Crop cultivation tray and circulation-type crop cultivation system having same

Abstract

The present invention relates to a crop cultivation tray and a circulation-type crop cultivation system having same, and more specifically, to: a crop cultivation tray capable of maintaining a horizontal position while circulating inside a container, thereby preventing crops from falling or water contained therein from spilling during circulation, and capable of automatically and conveniently discharging water contained therein using the siphon principle; and a circulation-type crop cultivation system having same.

Description

Crop cultivation tray and circular crop cultivation system having the tray

[0001] The present invention relates to a crop cultivation tray and a circulating crop cultivation system having the tray. More specifically, the invention relates to a crop cultivation tray that can maintain a horizontal position while circulating inside a container, thereby preventing crops from falling or water from spilling out during circulation, and to a circulating crop cultivation system having the tray that can automatically and conveniently discharge water contained inside using the siphon principle.

[0002] A smart farm refers to a farm that maximizes production efficiency by integrating information and communication technology into crop cultivation to automatically manage the crop growth environment.

[0003] The applicant has proposed a circular crop cultivation system (Korean Registered Patent No. 10-2561479) capable of cultivating the maximum amount of crop in the minimum space by circulating crop cultivation trays inside a container.

[0004] This circular crop cultivation system has excellent internal space utilization and is easy to manufacture and manage. It also has the advantage of maintaining excellent crop quality by ensuring that all crops planted in the cultivation trays grow under the same light, temperature, and humidity conditions on average.

[0005] Meanwhile, the crop cultivation trays circulate by being suspended from chains installed in the form of endless tracks on the inner walls facing each other of the container; however, there was a problem where the trays failed to maintain a horizontal position near curves, tilting or flipping over and causing the pots containing the crops and the water to fall out.

[0006] In addition, water supplied into the crop cultivation tray must be periodically supplied and drained, but there was a problem in that the worker had to manually drain the water by opening the drain hole inside the tray.

[0007] In addition, a plan was devised to open and close the drain using motor power to solve the problem of manual drainage, but this method had the problem of greatly increasing drainage and making the weight of the crop cultivation tray heavy.

[0008] The present invention has been devised to solve the aforementioned problems, and the objective of the present invention is to provide a crop cultivation tray that can maintain a horizontal position by its own weight when circulating inside a container of a circulating crop cultivation system.

[0009] In addition, another objective of the present invention is to provide a crop cultivation tray capable of automatically draining water from a cultivation space simply by supplying water to a specific level in the drainage space without using separate power.

[0010] In addition, another objective of the present invention is to provide a circular crop cultivation system having the crop cultivation tray.

[0011] To achieve the above objective, the present invention provides a crop cultivation tray for cultivating crops placed inside a container of a crop cultivation system by circulating through chains installed on mutually facing walls, comprising: an elongated tray body having walls of a predetermined height built along the corners to hold water and to place pots planted with crops inside, one end of which is hooked onto a chain on one side and the other end of which is hooked onto a chain on the other side to maintain parallelism and circulate inside the container; and a parallelism maintaining groove that is recessed downward from the longitudinal centerline of the tray body and filled with water so that the center of gravity is located on the longitudinal centerline, thereby maintaining parallelism when circulating.

[0012] In a preferred embodiment, a drainage wall is provided on one side of the inner side of the tray body, positioned so that both sides are in contact with the long-axis walls at a predetermined distance from the short-axis wall on one side, and the space between the first short-axis wall and the second short-axis wall is divided into a drainage space and a cultivation space. The lower central portion of the drainage wall is perforated by the parallel maintenance groove, and a drain hole capable of draining water is perforated in the parallel maintenance groove portion of the drainage space.

[0013] In a preferred embodiment, the upper part of the drainage space includes a water supply hopper that supplies water falling from a water supply nozzle to the cultivation space when the tray body is positioned at a specific location inside the container in the form of a hopper; and a siphon nozzle installed in the drain that sucks up water from the cultivation space and discharges it to the drain when the water level in the drainage space reaches a specific height, thereby enabling the water in the cultivation space to be automatically discharged by the siphon principle even if only the drainage space is filled with water to a specific height.

[0014] In addition, the present invention further provides a circular crop cultivation system characterized by comprising: a container equipped with a chain that is circulating in an endless track form, each installed on an inner wall facing each other; and a crop cultivation tray, one end of which is hooked onto one of the chains and the other end of which is hooked onto the other chain, so as to be able to circulate and move inside the container.

[0015] The present invention has the following excellent effects.

[0016] According to the crop cultivation tray of the present invention, it has the advantage of preventing plant pots or water from spilling out, as it can always maintain a horizontal position when circulating within the container.

[0017] In addition, the crop cultivation tray of the present invention has the advantage of being able to automatically discharge water from the cultivation space by the siphon principle by injecting a small amount of water into the drainage space without a separate power source such as a motor pump.

[0018] FIG. 1 is a drawing showing the interior of a circular crop cultivation system equipped with a crop cultivation tray according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0019] FIG. 2 is a drawing showing a crop cultivation tray according to one embodiment of the present invention,

[0020] FIG. 3 is a drawing showing in detail the water supply hopper and siphon nodes of a crop cultivation tray according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0021] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the drainage principle of a crop cultivation tray according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0022] [Explanation of the symbol]

[0023] 100: Crop growing tray 110: Tray body

[0024] 120: Parallel keeping groove 130: Drainage wall

[0025] 140: Water supply hopper 150: Siphon nozzle

[0026] 200: Container 210,220: Chain

[0027] The terms used in this invention have been selected to be as widely used as possible; however, in specific cases, terms have been arbitrarily selected by the applicant. In such cases, the meaning should be understood by considering the meaning described or used in the detailed description of the invention, rather than merely the name of the term.

[0028] Hereinafter, the technical configuration of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to preferred embodiments illustrated in the attached drawings.

[0029] However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described herein and may be embodied in other forms. Throughout the specification, the same reference numerals indicate the same components.

[0030] FIG. 1 is a drawing showing the interior of a circular crop cultivation system equipped with a crop cultivation tray according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0031] Referring to FIG. 1, a crop cultivation tray (100) according to one embodiment of the present invention circulates inside a container (200) of a circulating crop cultivation system and grows crops.

[0032] Additionally, a circulating one-sided chain (210) is provided on one inner surface of the container (200), and a circulating other-sided chain (220) is provided on the opposite inner surface in a symmetrical form with respect to the one-sided chain (210).

[0033] Additionally, one side of the crop cultivation tray (100) is hung on the tray hook of the one-side chain (210), and the other side is hung on the tray hook (221) of the other-side chain (220), so that they circulate together when the chains circulate.

[0034] Additionally, the tray hanger (221) is cylindrical and attached to a chain, and has a groove (221a) formed along the outer circumference in the center, so that it can be hung by inserting the tray hanger grooves (see '114' in FIG. 2) perforated on both sides of the crop cultivation tray (100) horizontally and lowering them downward.

[0035] In addition, although only one crop cultivation tray (100) is shown in FIG. 1 for the purpose of explanation, in reality, multiple crop cultivation trays (100) are spaced apart from each other and grow crops by being circulated on chains.

[0036] In addition, the present invention may provide only the crop cultivation tray (100) separately, or may provide a circular crop cultivation system together with a container (200).

[0037] The above crop cultivation tray (100) will be described in detail below.

[0038] FIG. 2 is a drawing showing a crop cultivation tray according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0039] Referring to FIG. 2, a crop cultivation tray (100) according to one embodiment of the present invention includes an elongated tray body (110) which is a plate capable of holding water and growing plants by placing a pot (10) in which a crop (1) is planted inside, with a wall of a predetermined height built along the corner.

[0040] Additionally, the tray body (110) has tray hook grooves (114) drilled in both side walls so that they can be hung on the tray hooks (221) of the chains (210, 220).

[0041] Additionally, the tray hanger groove (114) is composed of a circular lower perforation (114a) with a relatively large diameter at the bottom and a circular upper perforation (114b) at the top of the lower perforation (114a) that is in communication with the lower perforation (114a) and can be hung in the groove of the tray hanger (221) with a relatively small diameter.

[0042] That is, the crop cultivation tray (100) can be hung on the chains (210, 220) by inserting the lower perforation (114a) into the tray hanger (221) and lowering it so that the upper perforation (114b) is caught in the groove (221a) of the tray hanger (221).

[0043] In addition, a parallel retaining groove (120) is formed on the bottom surface of the tray body (110) and is recessed downward to a predetermined depth along the longitudinal centerline.

[0044] In addition, when water is poured into the tray body (110), the water fills the parallel maintaining groove (120), so that the center of gravity is positioned along the longitudinal centerline, and the crop cultivation tray (100) maintains equilibrium even when circulating inside the container (200), thereby preventing the pot (10) placed inside or the water from spilling out.

[0045] Additionally, on one side of the inner side of the tray body (110), a drainage wall (130) is provided, which is positioned so that both sides are in contact with the long axis walls (111, 112) at a predetermined distance from the one-side short axis wall (113), and the space between the one-side short axis wall (113) is divided into a drainage space (110b) and a cultivation space (110a) between the other-side short axis wall.

[0046] Additionally, the drain wall (130) can quickly fill the drain space (110b) with a small amount of water.

[0047] Additionally, the lower central portion of the drainage wall (130) is perforated by the parallel maintaining groove (120), and the cultivation space (110a) and the drainage space (110b) are connected to the lower central portion of the drainage wall (1130).

[0048] In addition, a drain hole (see '110bb' in FIG. 3) capable of draining water downward is perforated in the parallel maintenance groove portion of the drainage space (110b), and a siphon nozzle (150) is installed at the top of the drain hole (110bb).

[0049] Referring to FIG. 3 for a more detailed explanation, the central upper part of the drainage space (110b) is provided with a water supply hopper (140) that supplies water falling from the water supply nozzle (20) to the cultivation space (110a) in the form of a hopper when the tray body (110) is positioned at a specific location inside the container (200).

[0050] That is, the water supply hopper (140) forms a water supply path (a) so that water falling from the water supply nozzle (20) is supplied to the cultivation space (110a).

[0051] The above siphon nozzle (150) is attached to the top of the drain (110bb) at the bottom of the water supply hopper (140) which drains water using the siphon principle.

[0052] Additionally, when the tray body (110) is circulating, the water supply nozzle (20) may be positioned on the water supply hopper (140) to supply water to the water supply hopper (140), and may also be positioned on the drainage space (100b) to supply water to the drainage space (110b).

[0053] FIG. 4 is for explaining the drainage principle of the siphon nozzle (150). Referring to FIG. 4, the height (h1) of the water filled in the cultivation space (110a) under normal conditions is lower than the drainage height (h2) of the siphon nozzle (150).

[0054] In this case, the water in the cultivation space (110a) is supplied to the plants and is not discharged to the outside.

[0055] However, when water is to be drained from the cultivation space (110a), water is supplied to the drainage space (110b) so that the water level (h3) is higher than the drainage height (h2) of the siphon nozzle (150), and the water in the cultivation space (110a) is discharged through the siphon nozzle (150) along the water discharge path (b) by the siphon principle.

[0056] That is, according to the crop cultivation tray (100) of the present invention, even if water is filled only in the drainage space (110b), the water in the cultivation space (110a) can be automatically discharged.

[0057] Therefore, water can be discharged without a separate power source such as a motor pump, and the water in the drainage space (110b) can be automatically discharged by supplying only a small amount of water to the cultivation space (110a) rather than the drainage space (110b).

[0058] As described above, the present invention has been illustrated and explained with reference to preferred embodiments, but it is not limited to the aforementioned embodiments, and various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art within the scope of the invention without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Claims

1. A crop cultivation tray that cultivates settled crops by circulating through chains installed on mutually facing walls inside a container of a crop cultivation system, An elongated tray body having a wall of a predetermined height built along the corners to hold water and a pot planted with crops placed inside, one end of which is hooked onto a chain on one side and the other end of which is hooked onto a chain on the other side, allowing it to circulate while maintaining parallelism inside the container; and A crop cultivation tray characterized by including a parallelism maintaining groove that is recessed downward from the longitudinal centerline of the tray body and filled with water, thereby positioning the center of gravity on the longitudinal centerline to maintain parallelism during circulation.

2. In Paragraph 1, A drainage wall is provided on one side of the inner side of the tray body, positioned such that both sides are in contact with the long axis walls at a predetermined distance from the short axis wall on one side, and dividing the space between the space between the short axis wall on one side into a drainage space and the space between the space between the short axis wall on the other side into a cultivation space. A crop cultivation tray characterized in that the lower central portion of the drainage wall is perforated by the parallel maintaining groove, and a drain hole capable of draining water is perforated in the parallel maintaining groove portion of the drainage space.

3. In Paragraph 2, Above the drainage space, a water supply hopper in the form of a hopper that provides water falling from a water supply nozzle to the cultivation space when the tray body is positioned at a specific location inside the container; and A siphon nozzle installed in the drain and capable of sucking up water from the cultivation space and discharging it into the drain when the water level in the drain space reaches a specific height; including A crop cultivation tray characterized by automatically draining water from the cultivation space by the siphon principle even if water is filled to a specific height only in the drainage space.

4. Containers equipped with chains capable of circulating in an endless track form, each installed on inner walls facing each other; and A circular crop cultivation system characterized by comprising: a crop cultivation tray according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which is connected to one of the chains and connected to the other chain, and can circulate and move inside the container.

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