GB2298597A

GB2298597A - A mushroom grading and sorting apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2298597A
Application number: GB9604374A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Patrick Owens; Donal Mccarty
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1995-03-10
Filing date: 1996-02-29
Publication date: 1996-09-11
Also published as: GB9604374D0; IES64895B2; IES950180A2

Description

"A MUSHROOM HARVESTING AND GRADING AID" The present invention relates to a mushroom harvesting and grading aid, in particular to a conveyor apparatus for assisting in the manual harvesting and grading of mushrooms.

The commercial production of mushrooms frequently takes place in buildings where compost beds are arranged in rows, comprising individual bags of compost growing medium. The rows allow access along intervening aisles for manual husbandry and harvesting operations.

Manual harvesting of mushrooms is a labour-intensive operation, but in practice mechanisation of the process is difficult to achieve due to the variation in size and random nature of the growing positions of the individual mushrooms in the compost beds. Picking by hand has the advantage that it allows for a continuous selection and grading of the mushrooms. A difficulty with semi-automated picking devices, some of which employ suction, is that selection of individual mushrooms is less accurate and damage to the mushrooms may also occur.

The present invention seeks to mechanise the grading and sorting process immediately following picking as an aid to harvesting mushrooms and with a view to substantially increasing the productivity of the pickers.

According to the present invention, there is provided a mushroom harvesting and grading aid comprising conveyor means supported on a frame adapted to straddle an area where the mushrooms to be harvested are growing, wherein the conveyor is subdivided in a manner which assists the grading of mushrooms placed thereon, with means to drive the conveyor towards a collection area at one end thereof.

Preferably, the conveyor means comprises a perforated conveyor belt, in which the perforations are sized to accommodate mushroom stems according to mushroom grade size.

Advantageously, cutting means is provided below the belt so as to cut the mushroom stems as they are carried along the belt and before they reach the collection area.

Preferably, the supporting frame includes a wheeled undercarriage for moving the apparatus over the mushroom growing areas.

The invention also extends to a mushroom harvesting apparatus, and method of using same, substantially as described herein with reference to, and as shown in, the accompanying drawings.

A preferred embodiment of a mushroom harvesting and grading aid in accordance with the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan view of conveyor apparatus in accordance with the invention, Figure 2 is a side elevation of the apparatus shown in Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a plan view from above of the apparatus in use, to a reduced scale.

The mushroom harvesting and grading aid conveyor apparatus comprises a supporting frame 1 which supports an idle roller 2 and a driven roller 3, carrying a perforated conveyor belt 4. The frame 1 is mounted on a wheeled undercarriage 5, typically including four trolley wheels 6 mounted on swivel mountings and adapted to swivel through 900.

90 The roller 3 is driven by an electric motor 7 including a reduction gear 14.

A knife blade 8 is located transversely of the frame underneath the top flight of belt 4, where the stems of mushrooms have been placed in the perforations 9, 10 in the belt 4. The knife blade 8 is moved back and forth by means of a wobble drive connected by means of a pulley 11 to the motor 7. Alternatively, separate motors may be provided to operate the knife blade and the belt. The knife blade may be replaced by any cuting means performing an equivalent function, e.g.

a wire. A chute 12 is arranged underneath the knife blade 8 to collect waste stems in a bin 15 to one side of the apparatus.

The roller 3 is of sufficient diameter, or is arranged in such a way, as to eject the mushrooms from the end of the belt after the stems have been removed by the knife 8. The mushrooms are collected in trays, wherein means are provided for diverting smaller grade sizes located in perforations 9 from the larger grade sizes located in perforations 10 as they fall off the belt 4 at the correction area 16.

Referring to Figure 3, which shows the apparatus in use, a typical arrangement is shown in a commercial mushroom production unit. Five rows of 20 kg compost bags grouped in rows A-E are shown which comprise the mushroom growing areas. A team of five operatives P1, P2, P3, P4 and G slowly moves the belt 4 along the rows, as they are picking whilst sitting in the aisles separating the rows of mushrooms. Larger grade mushrooms are selected and placed in the perforations 10 on the belt, whilst smaller grade mushrooms are selected and placed in the perforations 9, with the stems facing downwards. It will be appreciated that different perforation sizes may be provided, or different means of sub-dividing the conveyor so as to effect grading whilst the mushrooms are being harvested.The waste stems and graded mushrooms are collected at one end of the conveyor by one of the operatives G whilst the other four work at picking from the different rows. For example, operatives P1 and P2 pick from row A and row B whilst operatives P3 and P4 pick from row B and row C, whilst placing the harvested mushrooms on the conveyor belt. The apparatus is then pushed forwardly along the rows, straddling the three rows A, B and C and the process repeated. Operative G controls the collection and grading of the mushrooms in trays 16 at the end of the belt and removal of waste stems which have collected in bin 15.

The mushroom harvesting and grading aid described above efficiently uses the human capabilities of the pickers, i.e. the ability to access produce at random locations and to grade the mushrooms by eye during manual picking, with the minimum of movement by the pickers. Output and productivity is increased with a smaller number of pickers in a team, while quality standards are maintained.

The speed of the belt is adjusted to suit the harvesting team's speed of working. The height of the conveyor apparatus is adapted so as to suit the ergonomics of the operators in a sitting position. The mushrooms which are collected and graded may be collected directly in large bins for subsequent packing, or directly in smaller trays and baskets for market presentation.

Suitable diverters are used to guide the different grades of mushrooms to different trays or baskets. The operator G at the end of the conveyor ensures the trays are removed when full and replaced with new trays. Operator G can also stop and start the belt as required to allow collection tray or bin changing to take place. It will also be appreciated that not all of the perforations will be filled with mushrooms during the picking operation, but the number should be adequate so as to allow picking to continue during any brief belt stoppage.

The system of the invention has been described in relation to a mushroom production system based on the use of compost growing bags.

It is not however limited to production arrangements of this kind, but may be applied to a diversity of alternative mushroom production systems also.

Claims

1. A mushroom harvesting and grading aid comprising conveyor means (4) supported on a frame (1) adapted to straddle an area where the mushrooms to be harvested are growing1 wherein the conveyor is subdivided in a manner which assists the grading of mushrooms placed thereon, with means (7) to drive the conveyor towards a collection area (16) at one end thereof.

2. A mushroom harvesting and grading aid according to claim 1, wherein the conveyor means comprises a perforated conveyor belt, in which the perforations are sized to accommodate mushroom stems according to mushroom grade size.

3. A mushroom harvesting and grading aid according to claim 2, wherein cutting means (8) is provided below the belt so as to cut the mushroom stems as they are carried along the belt and before they reach the collection area (16).

4. A mushroom harvesting and grading aid according to any one of claims 1 to 3, in which the supporting frame (1) includes a wheeled undercarriage (5,6) for moving the apparatus over the mushroom growing areas.

5. A mushroom harvesting and grading apparatus, substantially as described herein with reference to, and as shown in, the accompanying drawings.

6. A method of harvesting and grading mushrooms substantially as described herein with reference to, and as shown in, Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings.