ISHS Acta Horticulturae 187: I International Symposium on Mechanization of Vegetable Production
DEVELOPMENT OF A SEMI AUTOMATIC TRANSPLANTER |
| Authors: | A. Margolin, Y. Alper, A. Eshed |
| Abstract:
The commercial transplanters are operated by hand feeding of individual seedlings into clamps which place them into the ground. The average rate of planting per worker is limited to 30 – 40 plants/min. The present development work concerns a semi-automatic system in which the seedlings are fed in batches by hand into a horizontal feeding conveyor divided into cross-wise partitions. The conveyor delivers single plants into split cone-cups by setting them into the ground in their natural growing position. This development, which is the first step towards a fully automated system, was aimed at increasing the rate of planting to facilitate planting of a wide assortment of seedlings and for planting through mulching which has become a wide spread practise. The field test showed that loading in batches increased the feeding rate to 90 plants/min. The cone-cups perforated the plastic mulching film and placed the seedlings in the required position. The size of the plants was found to be a critical parameter for good field operation. Further development is needed in order to improve plant transfer from the feeding conveyor into the cone-cups and in order to get better plant positioning under wet soil conditions. | |
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