Leek Storage Strip Winding Mechanism for Damage-Free Harvesting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing storage devices for elongated agricultural products like leeks lack automated filling and unloading capabilities, often resulting in manual intervention, damage, and improper arrangement, which hampers efficient harvesting and preservation.
Innovation Solution
An automated storage device integrated with a tractor vehicle, featuring a rotatable storage strip with a ratchet mechanism to prevent unwinding, a hydraulic system for precise positioning, and a drive wheel for controlled rotation, allowing for efficient winding and unwinding of the strip to maintain product orientation and minimize damage during storage and transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If leeks are poured into a container in successive layers, then automatic storage is achieved, but the leeks fall from a certain height causing shocks that can damage the leeks and do not guarantee they are well arranged next to each other
Solution Approach 1:
The invention transitions from horizontal layer-by-layer container filling to vertical spiral winding on a drum. The storage strip wraps around a horizontal drum axis, winding leeks vertically in a spiral pattern. This dimensional change eliminates the falling shock problem by continuously supporting leeks on the moving strip throughout the storage process, while maintaining automatic operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The storage strip is pre-positioned and continuously moved before leeks arrive, creating a ready receptacle for each incoming leek. The strip's continuous motion and spiral winding path ensure that leeks are immediately supported upon contact, preventing any free-fall damage before storage is complete.
2Extent of automation
If leeks are stored in a container, then automatic storage is achieved, but during emptying the vegetables have a tendency to get loose and haphazardly requiring manual intervention to put them back in place
Solution Approach 1:
The vertical spiral winding configuration allows leeks to be emptied by unwinding the strip in the same vertical orientation they were stored. This maintains their orderly arrangement throughout the emptying process, enabling direct transfer to downstream horizontal conveyors without manual repositioning, unlike container dumping which scatters vegetables.
Solution Approach 2:
The continuous spiral winding and unwinding process maintains leek orientation and arrangement throughout both storage and emptying operations. The strip's continuous motion ensures leeks remain organized in a predictable pattern, eliminating the need for manual intervention during transfer to downstream equipment.
3Ease of manufacture
If the axis of rotation of the drum is horizontal with leeks falling by gravity, then storage is achieved, but there is no power supply that avoids manual intervention and the filling cannot be done automatically
Solution Approach 1:
The invention maintains the simple horizontal drum configuration but adds dynamic control through a powered drive mechanism. The drum rotates continuously or intermittently under power, automatically advancing the storage strip to receive and wind leeks without manual intervention, while preserving the gravitational feed approach.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the leeks' own gravitational feed to drive the storage process, with the powered drum simply providing the winding motion. The leeks essentially feed themselves onto the moving strip through gravity, while the drum's rotation automatically winds them into storage position without requiring manual placement.
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
Enables automatic, damage-free storage and transfer of leeks, ensuring they are arranged neatly for downstream processing, improving preservation and reducing manual intervention, while maintaining product orientation from uprooting to storage.
Implementation Method 1
said first support is provided with a ratchet device, making it possible to prevent the tape from unrolling
Implementation Method 2
a hydraulic cylinder is arranged between the tractor vehicle and said mobile frame for its actuation
Implementation Method 3
said drive wheel is placed in contact with the first support below it, and which by its rotation causes the rotation of said support so as to control its linear speed at the level of the winding in progress
Implementation Method 4
the support has openings, allowing the passage of air in the vertical direction, so as to allow efficient cooling of several stacked full storage devices in a refrigerator
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a storage device for agricultural products in particular vegetables of the long and flexible type such as leeks, for installation on a tractor (1), to fill said device and to cooperate with a picking device (16), characterised in comprising a storage strip (6) and a first support (7) comprising a hub (8), which can move in rotation about an axis (10), designed for rolling said storage strip (6) and for the storage of said agricultural products between two layers of said strip (6). The invention further relates to a corresponding method.