Multistage Cultivation Rack for Balanced Lowering and LED Spacing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional multistage plant cultivation systems face challenges in securing horizontal balance during harvesting, require excessive manpower, and suffer from inefficient energy use due to fixed vertical spacings between plant cultivation units and LEDs, leading to productivity and energy efficiency issues.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus with a driving unit, wire transfer units, and vertical gutter holder spacing adjustment units allows for adjustable vertical spacings between plant cultivation units and gutter holders, enabling plants to be harvested in a natural posture without ladders and optimizing LED placement based on plant growth stages.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a ladder or lift is installed to harvest plants on upper stages, then workers can reach upper-stage plants, but it causes inconvenience and requires excessive manpower and work time
Solution Approach 1:
The plant cultivation unit is made movable through a rack and pinion gear mechanism, allowing the entire upper stage to be dynamically lowered to ground level for harvesting. This eliminates the need for static ladders or lifts and enables workers to harvest plants in a natural posture without climbing or elevated equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the vertical position of the plant cultivation unit by converting vertical motion into rotational motion through the pinion gear engagement with the rack. This dimensional transformation allows the upper stage to be lowered along the vertical axis while maintaining horizontal stability, providing ground-level access to previously elevated plants.
2Ease of operation
If the plant cultivation unit is lowered to harvest upper-stage plants, then workers can harvest in natural posture, but the center of gravity shifts causing imbalance and preventing rack driving
Solution Approach 1:
A counterweight mechanism is integrated into the system to compensate for the shift in center of gravity when the plant cultivation unit is lowered. The counterweight balances the gravitational force, preventing horizontal instability and allowing the rack and pinion gear mechanism to function properly during the lowering and harvesting process.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs asymmetric support structures and positioning mechanisms that adapt to the changing center of gravity. The rack is positioned and supported in a way that maintains horizontal balance even when the cultivation unit is in the lowered harvesting position, preventing tilting and ensuring stable operation.
3Device complexity
If a fixed spacing between plant cultivation units is used, then the structure is simple, but energy efficiency is poor when plants are at different growth stages
Solution Approach 1:
The vertical spacing between plant cultivation units is made adjustable through a mechanical linkage system connected to the rack mechanism. This allows the spacing to be dynamically changed according to plant growth stages, enabling optimal positioning of LED lights relative to plants at different heights while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure.
4Device complexity
If the vertical spacing between LEDs and plants is fixed, then the structure is simple, but energy efficiency decreases when plants are vertically spaced from LEDs
Solution Approach 1:
The rack and pinion gear mechanism serves multiple functions: it lowers the plant cultivation unit for harvesting, adjusts the vertical spacing between cultivation units, and simultaneously optimizes the positioning of LED lights relative to plants. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate adjustment mechanisms, maintaining structural simplicity while improving energy efficiency.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances productivity by reducing manpower needs and improves energy efficiency by adjusting vertical spacings to optimize LED placement, promoting plant growth and reducing power consumption.
Implementation Method 1
a pinion gear (3) and an upper rack (4) engaged with the pinion gear (3) are installed above the plant cultivation units (100)
Implementation Method 2
both ends of the wire (11) are fixed to wire fixing parts (12)
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed is an apparatus for adjusting vertical spacings between plant cultivation units and gutter holders movable up and down, that, when growing plants in a multistage structure of 3-7 stages in height using sunlight or LED light in a greenhouse or a general commercial structure, allows workers to harvest the plants in an upper-stage plant cultivation unit in a natural posture by lowering the cultivation unit to the floor while maintaining horizontal balance without using a height-adjusting lift or a ladder to improve productivity and maximize manpower saving effects, and adjusts a vertical spacing between cultivation beds in the early stage of plant cultivation and at harvest time to promote growth of the plant and improve energy efficiency. If the cultivation beds are not stacked, one rack is used to enable vertical movement of the plant cultivation units, and if the cultivation beds are stacked in multiple stages, two racks are used to enable vertical movement of the plant cultivation units, the two racks includes an upper rack (4) and a lower rack (5), a pinion gear (3) and a driving motor (1) and a reduction gear (1b) configured to drive the pinion gear (3) are installed at a center between the upper rack (4) and the lower rack (5), as the upper rack (4) and the lower rack (5) move rectilinearly in opposite directions by rotation of the pinion gear (3), the respective cultivation beds of a plurality of plant cultivation units connected to both ends of wires (11) connected to upper and lower wire transfer pipes (8, 9) connected to respective ends of the upper rack (4) and the lower rack (5) are raised and lowered in opposite to each other due to rotation of upper and lower wire rollers (13, 14), the upper rack (4) is coupled to a cultivation line of an upper layer and a cultivation line of a lower layer on a floor surface, and the lower rack (5) is coupled to the cultivation line of the upper layer and the cultivation line of the lower layer on the floor surface, and when the cultivation beds are raised and lowered in the opposite to each other, the cultivation beds are moved up and down while maintaining balance with forces symmetrical to each other with respect to the pinion gear (3) .