Chili Pepper Harvester

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to a vegetable harvester and more particularly a harvester for chili peppers and the like for removing green or red chili pods from a row or rows of pepper plants without damage to the chili pods or the plants and conveying the harvested peppers to a collection point, thereby efficiently harvesting peppers without requiring hand picking.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Harvesters of various types have been provided which involve the picking or removal of produce from living plants with the various existing harvesters being specifically adapted for harvesting certain vegetables, fruits, and the like. U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,570, issued Apr. 8, 1980, to Henry Rodriguez, discloses a harvester for chili peppers, and the like, which includes a spiral guide member that is disposed adjacent ground level and passes between the plants in a row which requires a correlation between the forward speed of the vehicle and the rotational speed of the spiral or helical guide member when considering the longitudinal spacing of the plants. When this correlation is not maintained, the helical guide member can engage and thus damage the stem portion of the plants. As can be appreciated, it is somewhat difficult to maintain the proper correlation between the spacing of the plants, the forward speed of the vehicle and the rotational speed of the helical guide member. This patent also includes picking elements having a particular configuration for harvesting peppers, other vegetables or fruits which, in effect, include a loop-like structure which sometimes can grip and pull leaves from the plant as well as the vegetables or fruit. Accordingly, there is a need for a harvester which will more efficiently pick chili peppers and the like without damage or injury to the produce being picked or the plants from which the produce is picked.

An object of the present invention is to provide a chili pepper harvester including a frame structure attachable to or incorporated into a tractor or similar vehicle with the harvester also including picking units mounted thereon for vertical and lateral adjustment combined with conveying structures for receiving chili pods removed from the plants and conveying them to a collecting point, with the picking units including a plurality of radially extending rods supported from a rotatable generally horizontal shaft and having curved, generally hook-shaped free ends pointed in the direction of rotation for engaging and removing chili pods without injury to the plants and without damage to the chili pods.

Another object of the invention is to provide a chili pepper harvester in accordance with the preceding object in which the rods in each picking unit are detachably secured to a solid shaft welded to and forming an extension of driven shaft with the rods being oriented in a pair of spiral rows with each spiral row of rods oriented so that each row extends 360.degree. around the shaft, but with the two rows being 180.degree. out of phase.

A further object of the invention is to provide a harvester in accordance with the preceding objects in which the picking unit shafts are driven by a single hydraulic motor and the vertical elevation of the shafts may be varied by hydraulic ram units with the motor and ram units being communicated with the hydraulic system of the tractor or similar vehicle, so that an operator may control operation of the harvester from the tractor or vehicle.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a chili pepper harvester in accordance with the preceding objects which is relatively simple in construction, long lasting and durable, effective for picking peppers and similar vegetables or fruits from row plants without damage to the produce removed from the plant and without damage to the plant and effectively deposit the picked produce onto upwardly and rearwardly inclined conveyor structures for conveyance to a point of collection.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the chili pepper harvester of the present invention illustrating its association with a typical tractor.

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the harvester of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the harvester with portions omitted for clarity.

FIG. 4 is a transverse sectional view immediately forwardly of the drive motor illustrating the association of the frame, drive motor, chains and sprockets.

FIG. 5 is an exploded group perspective view of one of the picking units illustrating the shaft, and picking rods mounted thereon, together with the supporting and adjusting structure therefor.

Referring now specifically to the drawings, the chili pepper harvester of the present invention is generally designated by the numeral 10 and is mounted forwardly of a conventional tractor 12 having the usual front wheels 14, operator's cab 16, steering wheel 18 and hydraulic system with manual control valves (not shown) in the cab accessible to the operator. Hydraulic control valves for controlling the operation of a farm implement connected with the hydraulic system of the tractor represents a conventional and well known technique and the details thereof are not shown in the present application. The harvester 10 includes a generally vertically disposed frame 20 oriented forwardly of the tractor and including vertical frame members 22 and horizontal frame members 24, with the frame 20 being supported by frame brackets 26 attached to the tractor in any suitable manner. Supported from the framework 20 is a single hydraulic motor 28 supported by a horizontal bracket plate 30, or the like, and a plurality of hydraulic rams 32 also have one end pivotally attached to brackets at the upper end of the frame as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, with the rams 32 being conventional hydraulically actuated piston and cylinder assemblies having one end connected to the upper end portion of the frame 20. The hydraulic hoses and valve structure for controlling operation of the motor 28 and the rams 32 are not shown in detail.

Projecting forwardly from the frame 20 is a pair of picking units, each of which is designated generally by reference numeral 34. Each picking unit includes a shaft 36 which may be in the form of a hollow pipe or the like having its rearward end portion journaled in spaced bearings 38 which are in the form of flanged bearings supported on plates 40 rigidly affixed to an elongated supporting frame member 42 in the form of an elongated downwardly opening channel-shaped member having a pointed, closed forward end 44 to penetrate through the plants 45 in a row of plants without injury to the plant leaves 47, stem and stalk and without injury to the chili pods 49 supported thereon. The forward end of the shaft 36 has a solid shaft 46 welded or otherwise rigidly affixed to and forming an axial extension of shaft 36. Secured to shaft 46 is a plurality of picking rods or elements 48 each of which includes a threaded inner end portion 50 and a lock nut 52 to secure the rods detachably in threaded sockets 53 in the shaft 46. Each of the rods 48 extends radially from the shaft 46 and terminates in a reversely curved end portion 54 which is in the form of a hook-like construction with the radius of curvature of the curved end 54 being greater than the longitudinal distance between adjacent sockets 53. The sockets 53 and thus the rods 48 are oriented in two spiral rows on the shaft 46 with the spiral rows being disposed in 180.degree. out of phase relationship to each other and each row of sockets extends completely around the shaft, that is, 360.degree.. Preferably, there are 15 picking rods 48 with one spiral row of sockets including eight sockets and the other row including seven sockets. The hooked ends 54 point angularly in the direction of rotation of the shaft 36 so that chili pods 49 are engaged by the hooked ends 54 of the picking rods and pulled from the plant 45. Every second rod 48 is provided with a rubber hose 55 attached to to picking rod 48 by metal clips 56 or the like. The flexible hoses 55 extend beyond the hook ends 54 as shown in FIG. 5.

The rearward end of the channel-shaped support 42 is connected to an angled mounting bracket 58 which is supported from the frame 20 by a pair of lugs 60 and a pivot pin or bolt 62 extending through one of a plurality of vertically spaced holes 64 formed in the vertical edge of the brackets 58 to enable pivotal movement of the supporting channel 42 and the shaft 36 about a transverse axis defined by the pivot pin or bolt 62. The vertical pivotal movement or adjustment is obtained by extending or retracting the hydraulic ram 32 which has its lower end pivotally attached to the forwardmost bracket plate 40 by a pivot pin or bolt 66. The horizontal portion of the angled bracket 58 is provided with a vertical hole 68 which receives a vertical bolt 70 extending through a lug 72 on the top wall of the channel 42 so that the horizontal leg of the angled brackets 58 will provide limited swinging movement of the channel 42 laterally about a vertical axis defined by the bolt 70. Each side of the channel 42 is provided with a lug 74 having a set screw 76 extending therethrough for engagement with the side surfaces of the horizontal leg of the angled bracket 58 in order to adjust and lock the frame and shaft in horizontally adjusted position. There is little necessity of adjusting the horizontal attitude of the shaft 36 since most of the plants in a particular field will be in uniformly spaced rows. The vertical orientation of the shaft and the picking unit may be varied more easily by the hydraulic ram to enable variation in the picking height of the picking unit 34.

The rearward end of the shaft 36 is provided with a reduced extension 78 having a sprocket gear 80 mounted thereon on which a drive sprocket chain 82 is entrained. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the motor 28 drives two sprocket gears and two sprocket chains 82, with one of the sprocket chains encircling under a sprocket gear 80 and over a single idler sprocket gear 84 with the other sprocket chain 82 extending under an idler gear 84, over the drive sprocket 80 and then under a second idler sprocket gear 86 so that the two sprocket gears 80 will rotate in opposite directions, thus rotating the picking units in opposite directions. When standing in front of the harvester and observing the rotational direction of the picking units, the right hand picking unit will rotate counterclockwise and the left hand picking unit will rotate clockwise. This arrangement assures that as the picking rods or arms 48 sweep through the pepper plant 45, the hook-shaped ends 54 will engage the stems of the chili pods 49 and disengage the chili pods from the plant without injury to the leaves 47 and discharge the chili pods by gravity toward the outer side of the harvester where the chili pods drop onto upwardly and rearwardly extending elevator conveyors 88 which are of the belt and slat type conveyor structure conventionally employed in many harvesters for vegetables, fruits, and the like. Each conveyor 88 includes a frame 90 connected with the supporting frame structure with a rounded trough-like structure 92 at the forward end thereof forming a skid for engaging the ground surface and also providing a trough-like structure for gathering any chili pods discharged in this area with the lower end of the slatted belt conveyor 88 extending into the trough-like structure in order to pick up any chili pods therein. The flexible, resilient hoses 55 which extend beyond the hook ends 54 of the rods 48 move chili pods that may fall to the floor of the frame onto the elevator conveyor 88.

Extending forwardly of the harvester is a supporting structure 94 for gauge wheels 96, one in the center and one adjacent each side of the harvester, with a manual hand crank 98 or the like being provided to vary the vertical position of each gauge wheel. The supporting frame 97 for each of the gauge wheels 96 is supported from a framework 100 which extends vertically and transversely in relation to the machine and encloses the front and sides of the conveyors, other than the areas which face the picking units, with the framework being covered by wire mesh 102 or the like, thus leaving open areas 104 for receiving each of the plant rows as illustrated in the front elevational view in FIG. 2. The screen or closure material, which may be sheet metal, prevents plants from coming into engagement with the conveyor belts and the like, and forwardly tapering or inclined structures may be utilized to guide the plants 45 into the spaces 104 so that as the picking units 34 are rotated in the manner set forth, the chili pods will be picked from the plants and deposited on the conveyor. Any suitable driving mechanism (not shown) for the conveyors may be provided, including hydraulic motors, and the upper ends of the conveyors may terminate in communication with a chute or lateral conveyor for taking the picked chili pods to a collection point, such as a container or bin or a separate vehicular structure, such as a truck body or the like.

The rearward portion of the frame is supported by a gauge wheel 106 supported by a vertical bracket 108 that is attached to the channel 42 in any suitable manner to enable vertical adjustment thereof if necessary. The specific details of the mounting structures for the gauge wheels and the conveyors are not specifically illustrated, since these are conventional components and form no essential part of the present invention.

The picking units and their association to the other components of the harvester and the drive structure for the picking units and the adjustment for the picking units constitutes the essential components of the invention with the other components cooperating therewith to provide an efficient harvester for peppers, either red chili or green chili peppers, or any other similar vegetables, fruits, or the like.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.