Sod Roll-Up Mechanism Using Opposed Moving Surface
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sod harvesters have a roll-up mechanism with reliability issues, resulting in 10-20% non- or partially rolled slabs, requiring human intervention and limiting simultaneous harvesting of multiple slabs.
Innovation Solution
A dynamic roll-up mechanism with a conveyor and moving surface forming an acute angle, where the conveyor's speed exceeds the moving surface's, allowing the leading edge to be grabbed and rolled up continuously without a stopper, ensuring a 95-100% reliability and enabling simultaneous harvesting of multiple slabs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a stationary stopper is used to initiate rolling of the slab of sod, then the roll-up mechanism is simple in structure, but the reliability of rolling up action is only 90-95% and requires human intervention
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by replacing the stationary stopper with a moving surface that travels in the opposite direction to the conveyor. This moving surface dynamically interacts with the leading edge of the slab, grabbing it and initiating the rolling action. The moving surface is arranged to form an acute angle with the slab, creating a mechanical advantage that reliably initiates rolling without requiring human intervention, thus improving reliability from 90-95% to near 100%.
2Productivity
If a stationary stopper is used to initiate rolling, then the mechanism is easy to operate, but it prevents parallel harvesting of multiple slabs simultaneously
Solution Approach 1:
The moving surface travels continuously in the opposite direction to the conveyor, creating a dynamic rolling initiation mechanism. This allows multiple slabs to be processed simultaneously through the roll-up mechanism, as each slab independently interacts with the moving surface. The continuous motion of the moving surface eliminates the bottleneck of manual intervention, enabling parallel harvesting of up to 4 slabs at once while maintaining ease of operation through automated functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The moving surface operates continuously without interruption, maintaining constant interaction with the leading edges of multiple slabs passing through the roll-up mechanism. This continuous action eliminates idle time between slabs and allows uninterrupted parallel processing, significantly increasing productivity compared to the stopper method which requires repeated manual intervention for each slab.
3Reliability
If the conveyor and moving surface are arranged to form an acute angle, then the leading edge is effectively grabbed and rolled up, but the spatial arrangement becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies asymmetry by arranging the moving surface to form an acute angle with the leading edge of the slab, rather than a perpendicular or parallel arrangement. This asymmetric configuration creates a mechanical advantage where the moving surface effectively grabs the leading edge and initiates rolling. The acute angle arrangement optimizes the force application and rolling initiation while the complexity is managed through the inherent simplicity of the moving surface mechanism.
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
The mechanism achieves near-perfect roll-up reliability, increases harvesting speed, reduces tearing risk, and allows parallel harvesting of up to 4 slabs simultaneously, minimizing human intervention and operational costs.
Implementation Method 1
The roll-up mechanism comprises a moving surface that moves in a direction opposite to the transport direction, wherein the conveyor conveys the slab of sod to provide that the leading end of the slab of sod abuts the moving surface
Implementation Method 2
the moving surface and the slab of sod abut while forming an acute angle... the moving surface grabs the leading edge of the slab of sod such that the leading edge is temporarily moved in conjunction with the moving surface
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention pertains to a sod harvester for harvesting a slab of sod (120) present on a piece of land, the sod harvester comprising means (101) for releasing the slab of sod from the piece of land and a conveyor (102) for conveying the slab of sod in a transport direction (A) towards a roll-up mechanism (110) for automatically rolling up the slab of sod, wherein the roll-up mechanism comprises a moving surface (121) that moves in a direction opposite to the transport direction, wherein the conveyor conveys the slab of sod to provide that the leading end of the slab of sod abuts the moving surface, and wherein the conveyor and moving surface are spatially arranged to provide that the slab of sod and the moving surface abut while forming an acute angle. The invention also pertains to a dynamic roll-up mechanism for automatically rolling up a slab of sod, and a method for automatically rolling up a slab of sod in a sod.