NL2022703B1 - Device for growing mushrooms - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device for growing mushrooms, comprising a shelving, arranged for supporting beds for holding compost, said beds for holding compost wherein the beds are placed at a mutual distance above each other characterized in that the beds are movable between at least a first position, wherein a second bed supported above a first bed at least partially impedes the accessibility of the first bed in a direction perpendicular to the plane in which the first bed extends and a second position in which at least a larger part of the first bed is free approachable from a direction perpendicular to the plane in which the first bed extends than in the first position, wherein the shelving comprises at least one portal, the portal comprising at least two essentially vertical stands, connected by at least one beam that extends from a first stand to the second stand, wherein at least two beds are movably supported by the at least one beam.

Description

Device for growing mushrooms The present invention relates to a device for growing mushrooms.

At industrial scales, mushrooms are traditionally grown at indoor locations, often called growing rooms, wherein shelvings are placed that support beds for holding compost and casing soil, on which the mushrooms are grown.

The compost and casing soil are placed on pulling nets, that allow to fill and empty the bed with compost and casing soil easily.

Usually, this is done after every two or three flushes of mushrooms, since the compost has lost its fertility and nutrition then.

The beds are placed at a mutual distance above each other in the shelving, and harvest of the mushrooms takes place manually by harvesters, standing next to the beds at various height levels and delivering the mushrooms to harvesting conveyors once they are cut.

From there on they are further processed, either manually or in an automated way.

The beds have an average length of 10 to 100 meters, a width of 0,5 to 2 meters, and are usually placed 0,4 to 1,4 meters above each other.

As a result, the harvesters cannot reach all mushrooms without stooping.

Given the required speed of working and the total length of the beds, this makes harvesting a cumbersome job, with even certain health risks.

Moreover, harvesters tend to stand straight to avoid a painful back, but in this position they only have sight to a part of the bed, with the result that part of the harvesting takes place on intuition, which may have a negative impact on the quality of the work, since a better selection can be made when an eye is kept on the work.

The Dutch patent application N2021053 by the same applicant proposes a number of improvements with respect to the existing shelvings.

In particular the embodiment with two beds at the same height in the shelving has appeared to be advantageous.

However, practical tests have raised room for further improvement of this specific embodiment.

It is a goal of the present invention to provide a device for growing mushrooms that further improves the prior art. The invention thereto proposes a device for growing mushrooms, comprising a shelving supporting beds for holding compost, wherein the beds are placed at a mutual distance above each other, wherein the beds are movable between at least a first position, wherein a second bed supported above a first bed at least partially impedes the accessibility of the first bed in a direction perpendicular to the plane in which the first bed extends and a second position in which at least a larger part of the first bed is free approachable from a direction perpendicular to the plane in which the first bed extends than in the first position.

In a preferred embodiment according to the invention, the shelving supports two sets of beds placed at a mutual distance above each other, wherein both sets extend in parallel to each other, and wherein there is at least one bed from the first set that in a vertical direction at least partially overlaps with a bed from the second set, wherein air flow with a vertical directional component is at least partially blocked between the bed from the first set and the in a vertical direction at least partially overlapping bed from the second set. Preferably air flow with a vertical component is almost fully to fully blocked between the bed from the first set and the in a vertical direction at least partially overlapping bed from the second set. By preventing air flow with a vertical component between adjacent beds this way, the climate for growing mushrooms is not disturbed by the fact that there are two sets or sets of beds parallel to each other. It is important that the highly conditioned circumstances under which mushrooms are grown, are kept as constant as possible. Changes in temperature, humidity and air flow may all have a negative impact on the growth, quality or uniformity of the mushrooms in the beds. Preferably the two sets have the same amount of beds, and each bed of the first set has an adjacent bed in the second set. More preferably air flow with a vertical directional component is blocked between each pair of beds.

The air flow may be blocked because the beds are arranged against each other in their first positions, but there may also be another barrier placed.

This barrier may be alternatively be coupled to or mounted on the support, it may be coupled to one of two adjacent beds, to each of two adjacent beds or to both of two adjacent beds.

The barrier may be a rigid part, it may be a bar or a plate, or may comprise one or more flexible parts, such as a flexible flap.

Preferably, air flow in a horizontal direction between two beds is allowed, so there is a common space above two adjacent beds, which may extend to a pair of beds arranged above the adjacent beds.

There may however be further essentially vertical barriers for preventing air on either side of the parallel sets.

These barriers may comprise screens, for instance rollable screens, that prevent exchange of air and thus disturbance of the climate above the beds.

The shelving may comprise at least one portal, the portal comprising at least two essentially vertical stands, connected by at least one beam that extends from a first stand to the second stand,

With impeding the accessibility of the first bed is meant that the bed cannot be reached because there is another bed in the way for the harvester.

A direction perpendicular to the plane in which the first bed extends is — in case of a bed that extends in a horizontal plane which is the common orientation for a bed for growing mushrooms — the direction from straight above.

If the bed is under an angle with the horizontal plane, this perpendicular direction changes of course.

Free approachable means that a harvester does not need to bend or that his or her sight is not impeded because of an overlaying bed.

That means that there is at least a free zone of 40, preferably at least 50 centimeters and more preferably more than 60 centimeters in the perpendicular direction.

In the devices according to the state of the art, beds are arranged on top of each other.

In such case, the harvester has to work in between beds that are on top of each other.

The device according to the present invention takes away this disadvantage and makes the mushrooms available for harvesting and visible for inspection during harvest. The device according to the present invention has several further advantages. With respect to the construction disclosed in Dutch patent application N2021053 a smaller and lighter construction is obtained. Since a portal offers inherent stability, there is no need for a broad foot under the shelving, but the lower end of a stand — normally formed by a rod or pipe — will do, which leads to a hygienic advantage, since a smaller floor surface is covered this way. The increased stability evidently provides safety benefits. In a preferred embodiment the device comprises multiple beams extending from the first stand to the second stand at various heights along the stands, each beam movably supporting two beds. The beams essentially connect the stands in a horizontal direction, but their shape is not limited to a straight line, as will be elucidated later on. It is further preferred that in the first position, two beds supported by the same beam are positioned in the same plane, against each other. This provides the benefit that a very compact solution can be provided, which offers to place more shelvings in the same cell, or to have the same production capacity in the same cell. A further advantage obtained is that the beds can be filled with compost and casing soil easily with a filling apparatus as described in the Dutch application N2021 123 by the same applicant.

Herein, a choice can be made if two separate layers of compost and casing soil are applied on the beds, or if a separation is made at a later stage. In yet a further preferred embodiment two beds supported by the same beam each have only one side board, arranged at the side facing away from the other bed. This way, in their first positions, the beds together provide a flat surface that can be filled in one single operation, and two adjacent beds may even share the same pulling net.

In that case, two beds supported by the same beam share a pulling net that extends over the width of both beds, and prefer comprises an expandable middle section for allowing coverage of both beds when at least one of the beds is in the second position. When at least one of the beds is in the second position, the beds 5 are no longer adjacent, and a gap is then filled by the pulling net. The pulling net may be over dimensioned for that purpose, be flexible or comprise a flexible part. Configurations within the scope of the present invention are thinkable wherein movement of the beds requires both beds to change place or orientation, but preferably the displacement between the first and the second position requires a displacement of the first bed only. This keeps both the technical configuration and the use of the device as simple as possible.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the beds are equal and are positioned exactly above one another in vertical direction. This leads to an efficient use of space in the growing room or other location where the shelving is placed, and also makes the work for the harvesters easier, since they do not need to adapt their position or the tooling they work with when changing from bed to bed. Additionally, this standardization has benefits in production, and in the use of tooling like pulling nets, picking lorries and/or picking platforms.

In a preferred embodiment, the first bed is in the second position completely freely accessible from a direction perpendicular to the plane in which it extends.

The displacement between the first and the second position may for instance comprise a translation of a bed. In such case, the bed is arranged in a drawer-like configuration to the shelving. That means that the translation takes place in the width direction of the bed. One benefit of such system is that the orientation of the bed remains the same, that is in most cases: essentially horizontal.

However, such drawer-like configuration has the disadvantage that it requires more space around the shelving. In a preferred embodiment therefore, the displacement between the first and the second position may comprise a rotation of a bed. This embodiment has the advantage that a relatively simple construction can be applied, but additionally, that there is no more space required than the devices according to the prior art require.

Preferably, the rotation of a bed takes place around an axis in the longitudinal direction of the bed which axis is situated at the underside of the bed, and is positioned in the middle in the width direction. This way, the bed is balanced and its rotation requires the least force that is in a practical embodiment obtainable.

Moreover, the rotation around an axis at the bottom of the bed contributes to the accessibility of the bed in the second position, since the outmost point of the bed moves toward the harvester this way.

The bed may be rotatable to a maximum between 0 and 90 degrees, more preferably between 30 and 60 degrees and most preferably to a maximum angle of 45 degrees with respect to a horizontal position, in order to avoid the compost, soil ground and mushrooms to fall out of the bed when the bed is in its maximum rotated orientation. Furthermore it has appeared that an angle around 45 degrees is a convenient harvesting angle. An operating device, such as a spindle may be provided for easy and controlled movement of the bed from the first position to the second position. This spindle may be manually operated, or driven, wherein a portable engine may be used for driving them. The spindles may be provided with an external coupling for a device for powering them. Such device or engine may in a simple embodiment be a power drill. Providing a coupling for being driven by a portable engine and in particular a power drill has the advantage of taking away the need for an engine for every bed, and moreover it takes away the need for wiring the entire shelving. Also maintenance and replacement of engines becomes a lot easier and cheaper this way. In yet a further embodiment, there is a pair of beds at the same height supported by the shelving, which beds extend parallel to each other. The pair of beds may be rotatable on the same layer in the opposite direction. Such pair has the advantage that it may be dimensioned half as big as a bed according to the state of the art, in order to make the picking easier, or, dimensioned the same size, but then requiring less shelving equipment to support the same amount of bed surface. The beds may each have a width between 0,5 and 2 meters, and / or have a length between 10 and 100 meters.

In yet a further embodiment, the device may be provided with a height-adjustable conveyor belt, which extends in the longitudinal direction of the beds, and is movable in height to positions which correspond to a lower end of a bed situated in a second position.

The invention will now be elucidated into more detail with reference to the following figure, wherein: Figure 1 is a schematic side-view of a device according to the present invention.

Figure 1 shows a device 1 for growing mushrooms, comprising a shelving 2 supporting beds 3-12 for holding compost, wherein the beds 3-12 are placed at a mutual distance D above each other, wherein the beds are movable between at least a first position (shown), wherein a second bed supported above a first bed at least partially impedes the accessibility of the first bed in a direction perpendicular to the plane in which the first bed extends and a second position {not shown) in which at least a larger part of the first bed is free approachable from a direction perpendicular to the plane in which the first bed extends than in the first position. Inthe embodiment shown, the shelving supports two sets A, B of beds 3-7, 8-12 placed at a mutual distance D above each other, wherein both sets extend in parallel to each other, and wherein there is at least one bed 3-7 from the first set that in a vertical direction V at least partially overlaps O1, O2, O3, O4, O5 with a bed 8-12 from the second set, wherein air flow 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 with a vertical directional component V is at least partially blocked between the bed from the first set A and the in a vertical direction at least partially overlapping bed from the second set B. There is a barrier 18-22 placed between adjacent beds. This barrier may be alternatively be coupled to or mounted on the support (18, 19, 20, 22), it may be coupled to one of two adjacent beds, to each of two adjacent beds or to both of two adjacent beds (21a, 21b). The barrier may be a rigid part (18, 19, 20, 22), it may be a bar (19) or a plate (18, 20, 22), or may comprise one or more flexible parts, such as flexible flaps (21a, 21b).

Air flow in a horizontal direction H between two beds (on top of each other) is allowed, so there is a common space above two adjacent beds, which may extend to a pair of beds arranged above the adjacent beds.

There are further essentially vertical barriers 23, 24 for preventing air on either side of the parallel sets. These barriers comprise rollable screens 23, 24, that prevent exchange of air and thus disturbance of the climate above the beds.

The figure is for illustrative purposes only and does in no sense limit the scope of protection as defined by the following claims.

Claims (9)

ConclusiesConclusions 1. Inrichting voor het telen van champignons, omvattende: - een stelling die is ingericht voor het dragen van bedden voor het houden van compost, - de genoemde bedden voor het houden van compost; waarbij - de bedden op een onderlinge afstand boven elkaar zijn geplaatst; waarbij - de bedden tenminste beweegbaar zijn tussen: - een eerste positie, waarbij een tweede bed gedragen boven een eerste bed tenminste gedeeltelijk de toegang tot het eerste bed hindert in een richting loodrecht op het vlak waarin het eerste bed zich uitstrekt; en - een tweede positie waarbij tenminste een groter deel van het eerste bed vrij toegankelijk is vanuit een richting loodrecht op het vlak waarin het eerste bed zich uitstrekt, in vergelijking met de eerste positie; met het kenmerk dat - de stelling twee groepen bedden draagt, waarbij de bedden van elke set op een onderlinge afstand boven elkaar zijn geplaatst, waarbij beide groepen zich parallel aan elkaar uitstrekken, en waarbij tenminste één bed van de eerste groep tenminste gedeeltelijk overlapt in verticale richting met een bed van de tweede groep, waarbij beweging van lucht met een verticale richtingscomponent tenminste gedeeltelijk is gebiokkeerd tussen het bed van de eerste groep en het in verticale richting tenminste gedeeltelijk overlappende bed van de tweede groep, wanneer het bed van de eerste groep en het bed van de tweede groep beide in de eerste positie verkeren.Device for growing mushrooms, comprising: - a rack adapted to support beds for holding compost, - said beds for holding compost; wherein - the beds are placed at a mutual distance above each other; wherein - the beds are movable at least between: - a first position, wherein a second bed carried above a first bed at least partially obstructs access to the first bed in a direction perpendicular to the plane in which the first bed extends; and - a second position in which at least a greater part of the first bed is freely accessible from a direction perpendicular to the plane in which the first bed extends, compared to the first position; characterized in that - the scaffolding carries two groups of beds, the beds of each set being spaced one above the other, both groups extending parallel to each other, and at least one bed of the first group overlapping at least partially in vertical direction with a bed of the second group, wherein movement of air with a vertical direction component is at least partially blocked between the bed of the first group and the vertically at least partially overlapping bed of the second group, when the bed of the first group and the bed of the second group are both in the first position. 2. Inrichting volgens conclusie 1, waarbij een luchtstroom met een verticale component vrijwel volledig tot volledig, geblokkeerd is tussen het bed van de eerste groep en het in verticale richting tenminste gedeeltelijk overlappende bed van de tweede groep.Device according to claim 1, wherein an air flow with a vertical component is almost completely to completely blocked between the bed of the first group and the vertically at least partially overlapping bed of the second group. 3. Inrichting volgens conclusie 1 of 2, waarbij de twee groepen dezelfde aantallen bedden hebben, en elk bed van de eerste groep een naburig bed heeft in de tweede set.Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the two groups have the same number of beds, and each bed of the first group has an adjacent bed in the second set. 4. Inrichting volgens conclusie 3, waarbij een luchtstroom met een verticale richtingscomponent is geblokkeerd tussen elk paar bedden.The device of claim 3, wherein an air flow with a vertical directional component is blocked between each pair of beds. 5. Inrichting volgens een van de voorgaande conclusies, waarbij de luchtstroom is geblokkeerd omdat de bedden tegen elkaar zijn opgesteld in hun eerste posities.Device according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the air flow is blocked because the beds are arranged against each other in their first positions. 6. inrichting volgens een van de conclusies 1-4, omvattende een hindernis voor het blokkeren van de luchtstroom, welke is gekoppeld aan of gemonteerd op de drager, aan één van twee naburige bedden, aan elk van twee naburige bedden of aan beide van twee naburige bedden.Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, comprising an air flow blocking barrier coupled to or mounted on the carrier, one of two adjacent beds, each of two adjacent beds, or both of two. neighboring beds. 7. Inrichting volgens conclusie 6, waarbij de hindernis een stijf onderdeel is, zoals een balk of een plaat, of waarbij de hindernis een of meer flexibele delen omvat, zoals een flexibel scherm.The device of claim 6, wherein the obstacle is a rigid part, such as a beam or a plate, or wherein the obstacle comprises one or more flexible parts, such as a flexible screen. 8. inrichting volgens een van de voorgaande conclusies, omvattende een voornamelijk verticale hindernis voor het tegengaan van lucht aan een of beide zijdes van de parallelle groepen.Apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, comprising a substantially vertical barrier for resisting air on one or both sides of the parallel groups. 9. Inrichting volgens een van de voorgaande conclusies, omvattende een spindel voor het bewegen van de bedden tussen de eerste en tweede positie, waarbij de spindel is voorzien van een externe koppeling voor een krachtbron.Device according to any of the preceding claims, comprising a spindle for moving the beds between the first and second position, the spindle being provided with an external coupling for a power source.