The present invention relates to dual-purpose equipment and methods for both dry trimming female cannabis seedless flower buds of leafy matter, and for kief separation of the resulting trim. And more specifically to those that employ ½″ and ¼″ netting formed into cylindrical tumbler drums turned on a horizontal axle to gently separate and delicately trim the female cannabis seedless flower buds of leaf matter with minimal damage and/or loss of trichomes and crystals. And using fine screens in place of the netting to isolate trichomes and crystals from leafy trim.
Cannabis plants can be male, female, or hermaphrodite. But it's the seedless flowers of the female (sinsemilla) that are the most prized because they have the highest concentrations of cannabinoid. These seedless flowers or buds are rather easy to separate from the larger leaves and stems, but the buds themselves are infiltrated with protruding leaf matter that needs careful “trimming” so as not to break off or lose crystals and trichomes embedded in the buds.
Such trimming can be easily and carefully done by hand for low volumes. But commercial production requires automated methods. Conventional equipment has employed metal blades and rotating scissors disks that loosely resemble electric hair trimmers. Such traditional equipment can be very harsh on the buds themselves and make a mess of the final product. These blades also need lubricating and these lubricants can contaminate the final products.
Conventional trimmers use metal blades that need regular lubrication with oil, and therefore regular cleaning and maintenance. The blade lubrication oil eventually winds up in the product and can become toxic when smoked or ingested. Embodiments of the present invention do not use blades, and do not require lubrication of any part that comes into contact with the cannabis being processed, no any maintenance associated with such cleaning.
Kief, which is the resinous trichomes of cannabis, are fine outgrowths on the plants that protect and promote the genetic material in a plant's seeds in many different ways. Cannabis and other plants that depend on the wind to carry their pollens do not emit terpenes, flavonoids, and other odors that encourage pollination by attracting bees and other insects. Some odors actually will attract predators so that herbivores will stay away and not graze. Some trichomes have developed psychoactive chemicals that will intoxicate herbivores or make them ill. These pharmacological effects will distract herbivores enough not to eat the plant. Other trichomes build physical barriers, like cotton fibers, that make it difficult for beetles and other pests to get to the seeds.
Each plant's limited resources can be safely diverted away from making the odorous and/or psychoactive compounds once its seeds begin to form. The plants no longer need to encourage or defend pollination, and instead divert resources to nurture seed formation. This is why seedless cannabis flowers are highly valued. Historically, the cannabinoid concentration in cultivated plants averaged between 1%-5%. But once it was recognized that preventing pollination will naturally increase cannabinoid concentrations, 12%-16% is now routine. Such plants labeled as sinsemilla are the seedless females of cannabis.
Different mesh sizes of silkscreen are used for different applications in screen printing. Mesh size is measured by how many threads of mesh there are crossing per square inch. For instance, a 110-mesh screen has 110 cross-threads per inch. The higher the mesh count, the finer the holes will be in the screen, generally speaking.
Printing silkscreen has been found to be a very useful kief filtering material that will pass through trichomes and their high concentrations of cannabinoid.
Briefly, both floor-standing equipment and method embodiments of the present invention trim leafy matter off the seedless flowers of female cannabis plants by tumbling them around in a continuous curling wave that knocks the flowers together and that grates them along a nylon netting. The netting is formed into large cylindrical drum into which dried seedless flowers of female cannabis plants are loaded through a door flap in the netting. An electric motor or handcrank causes the load to tumble over and over a horizontal axle for 3-5 minutes at about 35-RPM. The trim drops through the netting down through a funnel bag into a plastic basin on the floor. The trimmed seedless flowers are then dropped out separately through the door flap in the netting and through the funnel bag into a second plastic basin on the floor.
In other embodiments, the floor-standing equipment is operated as a trimmer, a popcorn-size bud separator, and a kief-separator (aka pollinator) pretty much by simply changing the netting to use different sized openings and even silkscreens with different mesh sizes.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments which are illustrated in the various drawing figures.
The two matching and opposing dished cylindrical end plates 112-113 have radially turned outward lips 114 and 115 that help seal with the netting 118 and to exclude debris from fouling the opposing hook-and-loop tape pieces. Typical diameters for the two cylindrical end plates 112-113 range from 17″ to 22″, depending on the target weights of materials to be batch processed.
The variable speed electric motor 108 preferably has a variable range of zero to 35-RPM. Near zero, its speed control is used to position the tumbler drum for loading and unloading of material. In operation, the material loaded inside will begin to roll around in a log until the speed gets high enough for it to break in waves and tumble over the horizontal axle 110. The best speed, about 35-RPM produces a continuous curling wave of material inside the tumbler drum. At too high a speed, centrifugal force will press the material all along the inside for full rotations. Too high a speed prevents the trimming action from operating properly or efficiently. But speeds as low as 20-RPM are useful when the user intends for the trimming to be as gentle as possible.
The structural pieces of trimmer 100 are generally comprised of steel and/or aluminum. Overall, the trimmer 100 is floor-standing and generally about 60″ tall, 36″ wide, and about 36″ deep. Lighter duty embodiments are generally smaller and weigh less, and are limited to processing smaller-weight loads.
The trimming action is not unlike the polishing action that occurs inside a rock polisher that tumbles loose rocks around inside a drum. The flowers knock against each other will tumbling around, and that breaks off any remaining protruding leafy matter. The finished value of trimmed buds is maximum when the trichomes and crystals remain on the buds.
The two inwardly dished cylindrical end plates 206, 207 have radially turned out lips 212, 213 to help seal with the netting 202 and to exclude fugitive debris from fouling the opposing hook-and-loop tape pieces 204-205 and 214-215. These matching lengths of hook-and-loop tape 214-215 are wound around and glued to fully wrap all 360-degrees of the circumferences of each of the two cylindrical end plates 206-207. Typical diameters for the two cylindrical end plates 206-207 range from 16″ to 26″, so the length of the netting 202 and the matching lengths of hook-and-loop tapes 204, 205, 214, and 215 will easily run about 70″.
A zippered door flap 220 is included in the rectangular patch of nylon netting 202 and allows easy user access to the interior of the large cylindrical drum 210. A variable-speed electric motor 222 is provided with a variable speed control rheostat 224 which permits a user to easily rotate and position the zippered door flap 220 to the top or the bottom of the large cylindrical drum 210. Such zippered door flap 220 would be best positioned to the top when loading in materials. Similarly, such zippered door flap 220 would be best positioned to the bottom when the materials need to be dumped through the clear vinyl, rectangular funnel bag that is hung inside frame 102 and legs 104-107, down to a plastic dishpan basin. Two parallel zippers 226 and 228 are preferred since this can save wear-and-tear on the hook-and-loop tapes.
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The standard measure of screen “mesh size” relates to how many threads per inch are present. But the gaps between these threads will narrow as the threads get thicker. The preferred embodiments here use 110 micron or 151-195 micron screens to allow some control over the size of particles being isolated.
The floor-standing trimmer 100 of
The stalks of mature trichomes typically reach a maximum diameter of about 40-microns. And the corresponding heads are usually three times that, about 120-micron, with a maximum of 135-microns. So, mesh sizes above 120 (125-micron pass through) are not commonly used in making kief. Any mesh that is too fine will block the largest trichome heads from passing through the silkscreen mesh.
A 170-mesh (88-micron pass through) blocks most the mature trichome heads. Any trichome stalks that do break off will be small enough to pass through even finer mesh sizes. If the intention is to deliberately separate the heads from the stalks, then a 200-mesh screen (74-micron) is called for. Going the other way, classic Afghani pressed hash has a large amount of debris because large, 50-60 mesh screens are used.
Leaf matter in cannabis carries only a relatively small amount of cannabinoids, around 0.5%, and the trichomes around and in the seedless female flowers carry much higher concentrations of cannabinoids. If the trichomes are separated from the plant matter in the flowers, the kief yield will normally be about a third of total mass of flowers. The cannabinoids from the trichomes in the kief will be about 2.5 times more concentrated than the original flowers. About half the finished weight is the cannabinoids and terpenoids, with the rest being the trichome structural materials. Thus, thirty grams of flowers/buds can be expected to yield five grams of cannabinoids and terpenoids.
A cylindrical drum form 550 about 19″ in diameter and 20″ in length is supported for turning with a horizontal axle 552. Such is positioned inside the top half of frame 502 and a clear vinyl funnel bag 554 is positioned inside the bottom half of frame 502 to catch loosened trim that escapes through a covering of netting 556. At its top, the clear vinyl funnel bag 554 circuits completely around the bottom half outer diameters of cylinder ends 558 and 559, and does so without contacting or dragging on the netting 556 or cylinder ends 558 and 559. A smaller opening at the bottom of the clear vinyl funnel bag 554 neatly focuses the loose trim into a plastic dishpan basin set below on the floor by the user.
A zippered door flap 560 is stitched into the netting 556 and allows materials to be loaded and unloaded from inside the cylindrical-drum netting enclosure formed by elements 550,556,558,559. A variable-speed electric motor 562 is connected to turn the netting enclosure on horizontal axle 552 at 0-35 RPM. A wide, soft-bristle brush mounted to the back of the frame and positioned to gently sweep along the whole width of surface of the netting enclosure as it turns on horizontal axle 552 can help automatically clear the netting of snags of stems and leaves. A clear vinyl dust cover (not shown) may sometimes be used and is slipped over the outside of the top half of frame 502 to prevent too much fugitive powder and debris from flying out into the air and onto the surrounding floor.
A second flange 612 and FPT 614 provide a supporting coupling through to a horizontal axle 618 that carries over to the right side in this
Dashed lines are used in
In general, embodiments of the present invention include a dual-purpose floor-standing machine that trims leafy matter from the seedless flowers of female cannabis plants, and also isolates kief from such trim. A floor-standing frame of detachable pieces enable onsite assembly and disassembly, and provide mechanical support for an electric motor and a horizontal axle driven at variable speeds by the motor. A tumbler drum mounted is inside a top end of the floor-standing frame on the horizontal axle. Such is formed by opposing, parallel, and equal-sized left and right tumbler drum end cap pans coaxially disposed on the horizontal axle to define a right cylinder with open walls.
A rectangular-shaped porous covering has a width sufficient to stretch over and between an open space between the opposing left and right tumbler drum end cap pans, and has a length sufficient to completely wrap around the circumference of both the opposing, parallel, and equal-sized left and right tumbler drum end cap pans. A door flap is disposed in the rectangular-shaped porous covering and provides for dried plant material to be loaded-in and unloaded-out of the interior spaces of the tumbler drum.
A funnel bag chute is disposed inside the floor-standing frame and outside a bottom half of the tumbler drum. It is sized and mounted to allow free rotation of the tumbler drum within. A first removable basin is initially positioned on a floor below the funnel bag chute to catch fine materials that pass through rectangular-shaped porous covering. A second removable basin is subsequently positioned on the floor below the funnel bag chute to catch coarse materials that do not pass through rectangular-shaped porous covering and that must be unloaded via the door flap.
Tumbling dry cannabis the way the equipment and methods described herein do will produce airborne clouds of valuable kief and other fines and powders including mildew spores. A removable dustcover that fully shrouds the tumbler drums in
Although the present invention has been described in terms of the presently preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not to be interpreted as limiting. Various alterations and modifications will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the art after having read the above disclosure. Accordingly, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as covering all alterations and modifications as fall within the “true” spirit and scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62424778 | Nov 2016 | US |