Apparatus and method for automated tobacco harvesting

摘要

An apparatus and method for automated harvesting are providing. The apparatus includes a mechanism for cutting the stalks of plants being harvested adjacent the ground. An inclined conveyor grasps the cut stalks and elevates them above the ground. The conveyor includes two corners that serve to partially invert the plants as they are conveyed. Cooperating inversion disks at the end of the inclined conveyor complete the inversion of the stalks through 180 DEG . After the stalks are inverted they are conveyed on a spacing and notching conveyor. The spacing and notching conveyor operates at a slower speed than the inclined conveyor so as to reduce the spacing between the inverted plants to a distance appropriate for curing. A notching mechanism cuts two opposed, laterally spaced notches in the stalks of the inverted plants as they are conveyed. The plants are then substantially continuously fed by a feed conveyor so that the notched stalks are received and held within a slotted track of a portable frame allowing subsequent curing. The apparatus also includes mechanisms for (1) dispensing a portable frame from a magazine rack of frames on the harvester to a position for receiving plants; (2) indexing the frame relative to the feed conveyor so as to allow ordered, sequential filling of multiple slotted tracks on the frame; and unloading filled frames from the harvester. The notching and indexing mechanisms as well as a method of harvesting are also claimed.