a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the harvesting of agricultural produce, and more particular to the harvesting of berries and similar products which are removed from the bushes or other plants by means of oscillating beating rods which engage the plant to remove the berries or other produce. More particularly, the present invention relates to the beater rod assembly for such harvesting machines, and more particularly to a beater rod configuration.
b. Background Art
For centuries, berries and other similar crops have been grown in crop rows, and the harvesting of the berries or other produce has been a manual operation. In recent decades, there have been developed harvesting machines which travel down the crop rows to harvest the berries mechanically. One method of accomplishing this is to provide the harvesting machine with beater rod assemblies which have one or more beater rod assemblies, each of which comprises a vertical shaft having a plurality of beater rods along the length of the shaft, with these beater rods being angularly spaced so that they extend from the shaft around the entire 360.degree. circumference of the shaft.
As the harvesting machine moves down the crop row, the beater rod assembly is positioned so that the shaft is adjacent to the outside lateral surface of the bush. The adjacent beater rods extend into the bush, and as the harvesting machine progresses down the crop row, the beater rods"walk" into and out of the bush. In addition, there is an oscillating motion superimposed over the rotational path of the beaters so that the oscillating motion of the rods within the bush enhances the removal of the berries. The interior ends of the rods are fixedly mounted to the shaft, and these rods have some degree of flexibility. However, they are sufficiently stiff so as to be able to impact the plants with sufficient force to enhance removal of the berries without damaging the bush itself.
Also, in recent decades, fiberglass construction and other composition structures involving high strength to weight ratios have been used in a great variety of applications. There have been attempts to incorporate fiberglass materials in beater rods. This is accomplished by the glass fibers being arranged in a generally parallel elongate configuration, and the fibers are bonded together by a suitable material such as a mixture of silicon dioxide, aluminum oxide, and magnesium oxide.
One of the problems in utilizing fiberglass for beater rods is that under certain circumstances they are more likely to become damaged. In some instances, these are damaged simply by the rod breaking off from the shaft, generally near the root. In other instances, the fibers of the rod become loosened from one another so that the rod loses the required degree of stiffness.
Quite commonly, two beater rod assemblies are used in one harvesting machine, with these being positioned on opposite sides of the bush row. As the beater rods from the two assemblies extend into the crop row, the ends of the rods will overlap to some extent. If the length of overlap is relatively small (e.g. two inches), or relatively large (as great as eight inches), it is found that the interaction of the rods engaging each other has little damaging affect on the rods. However, an optimized positioning of the beater rod assembly is generally such that there is about a four inch length of overlap. Under these conditions, there appears to be a much higher amount of damage occurring. This would generally occur by the ends of the rods engaging one another to impart forces to the engaging rods that result in the loosening of the strands from one another or possibly breakage.
Another problem is that if there are posts in the crop row, one of the beater rods may have its end tip engage the post and thus cause the beater rod to become damaged.
It is toward these problems that the present invention is directed.