US 5,035,105 AGranted

Method and a device designed to arrange and pack seedlings

AssigneeStora Kopparbergs Bergslags Aktiebolag

InventorBengt G. L. Qvarnstrom

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Abstract

Method and device designed for arranging and packing plants and their respective root lumps. The method and device are employed in relation to plants which have grown in a seedling unit containing a large number of plants and soil lumps arranged in a plurality of rows and lines adjacent each other and in uniform rectilinear check pattern. After removal of void soil lumps containing no plants and soil lumps containing badly developed plants, the remaining healthy plants are gripped and placed in channels in the same pattern they were in in the seedling unit with a separate channel for each row. The plants are then conveyed in the channels from an input end towards an output end, and gaps between the plants are eliminated in the channels not later than upon reaching the output end. A certain number of plants so collected are then removed from the channels and placed in a transport container.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A method for arranging and packing plants including their root lumps, said plants having been grown in a seedling unit containing a large number of plants and soil lumps arranged in a plurality of rows and lines adjacent each other in a uniform rectilinear check pattern, wherein some of said soil lumps may be void of any plant or may contain only a badly developed plant due to failed seed germination, reduced growth or other circumstances, said method comprising the steps of:

removing any of said void soil lumps and soil lumps containing only badly developed plants from said seedling unit;
gripping the remaining healthy plants;
placing said gripped healthy plants in channels in the same pattern they had with respect to each other in said seedling unit, with a separate channel for every row;
conveying said plants in said channels from an input end to an output end;
eliminating gaps between said plants in said channels not later than at said output end;
removing from said channels a certain number of plants so collected, the number removed corresponding to a certain length of said channels at said output end;
and
placing said removed plants in a transport container.

5 more elements

A device for arranging and packing plants including their respective root lumps, which plants have grown in a seedling unit containing a large number of plants and soil lumps arranged in a plurality of rows and lines adjacent each other in a uniform rectilinear check pattern, wherein some of said soil lumps may be void of any plant or contain only a badly developed plant due to a filed seed germination, reduce growth or other circumstances, said device comprising:

gripping means for gripping and placing healthy plants and their respective root lumps in the same pattern with respect to each other as they had in said seedling unit;
transport channels having a separate channel corresponding to each row of said seedling unit;
conveying means for transporting said plants in said transport channels from an input end to an output end;
gap elimination means for eliminating gaps between said plants by bringing said plants together in a longitudinal direction of said rows in said channels not later than at said output end;
and
removing means for removing said plants from said channels and placing them in a transport container.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.