US 9,532,501 B2Granted

Plant conveyor and method for harvesting plants

AssigneeWeyerhaeuser NR Company

InventorsBruce Francis, William Wells, Jimmy Lee Stokes

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Abstract

A conveyor includes a frame, at least two arms at least one of which is movably mounted to the frame, at least two rails wherein each rail is coupled to an end of one of said at least two arms, at least two belts wherein each belt is rotatably mounted on one of said at least two rails such that the belts are capable of engaging plants therebetween and moving the plants along a conveyor axis, and one or more bias members which are configured to bias said at least one movable arm toward the other one of said at least two arms. The conveyor further comprises an expanding mechanism which is configured to exert an outward force on said at least one movable arm upon engagement so that said at least one movable arm move away from another arm.

Claims12

Dependent claims

An apparatus, comprising:

a frame;
at least two arms, at least one of said at least two arms movably mounted to the frame;
at least two rails, each rail coupled to an end of one of said at least two arms;
at least two belts, each belt rotatably mounted on one of said at least two rails such that the belts are capable of engaging plants therebetween and moving the plants along a conveyor axis;
one or more bias members configured to bias at least one of said at least two arms toward another one of said at least two arms;
and
an expanding mechanism configured to exert an outward force on said at least one movable arm upon engagement so that said at least one movable arm moves away from another arm, said expanding mechanism comprising:
at least one rotatable cam;
at least one rod being engaged by said at least one rotatable cam, said at least one rod applying a first outward force on said at least one movable arm;
and
at least one compressible member that provides a second outward force on the at least one movable arm.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.