Computer operated automatic seedling plant transplanting machine
US4947579A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 19, 1988 |
| Grant date | Aug 14, 1990 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 19, 2008 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10S47/901
- WIPO fieldOther special machines
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
An automatic transplanter utilizes relatively simple mechanical structure to so securely engage the root-bound plug of a seedling that the plug and seedling may be rapidly (a) lifted out of its small germination compartment, (b) horizontally transported to correct vertical register with its newly assigned soil-filled and dibbled larger compartment, and (c) accurately positioned in and discharged into the dibbled cavity. An illustrative relatively short two-second cycle is described wherein plural seedlings are thus concurrently transplanted, for each such cycle, from individual small compartments on a first periodically advanced conveyor of a two-dimensional array of germinated seedlings to correct individual larger compartments on a second conveyor that is also periodically advanced, but at a recurrence rate and incremental advance which differ from that of the first conveyor. All operations, including those involved in a multiple-plant pick-up, transport, and discharge, as well as dibbling, conveyor-advance increments and timing, and even automatic tagging of individual transplanted pottings, are under suitably programmed PC-computer control, and provision is made for such flexib…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.