The present invention is directed to a berry harvester and in particular to a berry harvester that provides flexible cushioned elements and surfaces to limit bruising of the fruit harvested.
Berry harvesters such as mechanical blueberry harvesters are widely used for harvesting berries. Such harvesters are widely successful for harvesting berries for the processed market in which berries may be frozen or processed into other forms and used in other fruit products other than fresh berries.
Blueberries that are sold directly to the public as whole, fresh berries may be manually harvested. Although such harvesting protects the fruit and limits damage such as bruising or squashed berries, the process is highly labor intensive and expensive. Moreover, there may be problems with finding sufficient labor to harvest all of the fruit through a short window of time when the fruit is sufficiently ripe and before the fruit is too ripe.
It would generally be desirable to be able to consistently harvest fresh market quality berries with mechanical harvesters. As over half of the world's production of blueberries is non-processed and sold through fresh markets, there is ample demand for greater harvesting capacity of such fruit. Although mechanical harvesters have a much higher capacity and can harvest much faster than manual harvesting, they suffer from several problems that has limited their use for non-processed fresh market fruit. Mechanical harvesters may tend to bruise the fruit when the fruit is picked from the plant and transported to a storage container such as a lug or flat. At each time when a berry is dropped on a hard surface, macro bruising and micro bruising occurs. Although such bruising does not affect the quality of the processed berries, if the berries are harvested for the fresh market, such bruising can cause mold and fruit softening over a period of a few weeks. It can be appreciated that for berries that are harvested in South America for example and transported by ship to a market in North America, such a delay before arriving at market may occur. Therefore, mechanically harvested fruit has generally been considered to be inferior to the manually harvested fruit and has not been accepted as a fresh market quality product.
However, if the damage from being dropped were minimized or eliminated, mechanically harvested fruit would be acceptable as a fresh market quality product. Studies have indicated that fruit dropped on a hard surface covered with a foam substrate minimizes bruising, but if dropped more than 30-40 cm, bruising will still occur. However, if blueberries are dropped on a soft, padded surface or on a sheet that is not supported on the back side to allow flexing, such as with a trampoline type configuration, fruit dropped at over 1 meter is considered to be equivalent to manually harvested fruit. It can be appreciated that there are several areas in a mechanical fruit harvester that in which a drop occurs and which may be damaged. In particular, this may occur as the fruit is removed from the plants. To overcome such damage and eliminate hard surfaces, a system has been developed as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 9,750,188 to provide a soft surface. It can be appreciated that the catch plates in this system are constructed in a manner than may still cause damage to the fruit as the fruit must roll off the catcher soft surface and an edge created by the upper hoop tends to slice the fruit.
It can therefore be seen that a system and method for mechanically harvesting fruit such as blueberries are needed that eliminates macro and micro bruising due to dropping. Such a system should provide for surfaces that are flexible and cushioned and/or flex and eliminate hard surfaces that may cause bruising when berries are dropped on them. Moreover, such elements should eliminate a lip that may slice the fruit and should also have structural integrity and be lightweight and easy to replace should damage occur. The present invention addresses these as well as other problems associated with mechanical berry harvesters.
The present invention is directed to a berry harvester having a fruit catching and transport system that has soft surfaces that lessen impact and damage to fruit. Over the row berry harvesters have a chassis that defines a picking tunnel through which plants pass as the harvester moves along a row of plants, such as blueberry bushes. The harvester includes a picking assembly, such as rotary picking heads having orbital shaking picking battens or other systems that engage the branches and dislodge fruit. It has been found that such agitation/engagement with the plants is effective in removing ripe berries. It can be appreciated however that the present invention is also adaptable to harvesters with other types of picking systems such as rotary picking heads with horizontally shaking picking battens, vertical shaking picking batten, or sway shaker systems that engage the plant canopy and shake the plant. The picking assembly of over the row harvesters is generally configured with the picking heads opposed on either side of the picking tunnel. As the harvester advances along the row of plants, the plants pass through the tunnel and are engaged by the picking assembly.
The fruit removed by the picking assembly falls onto a catching system. The catching system includes overlapping catching elements on either side of the picking tunnel. The catching elements are generally configured as catch plates that pivotally mount and are biased towards an extended position. However, the rotational mounting allows the plates to rotate or pivot backwards and around the canes or shoots of the berry bushes as the harvester advances. The catch plate generally pivots out of the way when engaging the crown, a collection of canes or shots of the plants and then is biased backward to an overlapping position. Moreover, the plates extend inward from a lower portion at each side of the picking tunnel and are also angled slightly upward toward the center to form a peak where the plates from each side overlap in the center of the tunnel. In this manner, fruit that falls under the catch plates rolls outward in the tunnel onto conveyors. The conveyors then transport the fruit to the filling station and may include additional conveyors or fans and/or a cleaning station to remove debris away from the harvested berries.
The picking tunnel includes surfaces that are composed of a soft padded material such as neoprene. The flexible cushioned surfaces therefore provide a soft engagement surface for fruit that is strewn against the surfaces. The soft neoprene surfaces reduce the impact from the fruit engaging the surfaces and therefore reduce bruising of the fruit.
It can also be appreciated that in addition to the hardness of the surface engaged by the dislodged fruit, the angle of impact may also lessen the force from the fruit striking surfaces. The lower portion of the picking tunnel may include angled receiving devices. The angled surface devices include a first upper sloped surface and/or second sloped surface. The upper surfaces and are made of a flexible trampoline type element having material that is stretched across rollers. The rollers are adjustable to tighten or loosen the upper surface layer and therefore adjust the elasticity of the surfaces. Moreover, an adjustment assembly provides for changing the slope of the upper angled surfaces and to optimize the receiving position of the surfaces and to minimize damage to the fruit.
It can further be appreciated that the catch plates for the catching system also may include surfaces that lessen the impact and therefore the damage to the fruit. A first embodiment of the catch plate includes a frame and a sheet stretched across the frame. The frame defines central openings and connects to a mounting portion that provides for rotation or pivoting. It can be appreciated that the upper surface of the catching element is slightly off from perpendicular to the axis of the mounting portion so that the catching elements form sloped surfaces that facilitate fruit rolling onto the conveyors. Moreover, the catching elements are configured so that they may slightly nest and overlap one another, both along the center line and from front to rear over adjacent catching elements. The sheet is attached by mounting elements such as screws, hooks or snaps. The center openings allow the material to flex slightly in a trampoline type manner to provide elasticity so the sheet flexes when struck by falling fruit. With such a mounting arrangement, the sheet is stretched so that there is resiliency, but also sufficient tautness to allow fruit to roll off the catching element while at the same time providing a cushioning effect by flexing or stretching from the fruit falling to lessen the impact. It can be appreciated that the shape may be varied somewhat as long as the upper surface lessens the damage from impact and provides overlap while directing fruit to roll toward the conveyors.
It can be appreciated that a flexible trampoline type catching sheet may take on multiple different configurations of a frame and a sheet stretched across the frame. The frame may have a different profile with a center opening or multiple openings and a ring at the edges of the sheet with a clamping configuration. The sheet may be mounted so as to be replaceable should it tear or be ruined. However, the configuration should be devoid of edges or other structures that may cut or squash the fruit.
These features of novelty and various other advantages that characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and forming a part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, its advantages, and the objects obtained by its use, reference should be made to the drawings that form a further part hereof, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there is illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention.
Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference letters and numerals indicate corresponding structure throughout the several views:
Referring now to the drawings and in particular to
The harvester (100) includes ladders (132) to access various areas on the machine. Racks (134) provide for storing containers to be filled with berries. Decks (120) are typically at the rear of the machine and provide an area for workers to fill containers at a filling station (122) at each side of the harvester (100). The decks (120) may fold or include portions that fold to decrease the width of the harvester (100) for transport or storage.
In the embodiment shown, the harvester includes a picking assembly (106) with rotary picking heads (116) having orbital shaking picking battens. The battens project radially and extend into the plants to agitate the berry bushes as well as rotating and moving in an orbital type motion. It has been found that such agitation/engagement with the plants is effective in removing ripe berries. It can be appreciated however that the present invention is also adaptable to harvesters with other types of picking systems such as rotary picking heads with horizontal shaking battens or sway shakers. The picking assembly (106) is generally configured with the rotary picking heads opposed on either side of the picking tunnel (108). As the harvester (100) advances along the row of plants, the plants pass through and along the tunnel (108) and are engaged by the picking assembly (106) to remove the ripe berries.
Forward of the picking tunnel (108), low profile nose cones (140) provide a transitional surface to help to guide the fruiting canes or branches into the harvester tunnel (108). Moreover, cane lifters (142) aid in positioning lower branches of plants and lift them to be engaged by the orbital picking heads (116) for more efficient plant engagement. The fruit removed by the picking assembly (106) falls onto a catching system (110). As shown, for example in
As shown most clearly in
In addition to the hardness of the surface engaged by the fruit, creating an oblique angle at impact may also lessen the force from the fruit striking surfaces. As shown, for example, in
It can further be appreciated that the catch plate assemblies (1000) for the catching system (110) also may include upper surfaces that lessen the impact and therefore the damage to the fruit. As shown in
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It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62642460 | Mar 2018 | US |