Harvester

[0001] The invention relates to harvesting vegetable crops, in particular heads and flowers of plants from the brassica family, for example broccoli.

[0002] Harvesting heads of plants from the brassica family poses special problems because the head is naturally surrounded by a bunch of dense foliage. Earlier attempts to construct mechanical harvesters for these crops, especially broccoli, were unsuccessful due to the difficulty in separating the heads from the significant amount of foliage that occurs when the plant stem is cut close to the ground. Because of these difficulties, broccoli is still harvested by hand and is still more effective than mechanical methods involving the processing of substantial amounts of unnecessary foliage.

[0003] EP 1284105 discloses a method of removing a cabbage deep comprising the introduction of cutting elements and removing the depth being cut off by cutting elements, in which the cabbage together with the root system is lifted to the first position determined by the root system, the cabbage is immobilized by the gripping elements in the second position, the root system is removed is in the third position, and the depth is removed from the cabbage in the fourth position.

[0004] According to the invention, a cruciferous shearer is provided that moves along the row of plants and includes elements hooking the plant to align the plant in a generally vertical position to break, elements for cutting the plant stem near the head, and transport elements for removing foliage from the zone plant heads for separating the plant heads before cutting off the stalk and moving the head after cutting to the unloading zone.

[0005] In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the transport elements comprise opposing conveyor fingers moving gradually between the open and closed positions, where in the open position in which the fingertips are spread apart, the fingers move along the track to engage the foliage near the plant head and move the foliage away from head zones, and in the closed position the fingers engage below the head to transfer the head after cutting into the unloading zone.

Preferably, the fingers form an endless transport conveyor driven in synchronization with the movement of the combine along the row of plants, in which the displacement of foliage and retention of the severed head takes place along the bottom conveyor trough. The opposing fingers are mounted for a rotational movement between their open and closed positions, and the fingers are in the shape of an arch, thanks to which, when the fingers are in the closed position, the part of the conveyor defined by these fingers has a substantially cylindrical form in which the cut off heads of the plant are held and transported to the unloading area.

[0007] In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the bottom conveyor trough bends upward from the elements leveling the plant and cutting elements to the unloading zone.

[0008] Preferably, the leveling elements comprise a pair of leveling wheels driven for rotation about a vertical axis, where the wheels are laterally extended, defining a tapered transition for placing the plant in a vertical position, the cutting elements are adjacent to the wheels for cutting the plant stem aligned by the wheels. Preferably the cutting elements are a rotary knife.

[0009] Preferably, the alignment wheels move sideways against each other, allowing self-adjustment to adapt to different thicknesses of plant stems.

[0010] In the unloading zone, the fingers move to their open position, allowing the cut off heads from the conveyor to fall onto the unloading device, such as the unloading conveyor. Since the transfer of part of the foliage with cut off plant heads is unavoidable, elements are provided in the unloading zone for separating this foliage from the cut off plant heads. Preferably, these elements comprise a leaf blower which is lighter than the cut off plant heads from the unloading conveyor.

[0011] In one practical embodiment of the invention, the combine is configured to harvest the entire crop in a single pass along the row of crops, and thus non-selectively. In an alternative form, however, the combine can be configured to collect crops selectively along the row of crops depending on the maturity of individual plants. In this form, the harvester contains a sensor system for determining the mature axis of individual heads of cultivated plants, so that when a given head of cultivated plants is considered insufficiently ripe to break, the plant is skipped and left in the ground to break in the next phase after reaching maturity. Skipping the immature plant is achieved by keeping the appropriate conveyor fingers open as they pass the plant, and putting the cutting elements inactive by moving them away from the plant. Assessment of maturity / immaturity of the plant can be achieved using a camera system combined with software to distinguish between images of mature and immature crop heads.

[0012] The embodiment of the invention will now be described for illustrative purposes only with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings in which:

Fig. 1A is a schematic perspective view of the overall combine configuration;

Fig. 1B is a plan view of the combine with one part of the protective structure and the other structure of Fig. 1A removed to better illustrate the structure of the combine;

Fig. 2 is an elevational view;

Fig. 3 is a front view;

Fig. 4 is a rear view;

Fig. 5 schematically shows a segment of an endless transport conveyor;

- Figures 6 to 10 show very schematically how the fingers of the transport conveyor move the leaves away from the plant head zone before the cut off and hooking of the cut off plant head by the fingers; and

Fig. 11 schematically shows a system enabling selective harvesting depending on the maturity of individual plants.

[0013] A preferred embodiment of the invention relates to a harvester for harvesting broccoli growing in parallel rows along a flower bed, usually two or three rows. The components for harvesting from one row will be described in detail, but it should be noted that these components are duplicated in the combine for each row. The particular harvester presented in the diagrams is configured to harvest crops simultaneously from three rows.

[0014] The general configuration of the combine is shown in Fig. 1A, and more detailed in Fig. 1B, which will mainly be described with reference to this figure and subsequent figures. It should be noted that for the clarity of the illustration, some of the features shown in Fig. 1A are omitted in Fig. 1B, but they are not critical to a proper understanding of the invention.

[0015] The combine includes a main frame 2 having wheels 4 (see Fig. 1B) which hook to the soil from both sides of the cultivating bed. The frame 2 is supported on wheels 4 by a hydraulic suspension system that allows the height of the frame 2 to be adjusted relative to the crop bed, which is usually raised relative to the ground. The combine is constructed for towing by a power source, such as a tractor, and the driven components of the combine are preferably driven by hydraulic motors fed by a hydraulic pump driven by the tractor PTO. The electrical components in the combine can be supplied from the tractor's electrical system.

[0016] For each row from which the crop is harvested, the main elements consist of a pair of front wheels leveling the plant 6, 8, each of which rotates around a vertical axis and thus in a horizontal plane. The wheels 6, 8 are arranged relatively close to the surface of the bed and are laterally spaced apart such that the adjacent periphery of the two wheels define a passage 10 which narrows significantly from the front end of the two wheels to a narrowing between the two wheels. The general conditions for growing broccoli often cause the plant stems to grow at an angle a, because the plants enter the transition 10 between two wheels 6, 8 and pass through the transition (as a result of the combine moving along the cultivation bed), wheels 6, 8 straighten the stems to an approximate vertical position and also ensure that the stems are located approximately on the central longitudinal axis between the two wheels 6, 8. Each of the wheels 6, 8 moves laterally, against spring bias, between an inner position in which adjacent parts of the circumference of wheels 6, 8 in the narrowest part of the constriction are spaced apart approximately to the stems with the smallest diameter that can be found, but , if stalks with a larger diameter are encountered, the wheels 6, 8 are moved away from each other, against spring deflection and allowing these stalks to pass without creating blockages.

[0017] The rotary knife 12 in the form of a toothed cutting disc is attached to the supporting structure of one of the wheels 6, 8. The rotary knife 12 is attached for rotation about a vertical axis offset towards the rear of the axis of the relevant wheel such that the knife lies in a plane above the plane wheels. Knife 12 has a diameter considerably larger than the diameter of the associated wheel, and its front cutting edge extends through the central longitudinal axis beyond the narrowing of the two wheels, allowing the plant stem to be cut off while the plant head is held down, which will be described in more detail below; it is understood that the diameter of the knife 12 is such that it extends through the central longitudinal axis, even in the laterally outer portion of the two wheels 6, 8, if the wheels are further apart from each other by larger diameter stems.

[0018] A significant aspect of the combine is to provide elements for moving most leaves away from the head zone and for embracing the heads so that when the plant stem is cut off by the rotary knife 12, the head with only a relatively small amount of foliage is removed from the cutting zone for further separation and unloading .

[0019] In the embodiment shown, this is achieved by an endless conveyor 20, generally formed by two opposing rows of bent fingers 22, 24, which rotate about an axis in a controlled manner between an outer or open position in which the outer ends of the opposing fingers are spaced apart, and an internal or closed position in which the outer ends of the opposing fingers are adjacent to define a substantially cylindrical shape, closed configuration. As will be described in more detail below, the movement of the fingers from their open to closed position moves the foliage and surrounds the head. After cutting off the stalk of the surrounded head, the severed head is saved and transported for unloading from the rear of the combine, and the fingers return to their open position. The conveyor segment is schematically shown in Fig. 5. In a preferred embodiment, the endless conveyor is essentially as described in Australian Patent No. AU 740393. However, it will now be described how rows of adjacent fingers move between their open and closed configurations.

[0020] The working part of the conveyor 20 is in its lower trough. The alignment wheels 6, 8 and the rotary knife 12 are located in front of the bottom conveyor trough. At its front end, the conveyor passes around a large diameter wheel 30 and at the rear end around a smaller diameter wheel 32, which is adjacent to the rear of the combine and which is raised relative to the front wheel 30. Accordingly, the main linear section of the lower trough of the conveyor 20 rises gradually from the front end of the combine to its rear end. When the fingers 22, 24 move along the lower perimeter of the large wheel 30 at the front end of the conveyor, they move along the falling track towards the leveling wheels 6, 8 and the rotary knife 12. By cutting this falling track, the fingers 22, 24 move from their open to closed position, although they do not reach their completely closed position until they are at the back of the cutting edge of the knife 12, and thus before cutting off the stem. Such a falling movement of the fingers 22, 24, when the fingers are still open (but moving towards their closed position), causes

- pushing downwards through the fingers of the foliage adjacent to the plant head and introducing the plant head inside the conveyor between the open fingers. Until the stalk engages with the rotary knife 12, the head is inside the conveyor, and most of the surrounding foliage is pushed out of the conveyor through falling and closing fingers. Although part of the foliage will enter the interior of the conveyor along with the plant head, this is not a substantial amount and can easily be separated from the cut off plant heads in the unloading part of the conveyor, which will be described later. After cutting the stems, which takes place very close to the bottom of the lower conveyor trough 20 and therefore the lower edges of the fingers 22, 24, the fingers are completely closed to keep the cut heads for transport to the rear end of the combine for unloading and crop separation.

[0021] The actions of the fingers pressing the leaves around the head of the plant and surrounding the head of the plant are very schematically illustrated in Figs. 6 to 10, which show (each in a vertical, front and side view) of the subsequent phases of the above described sections. It should be understood that although in the side views of Fig. from 6 to 10 for simplicity of illustration only one set of fingers 24 is shown, in fact the sets of fingers are located in the conveyor at close intervals in succession, as will be seen from the example of the segment illustrated in Fig. 5 and Fig. 1B.

[0022] The speed of the crop leveling wheels 6, 8 and the conveyor 20 is synchronized with the speed of the combine on the ground to ensure synchronized operation using appropriate sensors that detect the speed of the combine along the ground and the rotation of the shafts carrying the wheels 4.

[0023] As mentioned, in a preferred embodiment, the endless conveyor 20 is essentially as described in Australian Patent No. AU 740393. This patent illustrates how opposing finger sets are axially attached to internally connected blocks on the inside of the conveyor. This patent also describes how the fingers interact with fixed controls or a cam track positioned along the conveyor path to cause a controlled movement between their open and closed position, and how opposing fingers are connected, e.g., a gear connection, for simultaneous movement.

[0024] In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the cam tracks are arranged to induce the movement of the fingers 22, 24 towards their closed position when they pass around the bottom of the large front wheel 30. When the lower conveyor trough 20 reaches the smaller wheel 32 at the rear end of the conveyor, the tracks the cams re-open the fingers 22, 24, enabling unloaded cut heads onto the transverse conveyor belt 34 to unload from the combine.

[0025] At the unloading end of the lower conveyor trough 20 to allow the heads to be separated from the cut off foliage that has been transported in the closed conveyor, a strong blower 36 is placed which blows the leaves along the trajectory through transverse conveyor 34 and above it, causing it to fall behind the combine. Cut off heads of plants, which are much heavier than foliage, will fall directly on

- 6 cross conveyor 34 and will not be affected by the blower, and to stop the rolling of larger heads from the rear edge of transverse conveyor 34 and to the ground a bumper rail 38 is provided. Cut off heads of plants are transferred by a cross conveyor to the "receiving" table, where the inspection to remove any defective products and residues, and the product is then fed into large containers carried outside the combine.

[0026] It should be noted that since the plant stems are not cut very close to the ground, after cutting them a sufficient part of the plant remains in the ground that can grow for forage or be used for soil mulching.

[0027] In the particular harvester shown in the drawings and constructed for harvesting crops from three rows of crops, it can be seen in Fig. 2 that the cross conveyor 34 receives the crop from three endless transport conveyors 20. This figure also shows that the crop leveling wheels 6 , 8 and the rotary knife 12 for the middle row are shifted backwards of these elements for the two outer rows. This backward shift is due to the need to match the components at a fixed lateral spacing corresponding to the row spacing, but has no effect on performance. In practice, it may also be beneficial to move the front wheel 30 of the middle conveyor 20 towards the rear of these elements of the two outer conveyors, taking into account the rearward shift of the respective crop leveling wheels and the knife.

[0028] Although in the described embodiment the movement of the conveyor fingers 20 between their open and closed positions is controlled by fixed cam paths, alternatively the movement can be controlled by selectively operated servomotors that control the movement of individual segments of the cam path between inactive positions in which the conveyor fingers they remain open and the active positions in which they close the fingers on the plant as described above. In this way, the combine can be configured to selectively harvest crops according to their maturity. Especially cameras mounted near the ground level can take pictures of the heads of cultivated plants, and the appropriate software is used to identify and distinguish between mature and immature heads. Identifying a mature head indicating that the head is intended for harvesting will close the appropriate conveyor fingers on the plant as described for harvesting. On the other hand, a reaction indicating that the head is not ripe enough to break will cause the corresponding fingers to remain open and the rotary knife 12 will also hide, bypassing the plant in the harvesting process and leaving it intact for further growth and the next harvest. The selective harvesting system is schematically illustrated in Fig. 11 and includes a crop camera 40, an image sensor 42, actuators 44a-44f controlled in response to the sensor 42 and cam track segments 46a-46f moved by the actuators; the cam track segments are shown very schematically, and in practice they differ in length and configuration according to the cross section of the conveyor 20 with which they are associated.

[0029] Although the invention has been specifically described in relation to harvesting broccoli, a combine harvester constructed according to the general principles described above is suitable for harvesting other brassica plants, for example cauliflower. It is understood, however, that for such use, the conveyor fingers must have a larger diameter than those required for a broccoli harvester to handle larger heads of cultivated plants found in the case of cauliflowers.

[0030] The embodiment has been described for illustrative purposes only and modifications are available within the scope of the appended claims. For example, alternatively endless drive belts hooking the plant stems could affect the alignment of the plant stems for cutting. In addition, the detailed design of the transport conveyor may differ from that shown.

Dorota Rzążewska Patent attorney