Figure 1. To cut down a tree seedling, the cutter 15 is rotated at high speed by the motor 12 and the equipment used in the same manner as a conventional scrub cutter. When the seedling has been cut off, the stump and any remaining foliage on the stump are sprayed with a herbicide by the spray nozzle 23. The spray is controlled by pushing a button on the handle to operate the pump; the longer the button is pressed, 25 the more spray is delivered by the nozzle. Applying the herbicide requires minimal repositioning of the equipment, since the nozzle is mounted adjacent to the cutter, and the operator has complete control over the amount of spray delivered. This minimises the amount of herbicide used. Further, using a backpack herbicide reservoir rather than a reservoir mounted on the shaft 11 significantly reduces the weight of the 30 equipment to be handled by the operator.

It will be appreciated that the above described equipment allows an operator to deal with unwanted seedlings quickly and efficiently, without having to cut too close to the ground, but without any excess use of herbicide. 4 Received at IPONZ 23 September 2010

Claims (10)

Claims

1. Equipment for the control of woody growths, said equipment including a support shaft adapted to be carried by an operator, said support shaft having mounted 5 thereon: - a cutter; - a motor for driving the cutter; - a pump; - a spray nozzle connected to said pump and mounted adjacent said cutter; 10 - control means for switching the cutter and the pump on and off; said equipment further including means for supplying fluid to be sprayed to said pump, which means includes a backpack reservoir adapted to be worn by an operator.

2. The equipment as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cutter is selected from the group 15 consisting of: a rotatable smooth-edged cutting disc; a rotatable cutting disc with a chainsaw-blade edge; a chainsaw-type cutter.

3. The equipment as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cutter is a rotating disc and the longitudinal axis of the support shaft is at an acute angle to the axis of rotation of the 20 cutter.

4. The equipment as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further including a pressure activated valve connected between the pump and the spray nozzle. 25

5. The equipment as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the cutter and the pump have separate control means.

6. The equipment as claimed in claim 6 wherein said control means are mounted on one or more control handles secured to the support shaft. 30

7. The equipment as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the cutter and the pump both are driven from the same motor.

8. The equipment is claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the pump is 35 arranged to be driven from a separate power source to the cutter. 5 Received at IPONZ 23 September 2010

9. Equipment as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further including a manually operated primer for the pump.

10. Equipment for the control of woody growths, substantially as hereinbefore 5 described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings. 6