Abstract A harvester pick-up particularly for retrieving fallen nuts and fruits, such as almonds, oranges and the like, from the ground includes a mobile frame preferably self-propelled or tractor drawn and having a primary rotary brush generally in contact with the ground and mounted on the frame for rotation transversely at the leading end thereof. Also disposed on the frame is a power driven secondary brush parallel to and behind the primary brush and arranged so that the tines on the brushes interdigitate or interrelate and operate in such a direction that they pick up materials from the ground between them and toss the picked-up materials onto a reflecting panel from which the materials are deposited onto a primary conveyor belt leading rearwardly. A stream of air is impelled to flow along the primary conveyor and assists in lifting lighter waste materials therefrom. The air current is induced by a fan which takes some of the lighter waste materials and discharges them ultimately to the atmosphere, whereas the primary conveyor takes the intermixed heavier materials, including the nuts or fruit, on an incline and discharges such mixed materials into a generally vertically extending separator column on the frame. An upwardly traveling draft of air, induced by the fan, flows through the separator column and produces a further separation of the lighter, irregularly shaped materials from the heavier, uniformly shaped materials. The heavier materials descend through the relatively wide separator column and are converged by rollers to fall onto a relatively narrow secondary conveyor belt. The nuts, or fruit, on the secondary conveyor are lifted and discharged at the rear of the machine.
Inventors
👤 Barry Ramacher
👤 Marvin L Pack
Bibliographic Details
Application Number—
JurisdictionUS
Data Sourcegoogle_patents
Last Synchronized2026-10-31 10:23
CPC Classifications
A; A01; A01D; A01D51/00; A01D51/002
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 4
Claim 1
Independent Claim
186 words
A harvester pick-up comprising: a. a mobile frame; b. a primary brush rotatably mounted on said frame transversely at the leading end thereof, said primary brush including tines; c. a secondary brush rotatably mounted on said frame behind and parallel to said primary brush, said secondary brush including a drum and a plurality of fingers projecting from said drum and interleaved with said tines, said secondary brush being smaller in diameter than said primary brush in order to direct the material emergent from said brushes in a rearwardly inclined trajectory; d. means for contra-rotating said brushes in directions such that the bottom portion of said primary brush moves rearwardly along the ground and the bottom portion of said secondary brush moves forwardly along the ground; e. deflector means mounted on said frame and spaced above said brushes for intercepting and deflecting in a rearward direction the material lifted from the ground and propelled upwardly and rearwardly by said brushes; f. a conveyor mounted on said frame and extending rearwardly from a location adjacent the after portion of said secondary brush to a discharge location removed therefrom.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
186 words
A harvester pick-up comprising: a. a mobile frame; b. a primary brush rotatably mounted on said frame transversely at the leading end thereof, said primary brush including tines; c. a secondary brush rotatably mounted on said frame behind and parallel to said primary brush, said secondary brush including a drum and a plurality of fingers projecting from said drum and interleaved with said tines, said secondary brush being smaller in diameter than said primary brush in order to direct the material emergent from said brushes in a rearwardly inclined trajectory; d. means for contra-rotating said brushes in directions such that the bottom portion of said primary brush moves rearwardly along the ground and the bottom portion of said secondary brush moves forwardly along the ground; e. deflector means mounted on said frame and spaced above said brushes for intercepting and deflecting in a rearward direction the material lifted from the ground and propelled upwardly and rearwardly by said brushes; f. a conveyor mounted on said frame and extending rearwardly from a location adjacent the after portion of said secondary brush to a discharge location removed therefrom.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
109 words
A harvester pick-up as in claim 1 including an arcuate transverse guide plate mounted on said frame between said conveyor and said secondary brush, said guide plate extending forwardly and downwardly within brushing distance of said fingers to terminate in a leading margin adjacent said bottom portion of said secondary brush, said guide plate in the vicinity of said leading margin being so inclined that all material failing to reach said conveyor and disposed between said guide plate and said drum is impelled by said fingers in a direction such that the material passes forwardly below said drum and toward said rearwardly moving bottom portion of said primary brush.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
38 words
A harvester pick-up as in claim 2 in which said deflector portion includes a plurality of planar facets which follows approximately an arcuate path and are angled to direct the emergent material rearwardly and downwardly onto said conveyor.