JPH0675442B2 - Seedling separation device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Technical field: The present invention relates to a seedling separation device mounted on a transplanter for separating individual tubular seedlings from seedling containers such as paper tubes in the transplant cultivation of agricultural crops, in which tubular seedlings are grown in seedling containers such as paper tubes and then planted.

BACKGROUND ART As an example of a conventional separating device of this type, a transplanter disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 15680/1982, places a collection of seedlings in paper tubes, each connected in a strip and folded in a serpentine shape, on a seedling supply table, and continuously pulls out the collection in rows, separating them into individual seedlings in paper tubes with a separating roller, and transports them to a subsequent transplanting device. Furthermore, the seedlings in this collection of seedlings in paper tubes are connected to each other with detachable paper connectors, and adjacent rows of the folded serpentine shape are glued together with a water-soluble adhesive.

The paper tube seedlings are then placed on a conveyor attached to the seedling supply table of the transplanter, and are continuously drawn out in a row by a drawing roller, and are then separated into individual paper tube seedlings by a separating roller. However, if the seedling connection of the collection is broken for some reason during this drawing process, the connection with the following seedlings is severed and the transport immediately stops, which causes a problem in the transplanting work.

For this reason, in the paper tube seedling collection, it is necessary to maintain appropriate strength at the seedling connection points and to set this strength uniformly at each connection point, but such management is difficult in raising seedlings. Also, while it is possible to adjust the seedling pulling force and speed on the roll side each time, this type of agricultural equipment creates various problems, such as a complex mechanism, and is still difficult to achieve.

The object of the present invention is to use aligned seedlings made by arranging a large number of individual tubular seedlings in rows and bonding adjacent seedlings with a water-soluble adhesive, without using a paper tube seedling assembly by band connection as described above,
The purpose of this invention is to provide a separation device that can place these on a seedling supply table, feed them out in an aligned state, and reliably separate each seedling from the front row one by one and transport them smoothly to the subsequent transplanting mechanism, thereby dramatically improving the efficiency of transplanting work.

Disclosure of the Invention: The present invention comprises a first seedling-transporting mechanism that carries aligned seedlings, each of which is separably connected to another in a paper tube and arranged in multiple rows, and that moves back and forth in one direction; a second seedling-transporting mechanism that is mounted on the first seedling-transporting mechanism and moves intermittently at the end of the mechanism's movement in a direction perpendicular to the movement of the first seedling-transporting mechanism, and that feeds out one row of aligned seedlings; and a pair of separation rollers that are located in front of the second seedling-transporting mechanism in the direction of movement and abut against the front row of aligned seedlings being fed out. As the aligned seedlings are moved by the first moving mechanism, they are separated one by one from the tip of the front row, and when separation of the front row is complete, the second seedling-transporting mechanism feeds out the next row of aligned seedlings and abuts against the separation rollers to separate them into individual seedlings. Thus, the aligned seedlings are reliably and continuously separated into individual seedlings and transported to the subsequent seedling transplanting device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view showing one embodiment of the seedling alignment and separation device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view taken along the line A-A in FIG. 1, and FIG.
The figure is a side view in the direction of the arrow B-B in Figure 1, Figures 4 and 5 are plan views showing the relationship between the first moving mechanism and the separation roller in the separation device, in particular, and Figures 6 and 7 are plan views showing the operating state of the seedling separation device.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, as shown in Figures 6 and 7, 40 is an aligned seedling that is neatly connected so that it can be separated into individual paper tube seedlings 41. Each paper tube seedling is sown and raised in a hexagonal paper tube that is open at the top and bottom and filled with potting soil. The water-soluble adhesive that bonds the paper tubes together gradually dissolves when watered, and as the paper tubes deteriorate, they bond together, and when transplanted, they are connected with an appropriate bonding strength to form the aligned seedlings 40.

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the seedling separation device, in which 51 is a frame consisting of a pair of parallel frame members spaced apart from each other, with outer frames 52 at both ends of the frame 51 in the longitudinal direction and an inner frame 53 in the middle, and a separation mechanism frame 54 in the middle of the frame 51.

The seedling separation device is mounted on a frame 51 as part of the transplanter, and is composed of a first seedling moving mechanism 20 that moves back and forth on the frame 51 in a lateral direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the transplanter (the direction of the arrow in the figure) to move the aligned seedlings 40;
The system comprises a second moving mechanism 30, which is mounted on the first seedling moving mechanism 20 and moves intermittently vertically to feed out the aligned seedlings 40 one row at a time, and a pair of separation rollers 1 and 2, which are mounted opposite the seedling feeding position of the second moving mechanism 30 and come into contact with the front row of the lined seedlings 40 being fed out, separating them into individual seedlings 41. The paper tube seedlings 41 separated by the device are clamped and transported by conveyor belts 5 and 6 as shown in the figure, and supplied to the seedling drop pipe 61 of the transplanting device.

The first moving mechanism 20 has a planar, approximately rectangular moving mechanism frame 21, and a pair of seedling guides 22 are erected at both longitudinal ends of the frame 21, facing each other with a gap slightly wider than the width of the aligned seedlings 40. Below the moving mechanism frame 21, two shafts 23, 24 extending along the moving direction are hung on the outer frame 52, and the moving mechanism frame 21 is engaged with and supported by these shafts 23, 24, and moves back and forth along the shafts. That is, a groove is formed in the shaft 23, and a protrusion (not shown) provided on the moving mechanism frame 21 engages with the groove of the thread. Therefore, the moving mechanism frame 21 moves back and forth continuously along the shaft as the shaft 23 rotates, and the moving width is set slightly wider than the width of the aligned seedlings 40. The moving speed is controlled by the speed of the separation rollers 1, 2.
The outer peripheral speed is set slower than the outer peripheral speed of the shaft 23, 24, for example, about 1/3 of that in the above embodiment. Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 6, sprockets 25, 26 are attached to the ends of the shafts 23, 24 projecting outward from the outer frames, respectively, and a chain 27 is stretched between them to connect them, so that both shafts rotate in the same direction. Also, a cam 28 is attached to the inside of each outer frame 52 of the shaft 24, which engages with a cam receiver 34, which will be described later.
are installed respectively.

The second moving mechanism 30 is provided on the first moving mechanism frame 21 and moves vertically on the frame. The second moving mechanism 30 has a pair of pulley shafts 32, 33 provided at a distance from each other and facing each other in the longitudinal direction of the bottom of the first moving mechanism frame 21.
3, a belt 3 slightly narrower than the longitudinal width of the frame 21
2 and 3, the intermittent movement mechanism is provided with a disc-shaped cam receiver 34 having notches at equal intervals on the circumference at both ends of the pulley shafts 32 and 33, and the cam 28 of the shaft 24 engages with the cam receiver 34 to transmit the rotation of the shaft 24 to the pulley shaft 32, thereby moving the belt 31 of the second movement mechanism.
At each end of the first moving mechanism frame 21, which moves back and forth above, it engages with the cam receiver 34 and rotates it by one frame, thereby intermittently feeding out one row of aligned seedlings 40 in the direction of separation rollers 1 and 2.

The separation rollers 1 and 2 are rollers coated with an elastic material such as sponge, and are attached to the rotating shafts 3 and 4, which are vertically erected from the separation mechanism frame 54, in two stages (1, 1', 2, 2'), one above the other. The distance between the rollers 1 and 2 at their closest points is set narrower than the diameter of the paper tube seedlings.
The separated paper tube seedlings 41 are fed out while being sandwiched between rollers 1 and 2. Therefore, the distance between the axes of rollers 1 and 2 and the diameters of each roller are determined by the diameter of the paper tube seedlings 41.

In the above embodiment, the diameter of the paper tube seedling 41 is about 2 cm.
In this case, the distance between the axes of the rollers 1 and 2 is preferably about 2.5 times that of the roller 1 and 2, and the diameter of the roller is preferably about twice that of the roller 1 and 2.

The shafts 3 and 4 of the rollers 1 and 2 are provided with spur gears (not shown) having the same number of teeth that mesh with each other, so that the rollers rotate in opposite directions at the same speed as indicated by the arrows in the figure.

Also, on the seedling transport side of the rollers 1 and 2, there are shafts 3 and 4 adjacent to each other.
A pair of shafts 9 and 10 are arranged at approximately the same interval as the shafts 3 and 4, and on the extension of these shafts, a pair of shafts 13 and 14 are arranged at the same interval as the shafts 9 and 10, and are respectively provided upright on the separation mechanism frame 54. The shafts 9 and 10 and 13 and 14 are respectively provided with pulleys 11 and 12 and
Belts 5 and 7 are wound between the pulleys 11 and 12 and between the pulleys 15 and 16, respectively.

The belts 5 and 7 are covered with an elastic material such as a sponge, and are driven to rotate by one of the pulleys 15 and 16, for example.
The other shafts 13 and 14 are fitted with spur gears (not shown) having the same number of teeth that mesh with each other, and rotate in opposite directions at the same peripheral speed, which is set to rotate at a speed that is, for example, about 30% faster than the peripheral speed of rollers 1 and 2.

The rollers 1 and 2 are adapted to move alternately forward and backward in a direction parallel to the seedling feeding direction of the second moving mechanism without changing the distance between the shafts 3 and 4 due to the action of a link mechanism described later, and the movement distance is set to the feed pitch of one row of aligned seedlings 40, i.e., a distance slightly smaller than the diameter of the paper tube seedlings 41. Therefore, the rotating shafts 3 and 4 are erected on the separation mechanism frame 54 so that they can slide through long grooves 3a and 4a provided on the frame 54.

As shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the mechanism for moving the rollers 1 and 2 forward and backward is provided with a T-shaped link 72 on the shafts 3 and 4.
is fitted into the link 72, and this link 72 is rotatably supported by a pin 75 protruding from the separation mechanism frame 54.

Also, the reference numerals 81 and 82 shown in the figure are support frames whose one ends are pivotally supported on the shafts 3 and 4, respectively, and whose other ends extend parallel to the machine frame 51. The other ends of these support frames are connected via pins 78 and 79 to L-shaped links 73 and 74, which will be described later, respectively.

In addition, as a member related to the above link mechanism, the illustrated 71
is a rod provided on the inner frame 53, positioned below the first movement mechanism frame 21, and extending in the movement direction thereof.

Both ends of the rod 71 are raised to a height that allows them to abut against the side ends of the first moving mechanism 21, forming engaging portions 71a, and the distance between these engaging portions 71a is set to be slightly narrower than the moving distance of the first moving mechanism frame 21.
A pin 71b is provided in the center of the link 71, that is, at a position opposite to the support pin 75 of the L-shaped link 72.

On the rods to the left and right of the pin 71b, there are L
At positions facing the support pins 77 and 78 of the shaped links 73 and 74,
Pins 71c and 71d are protruding from the respective pins.
Links 1c and 71d are fitted into elongated holes provided at the tip ends of the links 72, 73 and 74, respectively.

Furthermore, the reference numerals 17 and 18 shown in the figure are seedling row regulators, which are respectively attached to the support frames 83... which are erected on the support frames 81 and 82, and each regulator 17 and 18 is located at the height between the upper and lower rollers 1, 1', 2, 2' provided on the shafts 3 and 4, respectively, that is, at the height where it abuts against the aligned seedling row 40, and is formed to extend parallel to the seedling row.
synchronizes with the movement of the rollers 1 and 2, which move back and forth, and moves back and forth alternately by the same distance as the rollers.

The first moving mechanism frame 21, which is provided with the above-described moving mechanism and moves laterally on the shafts 23 and 24, comes into contact with the engaging portion 71a of the rod 71 when it reaches the end of its movement, pushing it away and moving the rod 71 slightly in the moving direction.
Links 72, which engage with pins 71b, 71c, and 71d via slots, respectively.
The links 73 and 74 rotate by a predetermined angle with the support pins 75, 76 and 77 as fulcrums, thereby moving the shafts 3 and 4 engaged with the link 72 and the support frames 81 and 82 engaged with the links 73 and 74 back and forth relative to each other.

That is, as shown in Fig. 4, when the first moving mechanism frame 21 moves leftward and reaches its limit, the shaft 3 and seedling regulator 18 move forward. When the first moving mechanism frame 21 moves rightward as shown in Fig. 5, the shaft 3 and seedling regulator 17 move forward, and the shaft 4 and seedling regulator 18 move backward.

At the same time, at the end of the movement, the cam 28 on the end of the shaft 24 engages with the cam receiver 34 provided on the end of the pulley shaft 32, causing it to rotate, and moving the belt 31 stretched around the pulley shaft 32 in the vertical direction.

Explaining the operation of the separating device configured as above, for example, when the first moving mechanism frame 21 is at the leftmost position (corresponding to the state shown in FIG. 4) as shown in FIG. 6, the aligned seedlings 40 placed on the belt 31 of the second moving mechanism 30 are sent out to a position where the front seedlings 40a contact the seedling regulator 17 in the retracted position, and the roller 1, also in the retracted position, abuts against the tip of the front seedling 40a. Furthermore, the roller 2 and the seedling regulator 18, in the forward position, are positioned close to the second seedlings 40b of the aligned seedlings 40.

As the first moving mechanism frame 21 moves to the right, rollers 1 and 2
rotates in the direction of the arrow by the shafts 3 and 4,
It rotates at a peripheral speed faster than the seedling moving speed of the moving mechanism frame 21.

Therefore, the seedlings at the tip of the front row seedlings 40a that come into contact with the roller 1 are peeled off from the adjacent seedlings, or seedlings that remain partially connected are further sandwiched between the roller 1 and the row of seedlings in the second row 40b and rolled until they are completely peeled off. The peeled seedlings 41 roll and are held between the rollers 1 and 2, and enter the subsequent conveyor belt mechanisms 5 and 6 for further transport. In the same manner, the front row seedlings 40a are sequentially and individually separated as the first moving mechanism frame 21 moves.

When the frame 21 reaches the right end of its travel, the link mechanism is actuated to move the rollers 1 and 2 back and forth, changing their front-to-back positions, and the cam mechanisms 28, 34 mounted on the shaft 24 are actuated to move the belt 31, thereby vertically feeding out one row of aligned seedlings 40. In other words, the second row seedlings 40b become the front row seedlings, and as the first moving mechanism frame 21 moves leftward, the seedlings are separated as shown in Figure 7.

As described above, in the present invention, aligned seedlings are used, which are made by lining up a large number of individual tubular seedlings, such as paper tube seedlings, with adjacent seedlings joined in a separable manner. These are placed on a seedling moving mechanism that can move both vertically and horizontally and are fed out in an aligned state. By abutting a separation roller against the front row of seedlings, the seedlings can be reliably and effortlessly separated one by one from the tip and transported smoothly to the subsequent transplanting mechanism, which dramatically improves the efficiency of transplanting work in this seed transplanting cultivation.
In the above examples, the seedlings were arranged in paper tube seedling containers, but seedlings made of inorganic fibers or polymer compounds that make up the seedling container themselves can also be used as tubular seedlings, and in any case, as long as the seedlings are connected in a manner that allows them to be separated, they can be used as the arranged seedlings that are the subject of this invention.

Claims (2)

[Claims] [Claim 1] A seedling separation device comprising: a first seedling moving mechanism that carries aligned seedlings, each of which is made of tubular seedlings such as paper tubes that can be separably connected to each other and arranged in multiple rows, and that moves back and forth in one direction; a second seedling moving mechanism that is provided on the first seedling moving mechanism and that moves intermittently at the moving end of the mechanism in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the first seedling moving mechanism, and that feeds out only one row of aligned seedlings; and a pair of separation rollers that are located in front of the moving direction of the second seedling moving mechanism and abut against the front row of aligned seedlings that are fed out. [Claim 2] A seedling separation device comprising: a first seedling moving mechanism that carries aligned seedlings, each of which is detachably connected to another in a paper tube or other cylindrical shape and arranged in multiple rows, and that moves back and forth in one direction; a second seedling moving mechanism that is mounted on the first seedling moving mechanism and that moves intermittently at the end of its movement in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the first seedling moving mechanism, and feeds out one row of aligned seedlings; and a pair of separation rollers that are located in front of the second seedling moving mechanism in the direction of movement and abut against the front row of aligned seedlings being fed out, the pair of separation rollers moving back and forth alternately at the end of the movement of the first seedling moving mechanism, one of which abuts against the front row of aligned seedlings, and the other of which moves to a position close to the subsequent row of seedlings, and separates the aligned seedlings from the front row into individual seedlings.