JPH0352929B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a pruning machine, and more particularly to a pruning machine configured to quickly and reliably cut off the branches of a standing tree from the base thereof along the trunk.

In the field of forestry, in order to obtain high-quality, straight-grained wood with no knots, pruning is performed during the tree growing process, in which the upper branches and leaves of the tree are left and the lower branches are successively removed. This pruning work requires that the branches be completely removed from their bases along the trunk so as not to leave any incised protrusions on the trunk surface. This is because if the protrusions are left, curved annual rings will be formed to cover the protrusions, which will reduce the quality of the wood as a building material.

In traditional pruning work, workers used machetes to knock down branches. This type of pruning work involves climbing up the tree and holding the trunk, which is a difficult task in which the machete is applied to the base of the branch in the direction along the trunk in order to completely knock off the branch from the base, as described above. In addition to being extremely difficult and dangerous,
The necessity of climbing each tree led to inefficiency and severe worker fatigue, making it impossible to continue working for long periods of time.

In addition, a variety of power-type pruning machines that use power to obtain the force for knocking down branches have been developed, and a representative example is described in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 57-23158. There is a pruning machine that has been used.
This branching machine covers the periphery of the circular saw in a semi-circular arc shape and has a plane that is almost the same as one side of the circular saw, so that the circular saw can work along the bark of the tree at the base of the branch. It is characterized by providing a U-shaped guide member having a guide surface located inside. As shown in Figure 5 of the above-mentioned publication, this pruning machine abuts a pair of guide parts of the U-shaped guide member against the bark of the tree so as to sandwich the branch to be cut in the vertical direction of the trunk. When the circular saw is moved laterally, the circular saw, which has a side surface that is substantially flush with the guide surface of the guide member, cuts the branch from its base without leaving any knob-like protrusions. It is something.

However, with this type of branch cutting machine, the circular saw cuts the cross section of the branch in the horizontal direction, so if the branch is swayed toward the circular saw side due to wind, etc., it may become connected to the trunk of the branch. Due to the lever action using the part of the tree as a fulcrum, the cut surfaces of the bases of the branches that are facing each other with the circular saw in between press down on the circular saw with great force, stopping the rotation of the circular saw and making it impossible to continue the work. Not only does it disappear, but it often happens that the circular saw gets stuck in the cut after cutting halfway, making it impossible to remove the circular saw.

When cutting off a branch, the knife should be used to cut down the branch from top to bottom.In traditional machete work, the machete is always swung from top to bottom. It is clear from this. Even if the machete is used from below or from the side of the branch, the machete will dig into the cut due to the branch's own weight or lateral sway.

Workers who use the pruning machine shown in the above publication have no choice but to cut the branches from above because if they use the pruning machine according to the instructions, the circular saw will often bite into the cut end of the branch. You will be forced to use the circular saw to cut downward. In this case, the purpose of the U-shaped guide member, which allows the circular saw to be positioned along the trunk only when the pair of guide portions sandwich the branch to be cut above and below, becomes meaningless. When the circular saw of the branching machine is operated to cut down the branch from top to bottom, the pair of guide parts of the guide member will be positioned to sandwich the branch from side to side, but the surface of the trunk will be cylindrical. Because of the shape of the trunk, even if you do this, the circular saw will not be able to follow the surface of the trunk.

As I mentioned earlier, tree branches should be cut from the top to the bottom, so that the branches will gradually lean downwards due to their own weight, and the cut will widen. It should be reduced so that the knife does not get caught in the cut.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above, and its purpose is to be able to quickly, reliably, and easily cut off tree branches completely from the base, and to be extremely easy to operate. It is to provide a pruning machine.

In order to achieve such an objective, the present invention:
The following technical measures have been taken:

That is, in a branching machine having a rotary blade attached to the tip of a handle, a guide portion is provided in a plane including the rotary blade at a position adjacent to the base of the handle with respect to the rotary blade, and A long guide member extending in the rod direction is provided.

Since the guide section is located in a plane that includes the rotating blade, simply by abutting this guide section along the lateral line of the trunk surface, the rotating blade can be positioned along the lateral line of the trunk surface very easily. be able to. Therefore, if you position the rotary blade on the lateral line of the trunk that contains the branch to be cut, and move the rotary blade from top to bottom by pulling the handle downward, this branch will be cut from its base. , cut completely without leaving any knobs. In this way, the pruning machine of the present invention basically cuts down the branch to be cut by cutting from the top to the bottom. The cutting blade never gets stuck in the cut, and the cutting work can be carried out smoothly.The guide part located in the plane containing the rotary blade allows the rotary blade to always cut into the base of the branch. Since the position at the time of cutting is defined, anyone can easily perform the ideal pruning operation of completely cutting from the root.

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the whole of an example of a pruning machine according to the present invention, and also shows how to use the pruning machine. In this drawing, an integrated type motor is shown in which a rotary blade 2 is attached to the tip of the handle rod 1 and a prime mover 3 is attached to the rear end, but in the present invention, the prime mover is attached to the back of the worker. Of course, it can be changed to a type that can be carried on one's back, and in which a handle rod that also serves as an operating rod and a prime mover are connected via a flexible transmission shaft.

The details of the structure of the tip of the handle rod 1, which is the main part of the present invention, are shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

A power transmission shaft 4 is rotatably inserted into the inside of the handle rod 1, and its rear end is connected to a motor 3 attached to the rear end of the handle rod 1, for example, by a centrifugal clutch (not shown). are connected via. A gear housing 5 is fixed to the tip of the handle rod 1.
Inside this, a rotary blade support shaft 6 supported almost orthogonally through the handle rod 1 and a transmission shaft 4 inserted through the inside of the handle rod 1 are connected to a pair of bevel gears 7,
It is connected by 8. A rotary blade 2 is attached to the tip of the support shaft 6. In this example, as a result of making the transmission shaft 4 and the support shaft 6 almost perpendicular to each other, the rotary blade 2 is made to be almost parallel to the handle rod 1, but the transmission shaft and the rotation Make the angle formed by the blade support shaft larger than a right angle, for example, if the angle formed between the rotary blade 2 and the handle rod 1 is 0° or
The angle may be approximately 30°. In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, by recessing the central part of the rotary blade 2 and inserting and supporting the support hole 9 formed in this part into the tip of the support shaft 6, the support shaft 6 Also, the tightening nut 9a to be screwed thereon is prevented from protruding from the front side surface 2a of the rotary blade 2 and damaging the stem surface.

In addition to the above configuration, in the present invention, as clearly shown in FIG.
A guide member 11 having a guide part 10 located in a virtual plane P including It is fixed to rod 1.
As shown in FIG.
It can be configured with In the illustrated example, the entire surface of the guide portion 10 over the entire length of the guide member 11 is positioned within the plane P, but even if the entire surface does not have the shape of the plane P, at least the rotary blade 2 The functions and objects of the present invention can be fully achieved by locating the closest portion within the plane P. This is because the portion of the guide member that comes into contact with the trunk when the rotary blade cuts into the base of the branch, that is, the guide portion of the guide member near the rotary blade, need only be within the above-mentioned plane P.

Next, how to use the pruning machine of the present invention will be explained.

As shown in Figure 3, the branch B to be cut
The guide member 11 is applied to the trunk so that the guide part 10 linearly contacts the lateral line C of the bark A including the branch B above the tree. At this time, the rotary blade 2
As shown in FIG. 4, the tree comes into linear contact with or is located very close to the bark along the side line C. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, if the edge 11b of the guide member 11 is placed against the branch B, the worker does not have to support the handle when it tries to fall, making the work easier. However, when pulling down the handle 1, the edge 11b slides on the side of the branch B, restricting the direction of movement of the handle 1, allowing the rotary blade 2 to effectively act on the base of the branch. can be done. When the handle rod 1 is pulled downward from the state shown in FIG. Cut into the part of B closest to the bark, i.e. the base. When the rotary blade 2 cuts into the branch B,
Although the guide member 11 separates from both the branch B and the bark A, the gap into which the rotary blade 2 entered, that is, the cut end guides the progress of the rotary blade 2, so that the branch is cut to the end without any problem.

In this embodiment, since almost the entire circumference of the rotary blade 2 is exposed, the work can be performed even if the handle rod 1 is tilted in either the left or right direction. As described below, this has a special effect in that the operator can perform pruning work skillfully without having to change his or her standing position much.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the branches extend radially from the trunk. For example, if a worker stands in the area indicated by the symbol D in the figure, the branches a, b, and c in the front or right direction. For this, cut off the stem 1 while tilting it to the right, and cut off the branches d and e to the left.
, you can cut it off by switching the handle 1 and tilting it to the left. Branches on the back side of the trunk e,
Regarding f and g, there is an area E on the opposite side to the area D above.
Just stand there and do the same thing as above. The area where trees are planted is usually on a fairly steep mountain slope, but by setting the area D where the worker stands on the contour line E passing through the standing trees, the branches extending to the mountain side and the valley side can be easily brought to the same height. It can be shot down.

As described above, the pruning machine of the present invention includes a guide member that is located in a plane that includes one side of the rotary blade and has a guide portion that is adjacent to the base side of the handle rod with respect to the rotary blade. The rotary blade automatically cuts through the base of the branch by simply placing the guide part on the trunk so that it comes into contact with the lateral line of the trunk containing the branch to be cut, and then pulling the handle downward. Therefore, by using the pruning machine of the present invention, anyone can easily and quickly perform high-quality tree pruning work without the need for skilled techniques such as traditional pruning work using a machete. be able to do it.

Note that the scope of the present invention is of course not limited to the embodiments shown in the drawings.

That is, in the illustrated example, a long plate with a constant width is used as the guide member, but it is also possible to use a rod-shaped guide member.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view showing one embodiment of the pruning machine of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the main parts, and FIGS. 3 to 5 are explanatory views of how to use the pruning machine. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Handle, 2... Rotating blade, 10... Guide part, 11... Guide member, P... (Including the rotating blade) Plane.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A branching machine with a rotary blade attached to the tip of a handle, which has a guide portion located adjacent to the base of the handle with respect to the rotary blade, approximately within a plane containing the rotary blade. A pruning machine characterized by having a member.