The present invention relates to irrigation devices in general and more particularly, to a reel device for winding on an irrigation pipe.
Irrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil and is widely used at fields, gardens or elsewhere. Since firstly employed by the mankind, as far back as the 6th millennium BCE in Mesopotamia and Egypt, many different techniques and elaborations were explored. Among the challenges of the irrigation remain: delivering the water effectively to the roots of the plants or to the roots' area as well as reducing water waste caused by evaporation and winds. Therefore, drip irrigation, also known as trickle irrigation or micro-irrigation, is one of the leading trends at the irrigation technologies. Effectively addressing both of the aforementioned challenges, drip irrigation has one significant drawback; it requires prior deployment of dripper irrigation line—irrigation tubing with emitters or drippers installed. The present invention presents a device that strives to simplify the task of dripper irrigation line deployment, provides for more customizable coverage of an irrigated area, and facilitates reversible installation, uninstallation and storage of the dripper irrigation line.
There are provided in accordance with embodiments of the present invention a reel device for winding on an irrigation pipe, a method of using the same, and a system in which the reel device is implemented.
The device, in accordance with the present invention, includes: a structural framework, a rotational pivot, one or more reel sub-units coaxially revolving around the rotational pivot and preferably co-rotational, and a swivel conduit connector. The system in accordance with the present invention further includes an inlet and a dripper irrigation line.
The present invention will be understood and appreciated more fully from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the appended drawings, in which:
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present invention. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.
Illustrative embodiments of the invention are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific ecisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
Reference is now made to
Structural framework 16 on which rotational pivot 14 is mounted, keeps the reels at a certain distance from the ground.
Reference is now made to
Reference is now made to
Reference is now made to
Disposed coaxially with the pivot is manifold 31 which distributes the stream of water incoming from inlet 32 to a plurality of outlets 33. Swivel conduit connector 32, which is the inlet of double-reel device 10, is connected to inlet 34 of irrigation system 30 by means of a pipe, typically a garden hose, indicated by dashed line 36, and may be optionally furnished with a tap.
Terminal ends of continuous dripper irrigation line 37 are connected to outlets 33. Dripper irrigation line 37 is furnished with a plurality of dripper nozzles (not shown) or alternatively simply pierced, providing for applying the water to the roots of plants, by dripping water droplets 38 onto the soil surface or directly to the root zone.
Reference is now made to
Reference is now made to
In light of the above, it should be stressed that the device where shown as a double-reel is for demonstration proposal only, and a single-reel and/or multi-reel devices are equivalently applicable.
The dripper irrigation line can be one of the lines known in the art and manufactured in industry, inter alia any kind of a drip irrigation line furnished with plurality of dripper nozzles or sprinklers, in which water is emitted at spaced points, or a porous drip irrigation tubing that allows water to seep out along the entire length of the tube, such as the “Conduit 100′ Drip Tubing [Catalogue Number (SHD+C-100)]” available form Irrigro USA-LPO Box 163, 175 Reference is now made to
It should be acknowledged the double-reel device illustrated in
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited by what has been particularly shown and described herein above and that numerous modifications, all of which fall within the scope of the present invention, exist. Rather the scope of the invention is defined by the claims which follow:
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/IL08/01012 | 7/22/2008 | WO | 00 | 5/26/2010 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60952599 | Jul 2007 | US |