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US 12,329,073 B2Granted
Sod harvesting systems with slab length adjustability
Assignee1045929 Ontario Limited
InventorsGerardus J. Brouwer, Ian L. Morgan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A harvesting system for harvesting sod includes: (a) a harvester frame; (b) a cutting assembly mounted to the harvester frame for cutting the sod into slabs, each slab having a cut-off length; (c) a conveyor assembly supported by the harvester frame for transporting the slabs away from the cutting assembly toward a measuring location; and (d) a control system operable to: (i) determine a length difference between a measured length for at least one slab at the measuring location and a target length, and (ii) adjust the cut-off length for subsequent slabs to compensate for the length difference.
Claims20
A system for harvesting sod, the system comprising:
- a) a harvester frame;
- b) a cutting assembly mounted to the harvester frame for cutting the sod into slabs, each slab having a cut-off length between a leading edge and a trailing edge of the slab;
- c) a conveyor assembly supported by the harvester frame and configured to transport the slabs away from the cutting assembly toward a measuring location;
- d) at least one slab sensor configured to detect one or more slab properties at the measuring location for determining a measured length between the leading edge and the trailing edge of respective slabs, and
- e) at least one controller for controlling operation of the cutting assembly, the controller configured to:
- i) determine the measured length of at least one slab based on the slab properties detected by the at least one slab sensor,
- ii) determine a length difference between the measured length of the at least one slab and a target length, and
- iii) adjust the cut-off length for subsequent slabs to compensate for the length difference.
5 more elements
A harvesting system for harvesting sod, the harvesting system comprising:
- a) a harvester frame;
- b) a cutting assembly mounted to the harvester frame for cutting sod into slabs, each slab having a cut-off length;
- c) a conveyor assembly supported by the harvester frame for transporting the slabs away from the cutting assembly toward a measuring location;
- and
- d) a control system configured to:
- (i) determine a length difference between a measured length for at least one slab at the measuring location and a target length, and (ii) adjust the cut-off length for subsequent slabs to compensate for the length difference.
3 more elements
A method of operating a cutting assembly of a sod harvesting system, comprising:
- a) operating the cutting assembly to cut sod into at least one slab having a cut-off length;
- b) transporting the at least one slab along a conveyor assembly away from the cutting assembly toward a measuring location;
- c) operating a control system to:
- (i) determine a measured length of the at least one slab based on one or more slab properties detected at the measuring location, (ii) determine a length difference for the at least one slab between the measured length and a target length, and (iii) select an adjusted cut-off length for subsequent slabs to compensate for the length difference;
- and
- d) operating the cutting assembly to cut sod into at least one subsequent slab having the adjusted cut-off length.
3 more elements
A system for harvesting sod, the system comprising:
- a) a harvester frame;
- b) a cutting assembly mounted to the harvester frame for cutting the sod into slabs, each slab having a cut-off length between a leading edge and a trailing edge of the slab;
- c) a conveyor assembly supported by the harvester frame for transporting the slabs away from the cutting assembly toward a measuring location;
- d) at least one slab sensor configured to detect one or more slab properties at the measuring location for determining a measured length between the leading edge and the trailing edge of respective slabs, and
- e) at least one controller for controlling operation of the cutting assembly according to one or more operational parameters, the controller configured to modify the operational parameters to adjust the cut-off length for subsequent slabs based at least in part on a difference between the measured length of previously cut slabs and a target length for the subsequent slabs.
2 more elements
A system for harvesting sod, the system comprising:
- a) a harvester frame;
- b) a cutting assembly mounted to the harvester frame for cutting the sod into slabs, each slab defined by a plurality of cut dimensions when cut, the cut dimensions including a cut-off length, a width, and a thickness;
- c) a conveyor assembly supported by the harvester frame for transporting the slabs away from the cutting assembly toward a measuring location;
- d) at least one slab sensor configured to detect one or more slab properties at the measuring location for measuring one or more measured dimensions of respective slabs, the one or more measured dimensions corresponding to one or more of the cut dimensions, and
- e) at least one controller for controlling operation of the cutting assembly according to one or more operational parameters, the controller configured to:
- i) determine the one or more measured dimensions of at least one slab based on the slab properties detected by the at least one slab sensor,
- ii) determine a difference between the one or more measured dimensions of the at least one slab and corresponding target dimensions for subsequent slabs, and
- iii) modify the operational parameters to adjust one or more of the cut dimensions for the subsequent slabs to compensate for the difference between the one or more measured dimensions and the corresponding target dimensions for the subsequent slabs.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.