Installation for a hanging cultivation system

Abstract

An installation that has a plurality of conduits hung by pairs of steel cables connected to rotary shafts such that the rotation of the same causes some conduits to ascend and others to descend, allowing the same to be situated at different heights. The rotary shafts from which the cables of the conduits hang are actuated by reducers actuated by a chain-and-sprocket drive that is actuated by a main shaft connected to a motor reducer.

Claims

1. An installation for hanging cultivation systems, comprising: a general supporting structure made of props, bars, trusses, struts, and a plurality of conduits, each conduit having ends, each end of each conduit being hung by a pair of cables for raising and lowering the conduit, each pair of cables being rollable and unrollabale on a respective rotary shaft connected to the general supporting structure and actuated by associated reducers connected to a main shaft of an actuation motor reducer, the main shaft of the actuation motor reducer being transverse to the rotary shafts hanging the conduits, each conduit comprising a wrapping material, two spaced longitudinally extending beams supporting the wrapping material, a truss structure that comprises a plurality of bars connected to the beams, and hooks located at connecting areas on the beams to hang additional steel cables to hold the conduit at intermediate points linked to intermediate rotary shafts.

2. The installation for hanging cultivation systems, according to claim 1, further comprising sprockets and chains for driving the rotation of the reducers to the rotary shafts.

3. The installation for hanging cultivation systems, according to claim 1, wherein the conduits are hung by pairs of steel cables connected to the rotary shafts, so that each conduit is linked to each pair of rotary shafts and rolls up in a direction different from the contiguous conduit, so that rotating said rotary shaft in one direction or the other will cause contiguous conduits to separate or approximate vertically.

4. The installation for hanging cultivation systems, according to claim 1, wherein the rotary shafts are formed by a successive series of sections of shafts joined together by means of connecting elements.

5. The installation for hanging cultivation systems, according to claim 1, wherein the rotary shafts are hung by means of bearings and tubular trusses of cultivation beams arranged as horizontal beams of the general supporting structure.

6. The installation for hanging cultivation systems, according to claim 1, wherein each conduit comprises a water collector on at least one of the ends thereof.

7. The installation for hanging cultivation systems, according to claim 1, wherein the actuation motor reducer and the reducers are mounted on plates fixed to the general supporting structure.

8. The installation for hanging cultivation systems, according to claim 1, wherein the actuation motor reducer incorporates an end position in order to allow the shaft connected to it to rotate in both directions.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) To complete the invention described below and in order to give a better understanding of the characteristics of the invention, according to a preferred embodiment thereof, this description is accompanied by a set of drawings in which the figures described below have been represented, for purely illustrative purposes and should not be construed as limiting:

(2) FIG. 1.—Shows a frontal elevation view of an installation for the hanging cultivation system designed according to the object of the invention, in which some conduits are aligned on a lower level and other conduits are aligned on a higher level than the aforementioned conduits.

(3) FIG. 2.—Shows a similar view as in the previous figure, but in this case there are conduits distributed on three levels at different heights.

(4) FIG. 3.—Shows a perspective view of the installation of the invention.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

(5) In light of the drawings described above, it can be observed how the installation for cultivating plants that is the object of the invention is designed to form part of a general supporting structure (1) made of props, bars, trusses, beams and other conventional structural elements, as represented on FIG. 1.

(6) This structure comprises at least one horizontal cultivation beam (2), the function of which will be explained later.

(7) The installation of the invention is characterised in that it includes a plurality of conduits (3) where the plants (18) to be cultivated are going to be located, with these conduits being hung from the ends thereof by pairs of steel cables (4) connected to rotary shafts (5), which are supported by the cultivation beam (2) by means of a truss (6) and a bearing (7), as shown in the details of FIG. 3, while the rotary shafts (5) are formed by sections joined together by means of connecting elements (8), as shown also on FIG. 3.

(8) Rotating and assembling the sections of the rotary shafts (5) is arranged in such a way that a series of hanging cables (4) are rolled in when rotating in one direction while others are rolled out in the same direction of rotation, causing some conduits (3) to be raised or lowered according to how the hanging cables (4) are arranged and attached.

(9) These conduits (3) comprise a water collector (9) or funnel on one of the ends thereof, including bars (10) as a supporting structure for each case, with an enveloping plastic or other suitable wrapping material (19), beams (11), and hooks (12) corresponding to the connecting areas in order to hang the steel cables (13) in case the assembly is too long and needs to be held at intermediate points, which will also be linked to intermediate rotary shafts, which are not represented in the example embodiments chosen.

(10) The rotation of the rotary shafts (5) is carried out by means of a reducer (14) using sprockets and chains (15) that are actuated by a main rotation shaft (16), which is actuated by a motor reducer (17) that causes the main shaft (16) to rotate and consequently, by means of said chain-and-sprocket drive (15), actuates the reducers (14) and therefore rotates the rotary shafts (5), which results in raising and/or lowering the conduits (3) and the plants (18) associated to them.

(11) In this regard, both the motor reducer (17) as well as the reducers (14) are mounted on convenient plates fixed to the general supporting structure (1).

(12) Finally, it should be highlighted that the actuation motor reducer (17) incorporates an end position in order to allow the shaft connected to it to rotate in both directions.