Greenhouse Cultivation Gutter Dynamics for Space Utilization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional plant cultivation methods in greenhouses are inefficient, requiring at least half of the area for worker passage, significantly reducing productivity and increasing production and customer costs due to complex and costly elevating devices.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus that utilizes a driving unit, moving member, and elevating members to alternately ascend and descend cultivation gutters, allowing for the entire greenhouse area to be used for plant cultivation, with a deceleration motor, pinion, and rack system to manage gutter height and movement, enabling efficient use of space and reducing operational complexity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple cultivation containers hang in turn from a girder with support devices and elevating devices to form work passages, then the greenhouse area can be utilized more efficiently, but the structure becomes complicated and manufacturing and installation cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the greenhouse into multiple cultivation containers arranged in rows, with each container independently controllable. The greenhouse space is segmented into cultivation zones and passage zones through coordinated movement of containers, allowing efficient use of space while maintaining operational simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The cultivation containers are designed to move dynamically between cultivation positions and passage positions. By coordinating the movement of containers in adjacent rows, the system creates passages on demand while maintaining high area utilization. This dynamic reconfiguration resolves the contradiction between productivity and structural complexity.
2Ease of operation
If counterweights are engaged at the other end of chains to enable smooth elevation of support devices, then the elevating operation becomes smoother, but the entire structure becomes complicated and maintenance becomes very hard
Solution Approach 1:
The support devices utilize the weight of the cultivation containers themselves as counterweights through a balanced chain system. When one container ascends, the adjacent container descends, creating a self-balancing mechanism that eliminates the need for separate counterweight components. This self-service approach maintains operational smoothness while dramatically simplifying the structure and reducing maintenance requirements.
3Ease of operation
If at least half of the greenhouse area is reserved for worker passages during seeding, cultivation work, and harvest, then worker movement is ensured, but the cultivation area reduces in half, greatly reducing productivity per area
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically reconfigures the greenhouse space by moving cultivation containers between cultivation positions and passage positions. During seeding, cultivation, and harvest operations, containers in adjacent rows are coordinated to create passages, while maximizing the area used for plant cultivation. This allows the greenhouse to maintain both worker accessibility and high productivity throughout the cultivation cycle.
Solution Approach 2:
The cultivation containers periodically switch between cultivation mode and passage formation mode based on operational requirements. This periodic reconfiguration allows the system to alternate between maximizing cultivation area and providing worker passages, achieving both goals over time without permanently sacrificing either function.
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
This solution doubles the productivity per greenhouse, reduces production and customer costs, and simplifies maintenance by allowing full utilization of the greenhouse area for plant cultivation.
Implementation Method 1
a deceleration motor, a pinion, and a rack system to manage gutter height and movement
Implementation Method 2
elevating members to alternately ascend and descend cultivation gutters
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3a~3b
Figure 3c~4
AI summary
The present invention relates to an apparatus for mass cultivation of plants, which enables plants to be cultivated in the entire area of a greenhouse when the plants are cultivated in the greenhouse, thus enabling mass production of plants. The apparatus for mass cultivation of plants according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprises: a driving means(20) installed in the truss, which horizontally crosses the upper portion of the greenhouse(10); a movable member(30) arranged below the truss such that the moving direction of the movable member(30) changes according to the driving direction of the driving means(20); multiple elevating members(40) arranged at predetermined spaces beneath the truss such that a right part of the elevating member(40) descends when a left part of the elevating member(40) ascends and the right part of the elevating member(40) ascends when the left part of the elevating member(40) descends according to the moving direction of the movable member; and multiple cultivation gutters(50) hanging from the respective left ends and right ends of the elevating members(40).