WO1992004815A1

WO1992004815A1 - Method and apparatus for feeding twigs one by one from a bundle of energy forest sprouts

Info

Publication number: WO1992004815A1
Application number: PCT/SE1991/000567
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ragnar Wilstrand; Mats Wilstrand
Original assignee: Wilstrand Svets & Mek. Ab
Priority date: 1990-09-13
Filing date: 1991-08-29
Publication date: 1992-04-02
Also published as: SE9002916L; SE9002916D0; SE466283B; AU8520091A

Abstract

The invention is directed to a method for feeding twigs one by one from a bundle of energy forest sprouts (3), for the further handling or treatment thereof, whereby the bundle of sprouts is placed with the root ends of the sprouts resting against a chute (1) being substantially V-shaped in cross-section and being open upwardly: the sprouts (3) of the bundle are brought to move in a direction towards the forward end of the chute (1); by gravity the sprouts are brought to fall down one by one after one another through a down-feed aperture (5); and immediately below the down-feed aperture (5) the sprouts are brought into engagement with a drive apparatus (13) for continued down-feed of the sprouts (3). The invention also relates to an apparatus for performing said method.

Description

Method and apparatus for feeding twigs one by one from a bundle of energy forest sprouts.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for feeding twigs one by one from a bundle of energy forest sprouts, for the further handling or treatment thereof.

For the planting of energy forest it is presently most common to use cuttings, and thereby almost exclusively cuttings pre-cut to a predetermined length, which after storing in refrigerated ware¬ houses are planted either manually or mechanically. For the mechanical planting of cuttings in pre-cut lengths different equipment has been developed, see for instance the planting apparatus described in our earlier Swedish patent application No. 8904035-6. However, the above-mentioned planting by means of pre-cut cuttings suffers from serious disadvantages since it necessitates a relatively time-consuming and costly handling after harvesting the shoots to be employed for the new planting. After harvesting the shoots they must be cut into lengths, assorted and placed in storage boxes to be kept in refrigerated warehouses up to the time when they are to be planted. Further¬ more, by the planting of these pre-cut cuttings relatively complex feeding apparatuses are required in order to provide a secure feeding of the cuttings one by one to the planting apparatus, and in our earlier Swedish patent application No. 9001331-9 an example of such a feeding apparatus is descri¬ bed, which may for instance be employed in connection with the planting apparatus according to our Swedish patent application No. 8904035-6.

In view of the above indicated problems in connection with the handling, treatment and feeding of the cuttings before and during the planting, we have realized that it should involve conside¬ rable advantages to use whole energy forest sprouts, so called full shoots, by the planting, and in said Swedish patent applica¬ tion No. 8904035-6 the possibilities of directly feeding whole energy forest sprouts into the planting apparatus have been discussed, whereby the planting apparatus has been designed in such a way that it permits cutting the sprouts into cuttings having the intended length, directly in the planting apparatus. However, a problem encountered in that connection has been that it has required manual feeding of the full shoots one by one into the feeding hopper of the planting apparatus or into a turret magazine provided above the hopper and only mentioned in general terms in said patent application. In order to render the planting more efficient it is common to provide three or four such planting apparatuses alongside each other to permit simultaneous planting of three or four rows of cuttings, and this means that for such a manual feeding four or five persons are required for performing the planting, namely a driver of the towing vehicle and one person for feeding each planting apparatus. This is quite unsatisfactorily from a profitability point of view, and there¬ fore there is a demand for the development of a feeding apparatus for automizing the feeding of full shoots, so that for instance four planting apparatuses provided alongside each other may be fed by only one person.

Thus, the object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for achieving an efficient, labour-saving feeding of energy forest sprouts one by one into a subsequent handling or treatment position, preferably in a planting apparatus.

In accordance with the invention this object is achieved by means of a method and an apparatus of the kind specified in the enclosed patent claims 1 and 6, respectively.

Preferable further developments of the invention are indicated in the dependent subclaims.

The invention and its basic principles are described more closely below in connection with an exemplifying embodiment of the feeding apparatus according to the invention, as illustrated in the enclosed drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a sideview of an embodiment of a feeding apparatus according to the invention,

Fig. 2 is a rear view of the feeding apparatus according to Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a schematical view from above of the chute of the feeding apparatus according to Figs. 1 and 2, with the down-feed housing omitted, but with the positions of the drive belts by the aperture for the downward feeding illustrated,

Figs. 4a and 4b are detailed views illustrating a typical embodiment of the drive mechanism for the downward feeding means of the feeding apparatus, and

Fig. 5 is a schematic illustration of a sprout bundle retainer according to Fig. 1.

Referring initially to Figs. 1 and 2 it is apparent that the feeding apparatus according to the invention basically consists of a feeding chute 1 and a down-feed housing 2. The feeding chute 1 has a general V-shape in cross-section, where the angle between the legs of the V-shape is not critical but may be modified in view of the specific application. The same is true regarding the design of the bottom of the chute, which may either be pointed or flattened having a narrow, flat bottom, the width of which should not exceed the width of the root end of the energy forest sprouts 3 to be positioned therein. As illustrated schematically in Fig. 1 a bundle of energy forest sprouts are positioned standing upright in the chute 1, whereby they are held together in the bundle adjacent their upper ends, by means of a support ring 4 which, for the insertion of the bundle 3 of sprouts is open at the back, at 4a, and which at the back is provided with two rods or tines 4b attached at each end of the ring 4 and arranged such that they cross each other. The rods or tines are resilient in such a manner that they are deflected when a bundle of sprouts is inserted but prevent the sprouts from falling out backwardly after having been inserted. The chute 1 is in itself also provided with a stop la at the rear end thereof, in order to prevent the root ends of the sprouts from sliding out rear- wardly from the chute 1. At its forward end the chute 1 is likewise provided with a stop lb in order to prevent the root ends of the sprouts 3 from sliding too far ahead, but this forward stop lb is not extended at a level with the forward end of the chute 1 but is curved outwardly so that it generally has the shape of a hopper split in half along its longitudinal centre plane with the hopper-shape or funnel-shape directed downwardly towards the down-feed housing 2.

At a position straight above the down-feed housing 2, in the area of the apex of the V-shape and substantially at the transition area between the end of the chute 1 and the funnel-shaped forward stop lb, the chute 1 is also provided with a down-feed aperture

5 illustrated in Fig. 3. The down-feed aperture 5 is preferably circular and should be dimensioned such that it permits feeding- down the root end of the energy forest sprouts therethrough, whilst simultaneously preventing the feeding-down of two sprouts simultaneously. Since the energy forest sprouts have a consider¬ ably smaller diameter at the top end than in the root end and since the root end of a subsequent sprout must not be fed down before the top end of the previous sprout has left the down-feed aperture, the aperture 5 must be dimensioned accordingly, i.e. the diameter of the aperture 5 may only slightly exceed the maximum expected diameter of the root end.

For the same reason a sprout guide 6 is also provided above the down-feed aperture 5, and the purpose of this guide 6 is to make sure that the sprout 3 which is being fed down is maintained substantially centrally in the down-feed aperture 5 also during the final phase of its downward feeding, i.e. when the thin top end is fed down. In the illustrated embodiment the sprout guide

6 has the shape of a tube extending between the sidewalls of the chute 1 at a distance above the down-feed aperture 5, and through a rod 6a the guide is attached to an illustrated support 7 attached to the down-feed housing 2 and in the illustrated embodiment intended for supporting the feeding apparatus for instance in a planting apparatus of the kind described in our Swedish patent application No. 8904035-6-

At its forward end the chute 1 is connected to the upper end of the down-feed housing 2. The connection therebetween is not illustrated in detail in the drawings, but may preferably consist of a bolt-nut connection. For the purpose of permitting an adjustment of the inclination of the chute 1 relative to the down-feed housing, and relative to the ground level in the appli- cation by the planting apparatus, it is preferable to design the connection such that the chute may be pivoted about said connec¬ tion, whereby Fig. 1 illustrates an example of a suitable support and adjustment mechanism 8 for stabilizing the chute 1 and for simultaneously permitting a stepless adjustment of the angle of inclination. This mechanism 8 consists of two telescopically displaceable portions 8a, 8b which at their free ends are pivotally connected to the down-feed housing 2 and the chute 1, respectively and which may be locked relative to each other by means of a stop screw 9.

The down-feed housing 2 is in itself formed by a pair of parallel sidewalls 2a, 2b positioned at a mutual distance from each other and firmly connected to each other by means of a suitable number of transversal connections 2c of which only one is visible in Fig. 1. The pins 11 of four pulleys 12 are rotatably journalled in elongated holes 10 in the sidewalls 2a, 2b of the down-feed housing 2, in such a manner that the pulleys 12 run between the sidewalls 2a, 2b. Two of the pulleys are provided opposite each other, at a distance from each other at the upper end of the down-feed housing 2 and two of them are correspondingly provided at the lower end of the down-feed housing 2. A drive belt 13 travels around each pair consisting of an upper and a lower pulley 12. In a manner to be described more closely below, the drive belts 13 are driven in opposite directions in such a way that between their inner stretches they form a down-feed shaft through which they feed down the sprouts 3 engaged by the drive belts 13 immediately below the down-feed aperture 5 of the chute 1. At their outer side the belts 13 are provided with a serrated or toothed surface (indicated in Figs. 4a and 4b) in order to safely grip the sprouts 3 received therebetween and to securely move them downwardly. For the purpose of permitting a secure down-feed of the sprouts 3 without slip and without damaging the sprouts, in spite of the varying thickness of the sprouts, on the one hand depending upon irregularities in the sprout itself and, on the other hand depending upon their tapered shape from the root end towards the top end, the pins 11 of the upper and lower pulleys 12 respectively, which pins are slidably journalled in the elongated holes 10, are connected to each other by means of a spring strap 14 tending to bring the pulleys 12 together as much as possible - down to a distance corresponding to a minimum sprout diameter - but permitting the pulleys 12 to be brought apart from each other against a force at larger sprout diameters. Due to the fact that the height of the down-feed housing 2 and accordingly the distance between the upper and lower drive pulleys 12 is less than the totalt length of the sprouts the drive belts 13 will at each instance securely grip the sprouts 3 at one place to securely feed down the sprouts 3.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2 and especially to Figs. 4a and 4b, an embodiment of a drive mechanism for the drive belts 13 will now be described more closely. However, it shall be emphasized that the invention is in no way restricted to this embodiment of the drive mechanism and that, depending upon the actual application, the drive mechanism may be designed in several other ways obvious to a man skilled in the art, for adaption to the specific situa¬ tion or application. The described embodiment of the drive mechanism is adapted to be connected to the drive apparatus of the planting apparatus described in the above-mentioned Swedish patent application No. 8904035-6 for obtaining a synchronized down-feed of the full shoot with the cutting and planting move¬ ment of the planting apparatus.

As mentioned above, the drive mechanisms for the drive belts 13, illustrated in the drawings, are adapted to the planting apparatus according to the last-mentioned Swedish patent speci¬ fication, and in Figs. 4a and 4b the connection is illustrated by means of the pull rod 15 illustrated only in part (deleted from Fig. 1 and only partly illustrated in Fig. 2). In this case the pull rod is assumed to perform upwardly and downwardly directed movements in accordance with the drawn arrow, said upwardly and downwardly directed movements corresponding to a feeding of energy forest sprouts 3 with a length corresponding to a normal cutting length, whereby this movement is taken from and automatically obtained with a correct length through the displacement movement performed in said known planting apparatus for the purpose of cutting cuttings to the correct length.

In the feeding apparatus a drive mechanism 16 is provided for each of the drive belts 13, but since said drive mechanisms are identical only one will be described and illustrated in Figs. 4a and 4b. The pull rod 15 is pivotally connected to a clamping piece 17 which in turn is pivotally supported on a pin 18 mounted on a flange 19a protruding from a counterpiece 19. The clamping piece 17 and the counterpiece 19 are provided such that from each side they straddle the drive belt 13. Through the off-centre journalling of the pull rod 15 in relation to the pivotal journal 18 of the clamping piece 17 an upwardly directed movement of the pull rod 15 will cause a counter-clockwise swinging of the clamping piece 17 (as seen in Fig. 4b) about the pin 18 in such a way that the drive belt 13 is clamped between the clamping piece 17 and the counterpiece 19 and is brought upwardly together with the pull rod 15 during the continuing movement thereof. When the pull rod 15 performs its downwardly directed return movement the drive belt 13 is released due to the clockwise swinging of the clamping piece 17 around the pin 18 and due to the fact that the counterpiece 19 is provided with a stop lug 20 which prevents further pivoting of the clamping piece in the clockwise direction past the position where the drive belt 13 is released. By means of this structure and due to the fact that the pull rods 15 of the two drive mechanisms operates synchronously the drive belts 13 will accordingly be driven step by step in opposite direc- tions. The distance of each step corresponds to the feeding-down of the sprout 3 inserted therebetween with a distance correspon¬ ding to the length of a cutting. In order to guide the upwardly and downwardly directed movements of the drive mechanism 16 during the feeding cycle for the drive belt 13, sliding guides 12 of a suitable material are provided between the side edges 2a and 2b of the down-feed housing 2, immediately behind the respective counterpiece 19, and having a length corresponding to the drive movement. The rear side of the counterpiece 19 will contact and will be guided by this sliding guide 21, especially during the upwardly directed feeding movement. The above description clarifies that in principle the drive mechanisms 16 are cantilever suspended in the pull rod 15, but in order to further stabilize the arrangement a spring strap 22 corresponding to the spring straps 14 may suitably be provided in such a manner that it connects the drive mechanisms 16 for the two drive belts 13. Thereby the counterpieces 19 are maintained resiliently preloaded against the sliding guides 21.

The method ^• suggested in accordance with the invention, for feeding whole energy forest sprouts one by one will now be described with reference to the above description.

A bundle of such sprouts are inserted from behind into the support ring 4 by pushing aside the resilient rods 4b. The sprouts are then positioned with their root end resting in the chute 1 adjacent its rear end. Through the V-shape of the chute

1 the sprouts 3 will, during their advancement towards the front end of the chute 1, find their way down towards the bottom of the chute and thereby automatically be aligned in a row resting against the bottom of the chute. The movement of the root end of the sprouts 3 towards the forward end of the chute 1 is achieved partly by swinging the chute into a suitable angle of inclination relative to the horisontal, but depending upon the application the forward movement may have to be supported by a vibrating or shaking movement applied to the chute either by a drive means not illustrated in the drawings and provided in connection with the feeding apparatus or, such as by the application for which the embodiment illustrated in the drawings is intended, by the vibra¬ tion generated by the planting apparatus during its operation.

The support ring 4 is provided at such a distance above the chute 1 that the sprouts 3a are remained therein during their entire movement towards the forward end of the chute 1. When the first sprout 3 reaches the down-feed aperture 5 the root end falls down through the aperture and is engaged by the drive belts 3 provided immediately below the aperture, between the belts. In this connection it should be pointed out that the funnel-shape of the forward stop lb serves to provide space for the root end of the sprout 3 in the case where this is bent as a bandy stick, which is common.

When the drive belts 3 are activated they grip the root end of the sprout having fallen down through the down-feed aperture 5 and feed this sprout into the down-feed housing 2, between the drive belts 3, preferably stepwise with the predetermined length of a cutting to be planted. After a certain down-feed the sprout 3 is released from the support ring 4 and will then be maintained substantially centrally between the drive belts 3 by the sprout support 6. Thereby, and by the dimensioning of the down-feed aperture 5 the sprout 3 being fed down will prevent a new sprout from falling down through the down-feed aperture 5 until the preceding sprout has left the down-feed aperture completely unblocked, whereupon the next sprout is fed down in the same manner.

Although the invention has been described herein with specific reference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it should be obvious to a man skilled in the art that the invention is not restricted to this embodiment but may be modified and varied within the scope of the enclosed patent claims. Thus, the invention is not restricted to being used by a planting apparatus, but may with the same advantage be employed in other phases of the handling and treatment of energy forest sprouts.

Claims

1. A method for feeding twigs one by one from a bundle of energy forest sprouts (3), for continued handling or treatment, characterized in that the bundle of sprouts is placed with the root ends of the sprouts (3) bearing against a chute (1) which is substantially V-shaped in cross-section and which is open upwardly, in that the sprouts (3) in the bundle are brought to move in a direction towards the forward end of the chute (1) during simultaneous alignment thereof in a row at the bottom of the chute (1), and in that the sprouts (3) by gravity are brought to fall down, one by one after one another, with the root end thereof first through a down-feed aperture (5) provided in the bottom of the chute (1), at its forward end, and in that below the down-feed aperture (5) said root end is brought into engagement with a drive means (13) for controlled down-feed of the entire sprout from the chute (1).

2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that a shaking or vibrating motion is applied to the chute for aligning and feeding the sprouts (3) standing therein.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the chute is designed so as to be adjustable as regards its angle of inclination.

4. A method according to any of the preceding claims, charac¬ terized in that in the region of the rear end of the chute (1) and at a height above the chute less than the length of the sprouts (3), the sprouts are kept together in a bundle by means of a support ring (4).

5. A method according to any of the preceding claims, charac¬ terized in that by means of the drive apparatus (13) the sprouts (3) are driven stepwise a distance corresponding to the length of a normal cutting.

6. Apparatus for feeding twigs one by one from a bundle of energy forest sprouts (3), for the further handling or treatment thereof, characterized by a chute (1) being substantially V-shaped in cross-section and being open upwardly, in that the chute (1) in its bottom and in the region of its forward end is provided with a down-feed aperture (5) for sprouts (3) and by a drive apparatus (13) provided below the chute (1), in the region of the down-feed aperture (5) in its forward end.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that the chute (1) is operationally connected to an apparatus for applying a shaking or vibrating motion to the chute (1).

8. Apparatus according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that in the region of its forward end the chute (1) is pivotally connected to a down-feed housing (2) including the drive apparatus (13) and in that the rear end of the chute (1) through an adjustment mechanism (8) is adjustably connected to the down- feed housing (2) for adjusting the angle of inclination of the chute (1), whereby the adjustment mechanism (8) consists of two telescopically displaceable rods (8a, 8b) which at their free ends are pivotally connected to the down-feed housing (2) and to the chute (1) respectively and which may be locked in relation to each other by means of a stop screw (9).

9. Apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, charac¬ terized by a support ring (4) supported above the region of the rear end of the chute (1) for holding the bundle of sprouts together at a height above the bottom of the chute (1) less than the length of the sprouts and by a curved stop (lb) at the forward end of the chute (1), said stop having the shape of a divided funnel.

10. Apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, charac- terized in that the drive means consists of two drive belts (13) driven in mutually opposite directions, each being extended around two pulleys (12) being provided at the upper and lower end respectively of the down-feed housing, whereby the drive belts (13) between their inner stretches form a down-feed shaft for feeding down the sprouts (3) engaged by the drive belts (13) immediately below the down-feed aperture (5) of the chute (1) and in that the two upper and lower pulleys (12), respectively, for the two drive belts (13) in pairs are resiliently biased towards each other.