Adjusting a sod harvester's stacking position to form vertically aligned stacks

#N/A

#Turf grass (sod) is a living organism that must be handled properly to ensure its survival when it is removed from one location and transplanted to another. Sod is generally harvested using large machinery such as sod harvester 100 shown in FIG. 1 and sod harvester 200 shown in FIG. 2. Sod harvesters 100 and 200 are both in the form of a tractor and include a cutting head 101, 201 that cuts slabs of sod from the ground, inclined conveyor(s) 102, 202 that elevate the slabs from the ground towards a stacking conveyor 103, 203, a stacking head 105, 205 that is mounted to a support mechanism 104, 204, and a pallet dispenser 106, 206 that is positioned adjacent a pallet support (not visible) on which stacking head 105, 205 stacks slabs that it has removed from stacking conveyor 103, 203.

#Two general types of harvesters exist: slab harvesters such as sod harvester 100; and roll harvesters such as sod harvester 200. A roll harvester forms the slabs of sod into rolls (e.g., utilizing a roll forming mechanism 207) which are then accumulated on the stacking conveyor for pick up. A slab harvester, on the other hand, directly stacks the slabs in their flat form.

#In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art sod harvester that harvests sod in slabs;

#FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art sod harvester that harvest sod in rolls;

#In this specification, the term “sod harvester” should be construed as machinery that is configured to receive and stack sod that has been cut from the ground. This machinery could be in the form of a vehicle, such as a tractor, or in the form of a trailer that is pulled by another vehicle. The sod harvester may stack the sod as slabs or rolls. The term “control system” should encompass any combination of hardware and/or software. For example, a control system may include hardware- and/or software-based circuitry such as, but not limited to, a central processing unit, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a field programming gate array, an application-specific integrated circuit, a system on a chip, etc. The “x, y plane” of a sod harvester can represent the plane that extends from front to back and from side to side of the sod harvester. Therefore, when the sod harvester is on flat ground, the x, y plane would be horizontal.

#FIG. 3 provides a simplified side view of various components of sod harvester 100 that are employed to stack sod on a pallet. Sod harvester 200 may include similar components. These components include inclined conveyor 102, stacking conveyor 103, support mechanism 104 and stacking head 105 as introduced in the background along with a pallet support assembly that includes a pallet support 330 (which may in the form of forks), a vertical channel 310 and a travelling mechanism 320 that couples pallet support 330 to vertical channel 310. Travelling mechanism 320 can be moved vertically within vertical channel 310 to cause pallet support 330 to initially be positioned towards stacking head 105 and to be incrementally lowered to accommodate additional layers of sod. In such cases, stacking head 105 may not descend to place the sod on pallet 390 but may drop it from some distance above pallet 390.

#FIGS. 3A and 3B provide an example of how pallet support 330 can be moved downwardly as sod 395 is stacked on a pallet 390 that it supports. In FIG. 3A, a stack is beginning to be formed on pallet 390. Accordingly, pallet support 330 is positioned upwardly towards stacking head 105. It is noted that, in some embodiments, the sod harvester may be configured with temporary pallet supports that support the pallet initially while sod is being stacked thereon and while pallet support 330 lowers the completed pallet to the ground. In such cases, one or more layers of sod may already be stacked on pallet 390 before pallet support 330 is raised up to support pallet 390.