DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0014] Accompanying FIGS. 1 and 2 show a particularly preferred potting machine 10 embodying the present invention. As can be seen, the potting machine 10 includes generally a pot track system 12, a soil handling system 14, and a soil drilling system 16.

[0015] The pot track system 12 essentially includes separated sprockets 20, 22 which are engaged with an endless belt chain 24. A series of pot holders 26 are connect to, and thus supported by, the belt chain 24. In this regard, accompanying FIG. 2 shows an exemplary large-capacity pot P positioned in one of the pot holders 26, it being understood of course that during operation, other pots P would likewise be held in others of the pot holders 26. A vertically oriented drive shaft 20-1 is connected operatively between the sprocket 20 at one end thereof and to a drive motor 20-2 at the other end thereof. The motor 20-2 serves to rotate continuously the drive shaft 20-1 which in turn rotates the sprocket 20. As such, the belt chain 24 will therefore responsively be moved around the sprockets 20, 22 thereby carrying the individual pot holders 26 continuously along the closed-loop path established by the chain 24.

[0016] The soil handling system 14 is most preferably comprised of a soil feed hopper 30 and its associated soil feed conveyor 32. The hopper 30 provides an available stand-by source of potting soil PS which is carried to the discharge cute 34 by the conveyor 32 and deposited into an awaiting pot P (see FIG. 2). Excess soil which is not deposited into the pot P falls by gravity onto a lower recycle conveyor 36 (see FIG. 2) which serves to transfer such excess soil from the filling operation (as well as excess soil removed from the pot P by virtue of the soil drilling operation by means of the drilling system 16) to a return conveyor 38. The return conveyor 38 transfers the soil to a lift conveyor 40 to thereby deposit the soil back into the soil feed hopper 30 which it may again be conveyed by the conveyor 32 into another awaiting empty pot P. In such a manner, therefore, soil build-up below the pot track system 12 is prevented while at the same time ensuring that the potting soil PS is conserved and used for its intended purpose.

[0017] In the embodiment of the potting machine 10, the pot track system 12 is continuously moved in a clockwise direction as viewed from the top of FIG. 1. Thus, after being filled with potting soil PS, the pots P will be conveyed continuously by the pot track system 12 and be presented to the soil drilling system 16. As is perhaps more clearly depicted in FIGS. 3 and 4, the soil drilling system 16 is positioned above a linear segment of the endless pot tract, and is most preferably comprised of a pair of horizontally spaced-apart support sprockets 40, 42 interconnected by means of a continuous drive chain 44. An adjustable tensioner pulley 46 is provided so as to allow adjustable tensioning of the drive chain 44. Bearing blocks 40-1, 40-2 operatively associated with the support sprockets 40, 42 are supported by a structural beam B1 forming a component part of the supporting frame F of the potting machine 10. Similarly, structural beam B2 serves to support the adjustment bar 44-1 to which the tensioner pulley 44 is mounted.

[0018] A horizontally disposed upper support platform 48 is mounted rigidly (e.g., by welding) in a cantilevered manner to corresponding eccentric locations on the respective faces of each support sprocket 40, 42. A horizontally disposed lower support platform 50 is vertically spaced in a dependent manner below the upper platform 48 and is connected to the latter by adjustable support posts 52. A motor 54 is operatively connected to the support posts 50 by means of an adjustment chain (not shown) so as to permit the lower platform 50 to be raised and lowered relative to the upper platform 48 and hence relative to the pots P in the pot track system 12. By adjusting the vertical spacing between the platforms 48, 50, the depth of the recess drilled into the soil-filled pots P may be selected.

[0019] The lower support platform 50 supports a drill motor 56 connected to one end of the drive shaft 58 associated with the drill bit 60. When the drill bit 60 is brought into contact with the soil contained within an await soil-filled pot P (as will be described in greater detail below), the rotation of the drill bit 60 by the drill motor 56 will thereby responsively cause the screw flights 60-1 thereof to physically lift soil from the pot P and thereby form the desired recess into which a plant may be placed.

[0020] An annular compaction ring 62 surrounds the drill bit 60 and is supported by the lower support plate 50. The compaction ring 62 is mounted for reciprocal travel between towards and away from the support platform 50 by means of spring-biased support rods 64 slideably received with vertical support cylinders 66. The support cylinders 66 include spring members (not shown) which bias the compaction ring 62 into its lowermost position and against upward vertical displacement toward the support plate 50. Apertures 68 are formed in the upper platform 48 so as to receive the upper ends of each support rod 64 and thereby accommodate their uppermost displacement. During operation of the soil-drilling system 16, the compaction ring 62 thus serves to physically compact the soil contained within the pot P and to physically hold the soil around the recess being drilled by the dill bit 60 to thereby ensure that a well defined recess in the soil is formed.

[0021] The sprocket 40 is rotatably driven by means of a chain and sprocket drive system. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the sprocket shaft 40-2 of sprocket 40 is connected to a driven sprocket 70, while a drive sprocket 72 is coupled operatively to drive motor 74. An endless drive chain 76 spans the sprockets 70, 72 and thereby transfers the rotational drive from the sprocket 72 to the sprocket 70 and hence to the support sprocket 40. Thus, by operating the drive motor 74, the support sprockets 40, 42 will each be simultaneously rotated at the same rotational speed by virtue of the interconnection provided by chain 46.

[0022] In order to balance the stress forces exerted on the support sprockets 40, 42 by virtue of the weight and cantilevered eccentric mounting of the upper support platform 48 and the structures supported thereby, a counterweight 78 is provided and connected to the rotation shaft 42-2 of the support sprocket 42.

[0023] Downstream of the drilling system 16, a worker can place a plant into the recess that had been just drilled into the potting soil contained within the pot P. Thereafter, the pot P with the newly re-planted plant therein will then continuously be conveyed to the discharge position and will be urged out of its pot holder 26 by the discharge plate 80 onto a discharge conveyor 82 (see FIGS. 1 and 2). The discharge conveyor 82 may thus transport the finished potted plant to another location (e.g., a collection trailer or growing site on the nursery grounds). A worker may then manually place an empty pot into the vacated pot holder 26 to allow the cycle to repeat itself.

[0024] Accompanying FIGS. 5-8 show an operational sequence of the drilling system 16 in accordance with the present invention. In this regard, accompanying FIG. 5 depicts the drilling system 16 in an initial, or starting, position in its operational sequence in that the cantilevered connections between the upper support platform 48 and the support sprockets 40, 42 are located essentially at top center thereof relative to their respective rotation axes.

[0025] It will of course be understood that, during the sequence of operation to be described below, the sprockets 40, 42 are driven simultaneously by means of motor 74 and its associated chain drive system so as to rotate continuously about their respective rotation axes in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIGS. 5-8. Thus, the upper support platform 48 and the structures supported thereby, including the drill bit 60, will likewise be rotated continuously in a counterclockwise direction so as to trace a circular path whose radius or curvature is coincident with the radium of the support sprockets 40, 42. At the same time, the individual pot holders 26 will be driven continuously by the pot track system 12 by means of motor 20-2, drive shaft 20-1 and sprocket 20 so that the pot holders 26 will be presented sequentially to the soil drilling system 16. Speed synchronization between the continuous motion drilling system 16 and pot track system 12 may be achieved by a suitable programmable controller (not shown) operatively connected to the various drive motors.

[0026] The relative positioning of the pot holders 26 and the continuous operational speeds of the pot track system 12 and soil drilling system 16 will thus be synchronized such that the drill bit 60 and the top of soil-filled pot P will be substantially vertically aligned with one another as shown in FIG. 6. At this stage in the continuous cycle, the compaction ring will have come into contact with the upper rim of the pot P and the drill bit 60 will have penetrated somewhat into the soil contained therein. Continuous synchronous rotational of the movement of the sprockets 40, 42 will thus translate into movement of the drill bit 60 having simultaneous horizontal and vertical motion components. The horizontal motion component of the drill bit 60 will thus allow it to follow the pot P within the pot holder 26 as it moves continuously along a linear segment of the pot track. At the same time, the vertical motion component of the drill bit 60 allows the drill bit 60 to be forcible lowered into the soil within the pot P to the desired maximum depth. Such a state (i.e., a state where the drill bit 60 has simultaneously tracked the pot P along the linear pot track segment and has been vertically forced to its maximum depth within the soil contained within the pot) is shown in FIG. 7.

[0027] Continued rotation of the sprockets 40, 42 will thereafter cause the drill bit 60 to be raised relative to the pot P thereby leaving a recess of desired depth in the potting soil contained therein. Ultimately, further continued rotation of the sprockets 40, 42 will cause the drill bit 60 to be vertically spaced above the pot P so that it again assumes the starting position shown in FIG. 5. The thus drilled pot can then proceed downstream of the drilling system while the next sequential pot P is presented to the drilling system, whereby the cycle repeats itself.

[0028] A variety of modifications and equivalents are envisioned and could be implemented by those skilled in this art without undue experimentation. For example, although the potting machine 10 has been described above as being especially well suited for use with relatively large-sized pots (and for that purpose includes a single, relatively large-sized drill bit 60), smaller sized pots could likewise be handled making the potting machine 10 universally suitable for a wide range of pot sizes. Thus, the single, relatively large-sized drill bit depicted in the accompanying drawings, could be replaced with a pair of smaller-sized drill bits and their associated motors. These relatively smaller-sized drill bits could then be synchronously registered with smaller sized pot holders holding relatively smaller pots. That is, each of the large sized pot holders 26 shown in the accompanying drawings could be replaced with a pair of smaller sized pot holders which would then be synchronously registered with the pair of drill bits associated with the soil drilling system 16.

[0029] Furthermore, the chain and sprocket drive system used to rotate simultaneously the support sprockets 40, 42 could be replaced with virtually any suitable equivalent drive system. For example, each of the sprockets could be driven independently by its own separate variable speed drive motor. In addition, the support sprockets 40, 42 could be replaced with suitable gearboxes and computer-controllable drive motors to effect the desired continuous orbital movement of the drill bit (i.e., so as to achieve the desired simultaneous horizontal and vertical motion components in a manner described previously). In such a case, non-circular orbital movements (e.g., elliptical or oval orbital movements) of the drill bit above the pot track could possibly be achieved, in addition to the circular orbital movements described above.

[0030] Thus, while the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.