Abstract:
A fruit removal assembly forming part of a mobile fruit harvester has a single motor for orbiting two pairs of oppositely disposed panels to which are mounted a plurality of longitudinally extending fingers which penetrate a fruit tree canopy and dislodge fruit. The motor is coupled to the panels by a mechanical drive and thereby provides for synchronized simultaneous movement of the panels. The panels are coupled to a structural frame for supporting the panels and tethers fixed to an anchor positioned to space the tethers from the structural frame at an intermediate portion between the panels and the structural frame are provided to align the panels and mitigate the occurrence of collisions between orbiting panels.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to a fruit harvester, and particularly to a harvester having orbiting assemblies of fingers or wands which are inserted into the canopy of a fruit tree to dislodge the fruit. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     In one known fruit harvester described in part in U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,896 to Daniels, four oscillating fruit removal heads are mounted on a common frame which is positioned where desired by an articulated telescoping boom carried on a wheeled chassis which can be navigated between rows of fruit trees. The fruit removal heads each have a plurality of agitation wands which, in use, extend into the canopy of the fruit tree and dislodge the fruit. The oscillation heads are each mounted eccentrically with respect to a drive shaft rotated by pressurized hydraulic fluid fed to a respective motor from a central hydraulic power unit carried on the chassis. The hydraulic power units and each corresponding motor are operatively coupled in fluid communication through a series of hydraulic supply lines and hydraulic return lines. 
     Tethers are provided to restrain the oscillating fruit removal heads from contacting or engaging each other and the direction of movement of each oscillating fruit removal head is selected to balance the opposing movement of the other fruit removal heads in order to stabilize the fruit removal assembly. Despite such precautions, the Daniels harvester suffers from a lack of synchronization and this has some rather unfortunate consequences which have contributed to making the harvester somewhat less desirable than it could be. 
     This invention provides alternative drive means for orbiting the fruit removal heads or panels and alignment means for coupling the fruit removal heads or panels to a structural frame for supporting the panels which are intended to alleviate the aforementioned synchronization problems. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention is part of a fruit harvester, specifically, a fruit removal assembly. The fruit removal assembly has four panels with a plurality of fingers that extend into a fruit tree canopy when in use. The panels are supported by a structural frame, which in turn is connected to a positioning arm mounted on a vehicle that can be driven through an orchard. In operation, the fruit removal assembly is mechanically driven by a single hydraulic motor. An anchor bar is also attached to the structural frame, but spaced from the frame by support members, such that the anchor bar is equidistant between the panels and intermediate between the structural frame and the panels. A series of tethers span between the anchor bar and the panels, two per panel. These tethers function to restrain the movement of the panels, thereby preventing contact between the panels during operation of the fruit harvester. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
     In order that the invention may better be understood, a preferred embodiment is described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a fruit harvester in operation in an orchard showing a fruit removal assembly in a fruit tree canopy and the fruit harvester mounted on a vehicle; 
     FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a fruit removal assembly forming part of a fruit harvester (not shown); 
     FIG. 3 is a front elevation view of the fruit removal assembly of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 is a detail partly sectioned view of a portion of a drive assembly showing the coupling between a primary hub and secondary hub associated with a panel forming part of the fruit removal assembly; 
     FIG. 5 is a similar view to FIG. 3 showing an anchor bar for retaining tethers to couple panels to a structural frame; and 
     FIG. 6 is an end elevation view drawn on  5 — 5  of FIG.  5 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     A fruit removal assembly in accordance with the invention, is generally indicated by reference numeral  12  in the accompanying drawings. The fruit removal assembly  12  has a structural frame  14  coupled to a positioning means  16 . The structural frame  14  supports a single hydraulic motor  18  and two pairs of oppositely disposed panels  20  mounted eccentrically via hub assemblies  22 , of which one is shown in FIG.  4 . 
     Each panel  20  carries a plurality of longitudinally extending fingers  24  that penetrate a fruit tree canopy  26  when in use as shown in FIG.  1 . As shown in FIGS. 1,  2 , and  3 , these panels  20  are comprised of four parallel members  28 , 30  at right angles to two connecting members  32  disposed at opposite ends of the parallel members  28 ,  30 . The outer two parallel members  28  extend beyond the junction with the connecting members  32 , while the inner two members  30  span the distance between the connecting members  32 . 
     Each hub assembly  22  is attached to a panel  20  by a mounting plate  34 . The panels  20  are driven by the motor  18  as follows: an output shaft  36  from the motor  18  is coupled by a loop drive  38 , to a first output drive shaft  40  that is parallel to the output shaft  36  and is attached to the structural frame by three supports  42 . The details of the supports  42  can be seen in FIG.  4  and are comprised of a ring bearing  44  and a seal  46 . The first output drive shaft  40  is coupled to a linking drive shaft  48  at right angles to it, held in place with two supports  42 . This linking drive shaft  48  is coupled to a second output drive shaft  50 , which is parallel to the first output drive shaft  40  and is also attached to the frame by two supports  42 . The hub assemblies  22  are coupled to the respective output drive shafts  40 ,  50  by bevel gears  52 , only one of which is shown in FIG.  4 . 
     As best shown in FIG. 4, the bevel gear  52  engages with a gear  56  mounted to a ring mount  58  on spindle  60  of the primary hub  54 . 
     The hub assemblies  22  are located on the structural frame and their spindles  60  are retained by two nuts  62  on the proximal end of the spindles  60  of the primary hubs  54 . Each spindle is protected by a cover plate  64  and a housing  66  through which the spindle  60  of the primary hub  54  extends. Proximal bearings  68  and distal bearings  70  are located at the ends of the housing  66  and the unit is sealed with a seal  72 . Each spindle  60  is attached to a secondary hub  74  by a coupler  76  having an inner plate  78  fixed to an outer plate  80 , such that a longitudinal axis  82  of spindle  60  of the primary hub  54  is offset from a longitudinal axis  84  of a spindle  85  of the secondary hub  74 . The axes are not necessarily parallel to one another as shown in the ghost outline  86 . Each of the secondary hubs  74  is attached to a respective panel  20  by one of the mounting plates  34  having a sleeve  88  mounted to the spindle  85  and an outer bearing  90 . 
     The fruit removal assembly  12  is carried by a vehicle that can move through an orchard between the trees. The positioning means  16  is usually an articulating arm mounted on a vehicle that permits the operator to position the panels  20  in the canopy of the fruit tree  26 , such that the fingers  24  penetrate the canopy. During operation, rotation of the various drive shafts  40 ,  42 ,  48  as shown by arrows  92 ,  94 ,  96 ,  98  is coupled to rotation of the spindle  60  of the primary hubs  54 , via the bevel gears  52 , resulting in eccentric orbital motion of the secondary hubs  74  and associated panels  20  as shown by arrows  100  in FIG. 2 and 3. This directly drives the orbital motion of the fingers  24  which results in the fruit being knocked from the tree. The fruit can then be collected on an apron or any suitable collection device. 
     A single motor  18  drives the four panels  20  via a mechanical drive means in the form of a series of chain, drive shafts and gears. Thus, the above fruit removal assembly simplifies the method of powering the movement of the panels  20 , as described in the prior art (U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,896), by reducing the number of motors to one and removing all but one hydraulic circuit. A more significant advantage is the elimination of the hydraulic distribution system between the main hydraulic line and the motor. This removes a source of asynchronous movement, as the hydraulic lines are notoriously prone to bleeding and the flow of hydraulic fluid from a single source cannot accurately be distributed between the hydraulic lines to ensure that equal power is applied to each of the panels. The mechanical drive means described herein promotes synchronization of the panels  20  and retention of a substantial amount of the dynamic motion within the structural frame  14 . 
     A further aspect of this invention is described wherein an anchor bar  102  is attached to the structural frame  14 , by two support members  104  attached to the structural frame  14  as shown in FIG.  5 . The anchor bar  102  and the panels  20  lie on the same side of the structural frame  14 . The position of the anchor bar  102  can be further defined as being intermediate between the structural frame  14  and the panels  20  and being equidistant from said pairs of panels  20 . 
     Another feature of the invention is the attachment of tethers  106  between the anchor bar  102  and the panels  20 , a plurality of anchoring means  108  being present on the anchor bar  102  and the panels  20 , as best shown in FIG.  5 . Each tether  106  is attached at one end to the midpoint of the connecting members  32  and at the other end to the anchor bar  102 , such that there are eight tethers  106  affixed in this manner. 
     During operation, rotation of the panels  20  is restrained and synchronized by the combination of the anchor bar  102  and tethers  106 , such that excess movement of the panels  20  is dampened, and more importantly, opposing panels  20  do not contact each other. This is accomplished by attaching the tethers  106  to the anchor bar  102  which is strategically placed, by means of the support members  104  to be as close to the panels  20  as possible without impeding the movement of said panels  20 . Again, this overcomes a serious defect in the prior art, whereby tethers to restrain the oscillating heads have proven to not stabilize the heads adequately. This is because they span between the panels and the structural frame directly with no anchor bar  102  to locate them. 
     The advantage of this invention will now be readily apparent to a person skilled in the art from the foregoing description of a preferred embodiment and its uses. Other embodiments and uses of this fruit removal assembly in accordance with the invention will also now be readily apparent. For example, a system of gears, sprockets or roller chains or alternatively bevel gears and shafts may drive the spindle of each of the primary hubs so that the adjacent primary hub spindle will rotate in opposite directions and diametrically opposite hub spindles will rotate in the same direction, the motion of the panels being restrained by tethers that are elastomers.