Mechanical grape harvesting machine with a means for continuously monitoring the weight of the grape harvest
AssigneePellenc
InventorsMatthieu HAMEL, Alexandre ROGIER
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A grape harvesting machine including a frame, a vine row shaking assembly adapted to separate the grape harvest from the vine rows, one or more storage bins each fastened to a bin bracket and a device for measuring the weight of the grape harvest that has accumulated in the storage bins; in which machine the bins are connected to their bin brackets via load sensors so that the storage bins are suspended from their respective bin brackets, the sensors are arranged above the shaking assembly, and the measuring device is configured to process the signals from the load sensors and to continuously or cyclically output a measurement signal representative of the weight of the grape harvest.
Claims8
A grape harvesting machine intended for harvesting a grape harvest, the grape harvesting machine comprising:
- a frame mounted on at least one train of wheels each of which is movable about a wheel train axis said frame being arranged so as to straddle over a vine row during a mechanical grape harvesting;
- a vine row shaking assembly in mechanical connection with the frame, capable of separating the grape harvest from the vine row;
- an assembly for collecting and conveying the grape harvest from the shaking assembly up to one or more storage bin(s) each of the storage bins being fastened to an associated bin bracket pivotably mounted about a bin pivot shaft mechanically connected to the frame ensure emptying of the storage bins;
- and
- a device for measuring the weight of the grape harvest that has accumulated in the storage bins;
- wherein each storage bin is connected to the associated bin bracket via load sensors, the load sensors being elongate shaped bending sensors each having two fastening ends, a first fastening end being fastened to the storage bin and a second fastening end being fastened to the associated bin bracket so that the storage bin suspended from the associated bin bracket;
- wherein the fastening ends of the load sensors are arranged above the shaking assembly when the machine is located on a horizontal planar ground;
- wherein each load sensor is powered by the grape harvest weight measuring device to output a sensor signal at any time;
- and
- wherein the measuring device is configured to process the signals of the load sensors and to continuously or cyclically output a measurement signal representative of a grape harvest weight accumulated by the grape harvesting machine into the storage bins.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.