Abstract:
Foliage separator for a transplanter, and more particularly an apparatus for separating the foliage of adjacent rows of seedlings which are grown in trays having a plurality of side-by side rows of seedling cells. The foliage separator includes a rotating beater bar, the beater bar being positioned at an angle with a progressive taper, the beater bar being mounted for movement with a carriage which carries a subassembly for picking up an entire row of seedlings from a nursery tray and positioning them for hand-off to a seedling loader group. An air knife may be mounted on the same carriage, the air knife facilitating separation by keeping the seedling foliage and stems up and helping the beater bar enter between adjacent rows.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/221,081 filed Jul. 31, 2008, and entitled TRANSPLANTER, and granted as U.S. Pat. No. 7,954,439. In addition, this application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/453,990 filed Mar. 18, 2011. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0002]    The present invention relates generally to transplanters, and more particularly to an apparatus for picking up an entire row of seedlings from the nursery tray without significant damage to the leaves of the seedlings in adjacent rows, the apparatus including aggressive means for separating the leaves of the row being picked up from the leaves of adjacent rows of seedlings. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    U.S. Pat. No. 7,954,439 shows an apparatus for transplanting seedlings grown in nursery trays having a plurality of side-by side rows of seedling cells, which apparatus plants the seedlings uniformly spaced apart even though not all cells in the nursery tray has seedlings. The apparatus picks up an entire row of seedlings from a tray, which row may have gaps between seedlings, transfers the seedlings to a mechanism which eliminates gaps between seedlings, and then delivers them to a gap-up belt assembly which discharges the seedlings one at time to the ground with a desired spacing between the seedlings. The seedlings have a root ball, stem, and leaves or foliage. Some plants have a jagged edge leaf. During plant extraction from the tray the leaves of adjacent rows of seedlings may have a tendency to interlock together. This results in a situation where the plant foliage has to be forcibly separated. Under normal conditions with average plants there usually is not much damage to the plant foliage. However, with young tender plants they are sometimes stripped of many or all of their leaves, and thus the planted seedlings fail to thrive. In the apparatus shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,954,439 a pair of separation spears are employed to separate the leaves of adjacent rows of seedlings, and after they have been fully extended between the rows of seedlings they are “bumped ” or “jittered” to ensure that the seedlings are in the extraction spears. 
       OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    It is an object of this invention to provide a transplanting apparatus which picks up an entire row of seedlings from a nursery tray having a plurality of side-by-side rows of seedlings, which apparatus includes aggressive means for separating the foliage of the row being picked up from the foliage of adjacent rows of seedlings. 
         [0005]    More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for separating plants grown in adjacent rows in nursery trays, and for picking up an entire row of seedlings from the nursery tray without significant damage to the leaves of the seedlings in adjacent rows. Each seedling includes a root ball, stem, and leaves. The apparatus includes a nursery tray indexing mechanism which indexes nursery trays one row at a time, a carriage, and means for extracting an entire row of seedlings mounted on the carriage. The apparatus additionally includes means for moving the carriage between an extended position where the means for extracting an entire row of seedlings is to one side of the tray indexing mechanism and a retracted position where the means for extracting an entire row of seedlings is located adjacent a nursery tray. In accordance with this invention aggressive means are provided for separating the leaves of seedlings in adjacent rows. The aggressive means for separating the leaves may be a rotating beater bar, the beater bar being positioned at an angle, and having a progressive taper, the beater bar being mounted for movement with the carriage. In addition, an air knife assembly may be provided which blows a narrow stream of air between the leaves to extend the leaves and associated stem to facilitate the entry of the beater bar between the rows. 
         [0006]    These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after a consideration of the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which a preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is an overall view of a portion of a transplanter in which this invention is incorporated, portions having been eliminated for purposes of clarity, this view illustrating a nursery tray indexing mechanism including a nursery tray without seedlings, a carriage shown in its extended position (to the right of the nursery tray in this view), means for extracting an entire row of seedlings being mounted on the carriage, means for moving the carriage, and aggressive means for separating the leaves of seedlings in adjacent rows, wherein the aggressive means for separating the leaves is a rotating beater bar beater bar positioned at an angle with a progressive taper, the beater bar being mounted for movement with the carriage; 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is an enlarged view of a portion of  FIG. 1 ; this view being taken from a slightly different angle and showing the carriage in its right-hand or extended position; 
           [0009]      FIG. 3  is a view showing the carriage in the left-hand or retracted position, and showing the seedling extracting means engaging a row of seedlings, only two rows of seedlings being shown in the nursery tray, other rows of seedlings being omitted for purposes of clarity; 
           [0010]      FIG. 4  is a view showing the means for extracting an entire row of seedlings in a position where it is transferring the seedlings to the seedling loader group; 
           [0011]      FIG. 5  is a view showing the seedling loader group transferring seedlings to a gap-up belt assembly, the carriage and the subassembly for picking up an entire row of seedlings being shown in its partially extended position; 
           [0012]      FIGS. 6-7  are details of the beater bar,  FIG. 6  being an exploded view of the beater bar assembly, and  FIG. 7  being an end view taken from the drive end; and 
           [0013]      FIGS. 8-10  are front, top, and side views, respectively, of an air-knife weldment. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0014]    With reference first to  FIG. 1 , a transplanter is indicated generally at  10 , the portion of the transplanter shown including an operator support platform  12  which supports a nursery tray indexing mechanism  14  including a nursery tray  16  shown without seedlings. In normal practice up to 3 nursery trays may be received by the tray indexing apparatus, each nursery tray having a plurality of rows of cells containing seedlings, although some cells may be voids due to failure of seeds to germinate, or grow. The seedlings are shown schematically at “S” in  FIG. 5 . A carriage, indicated generally at  18 , is shown in its extended position (to the right of the nursery tray in this view). The carriage consists of spaced apart right and left bearing blocks  20 ,  22 , respectively, which bearing blocks are best shown in  FIG. 2 . The bearing blocks slide on a pair of longitudinally extending spaced apart upper and lower shafts  24 ,  26 , respectively. The bearing blocks are connected together by upper and lower support bars  28 ,  30 , respectively. In addition the right hand bearing block supports a vertical member or plate  32  which has secured to it a foliage separating spear  34 ,  35 . The carriage is caused to reciprocate by a cylinder assembly  36 , the rod end  38  of the cylinder assembly being secured to right bearing block  20 . The anchor end of the cylinder assembly is secured to a suitable support (no reference number) interconnected with the platform  12 . 
         [0015]    Means for extracting an entire row of seedlings are mounted on the carriage. This subassembly is indicated generally at  50 . This subassembly includes spaced apart first and second seedling extraction spears or plates  52 ,  54 . These plates or spears move between extending and retracted positions with the carriage  18 , and also move between a capture position where a row of seedlings are captured between the extraction spears or plates, and a seedling hand-off position where the seedlings which have been captured are handed off to a seedling loader group indicated generally at  55  in  FIG. 1  and which is described in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 7,954,439. A bladder  56  is carried by spear  54 , a portion being shown in  FIGS. 2 and 4 . The bladder is of rectangular cross section and extends the length of spear  54 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , the extracting spear plates are shown to one side of the nursery tray, and they are spaced apart from each other the width of a cell. In this position the first plate  52  lies closely adjacent the foliage separation spear  34 . In the seedling capture position the first and second plates have been advanced to the left as shown in  FIG. 3  and the first plate  52  continues to lie closely adjacent the foliage separation spear  34 . While in this position, the plate  54  is caused to pivot slightly towards the other plate  52 , and the bladder  56  is inflated to capture a row of seedlings between the plates  52 ,  54 . 
         [0016]    After the row of seedlings has been captured, the subassembly  50  is initially moved away from the nursery tray  16 , and is also pivoted away to the position shown in  FIG. 4 . In this position the subassembly  50  will be presenting the seedlings with the root balls in an upwardly extending position. Movement of the subassembly  50  is caused by cylinder assemblies  62 ,  64 , the cylinder assembly  62  only being used for initial movement of the subassembly  50  away from the nursery tray  16 . After the subassembly  50  achieves the position shown in  FIG. 4 , the seedling loader group will be operated to cause the root ball gripping plates  66 ,  68  of the seedling loader group to engage the root balls, and then the seedling loader group will be advanced from the seedling receiving position shown in  FIG. 4  to a position where the root ball gripping plates  66 ,  68  may transfer the seedlings to a first pair of gap-up belts  70  as shown in  FIG. 5 . While the seedling loader group is transferring the row of seedlings to the gap-up belts  70 , the carriage will be moved towards its partially extended position as shown in  FIG. 5 , and then be moved back to the fully extended position shown in  FIG. 2 . In addition to the first pair of gap-up belts  70 , a second pair of gap-up belts  72  is used, which second pair receive the seedlings from the first pair, the two pairs  70 ,  72  being shown in  FIG. 1 . If necessary, due to a large number of voids in the nursery tray, the first pair of gap-up belts may be speeded up to avoid any skips when planting. 
         [0017]    It is a feature of this invention that aggressive means are provided for separating the leaves of seedlings in adjacent rows immediately prior to a row of seedlings being picked up by the subassembly  50 . To this end, an aggressive means for separating the leaves is a rotating beater bar  100  carried by the foliage separating spear  34 , the beater bar  100  being positioned at an angle with a progressive taper, the beater bar being mounted for movement with the carriage and the spear  34 . As can be seen from  FIG. 6 , the beater bar has an oval or rounded rectangular cross-section, and it has a tapered shape for a portion of its length. At the narrow end a pin  102  is press fit therein, the pin  102  being received in a suitable bearing (not shown) at the tip of the spear  34 . At the larger end of the beater bar, another pin  104  is also press fit therein. This pin is coupled via coupling  105  to a suitable air motor  106  which is supported by a bracket  108  which is secured to an end of the spear  34 . While an air motor is illustrated on bracket  108 , the beater bar  100  can be rotated by other types of motors, which motors can be remotely mounted and connected to the beater bar via a suitable flexible shaft. 
         [0018]    In operation, as the foliage separating spear  34  is advanced through the seedlings as it moves from the position shown in  FIG. 2  to the position shown in  FIG. 3 , the beater bar will be rotated about two complete revolutions as it passes each cell in the nursery tray  16 , the beater bar untangling the leaves of adjacent rows of seedlings. The spear  34  during its advance through the seedlings rests on the extracting spear plate  52 . However, when the spear plate is moved away from the separating spear, it is necessary that an alternative support be provided. To this end, an adjustable bracket  110  is mounted on the side of the tray indexing mechanism furthest away from the support plate  32 . As the beater bar is advanced the air knife means facilitates the separation the leaves of seedlings in adjacent rows immediately prior to a row of seedlings being picked up by the subassembly  50 . To this end it should be understood that the term “air knife” relates to a flow of air generated by air escaping from a manifold through an elongated narrow opening, such as one ⅛ inch high by about 3 inches long. An air knife weldment is shown in  FIGS. 8-10 . This air knife weldment is indicated generally at  116 , and includes a manifold  118  which is connected to a low pressure air source via tube  120 . The manifold  118  is provided with an elongated slot  122  through which air in the form of an air knife may flow. The air knife weldment is mounted on the leading edge of the carriage  18  and is directed to that the flow or air is between the first and second extraction plates or spears  52 ,  54  to cause the stem, and leaves or foliage of the seedlings to extend away from the root balls. In addition, a further air nozzles  126  is provided, which further air nozzle is mounted on the frame of the transplanter at a location to one side of the nursery tray indexing mechanism, the further air nozzle causing the stem, and leaves or foliage of the last couple of seedlings to also be extended away from the associated root ball. 
         [0019]    While a preferred form of this invention has been described above and shown in the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that applicant does not intend to be limited to the particular details described above and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, but intends to be limited only to the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. In this regard, the terms as used in the claims are intended to include not only the designs illustrated in the drawings of this application and the equivalent designs discussed in the text, but are also intended to cover other equivalents now known to those skilled in the art, or those equivalents which may become known to those skilled in the art in the future.