Technical Field The invention relates to an apparatus and a process for gathering agricultural produce from a field.

Background Art It is usefully applied in the field of many types of food produce, for example grapes, which are harvested mostly manually using containers (baskets or crates) which are filled manually and the transferred using carts, or by mechanical means with the use of special carts on which the harvesters are perched, who however work by hand to detach the products from the plants and place them in containers arranged on the carts themselves.

With regard to the actual detachment stage of the produce from the plant, this mechanised way of harvesting, commonly used for gathering fruits cultivated in <BR> <BR> lines (pears etc. ), and the placing thereof in containers is mostly done in the same way i. e. manually, in which the harvester is on the ground instead of being in the cart.

This harvesting process, however mechanised it may be, exhibits all of the negative characteristics of the manual methods, where the harvester removes the products from the plants and deposits them in the containers which normally are placed on the ground and only thereafter, when they are full, will be lifted and placed on the carts so that they can be transferred. The harvester therefore has to detach the fruit from the plants and transfer it manually into the containers. This

operation requires a certain type of care on the part of the harvester, as well as considerable physical exertion due to the fact that the produce, after being detached from the plant, has to be held by the worker until it is finally deposited in the container.

Another type of mechanised harvesting, used for example with grapes produced in grids with pole supports, uses special harvesting machines which are located on the single rows and, though there are various systems, all"rake"the vines and cause the grapes to detach.

This type of harvesting, which can with some justification be called mechanical, is however very traumatic for the vine and the grapes harvested.

Thus this process does not enable a cleanly and well-produced harvest, such as the traditional manual methods provide.

The main aim of the present invention is to obviate the above-cited limitations and drawbacks in the prior art.

Some advantages of the invention are its simplicity and the ease with which it can be used.

A further advantage of the invention is that it considerably simplifies the operations for the personnel at work, and reduces the physical effort needed with respect to the traditional art.

These aims and advantages and others besides are all attained by the present invention, as it is characterized in the claims that follow.

Disclosure of Invention Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention will better emerge from the detailed description that follows of some preferred but non-exclusive embodiment of the invention, illustrated purely by way of non-limiting examples in the accompanying figures of the drawings, in which: figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of the invention ;

figure 2 shows, in the same view as in figure 1, a further embodiment; figure 3 shows, in the same view as in figure 1, a further embodiment; figure 4 shows, in the same view as in figure 1, a further embodiment.

The figures of the drawings show an apparatus for harvesting agricultural produce in the field, in particular grapes 3, which comprises at least one belt 4 which can be rested on the ground 1 close to the vines 2, which are in the embodiment cultivated on poles. The fruit harvested could be other than grapes, and the plants other than vines.

The single belt 4 is laid on the ground so that the grapes 3 can fall onto it once they have fallen from the vine 2. The belt 4 is therefore of an appropriate width and is made of a suitable material.

In particular, in the illustrated embodiments of figures 1,2 and 3, the belt 4 is flexible and elastically deformable, both longitudinally and transversally, and is sufficiently resistant to enable it to be dragged on the ground once loaded with the grapes 3.

The loading operation of the belt 4 is done very simply, very rapidly and with a minimum exertion on the part of the harvesters, who only have to detach the bunches of grapes from the vines and drop them onto the belt 4.

Once the belt has been loaded in the described way, the belt 4 can be activated and longitudinally dragged, therefore transporting the whole load thereon of produce, in this case grapes 3, to be unloaded at destination.

Means for dragging the belt 4 comprise, in the simplest preferred embodiment, at least a cylinder 5 (a roller or a drum) which is rotated either mechanically or manually so that the belt 4 is wound around it.

The cylinder 5 is preferably rotated about an axis thereof by a specially- predisposed simple gear reducer 7.

The cylinder 5 can be mounted on a tractor or other agricultural machine having

an independent motorisation, or can be operated via a power take-off from the tractor or machine.

The cylinder 5 is preferably disposed with a horizontal rotation axis, or nearly horizontal.

In particular, the cylinder 5 is located at a predetermined height above the ground 1. This is so that the place where the grapes 3 are unloaded is located below or immediately downstream, in the advancement direction of the belt 4, of the portion of the belt 4 which is partially wound around the cylinder 5.

The fact that the cylinder 5 on which the belt 4 is slowly wound, which belt 4 is flexible and elastically deformable, is located at a certain height above the ground is of great importance.

The raising of the belt 4 ensures, at least in the tract of belt 4 which is raised from the ground, i. e. the part immediately preceding the cylinder 5, effective protection against the fruit's falling off the belt 4, as the belt 4 laterally bends upwards due to the weight of the fruit, causing the fruit to be contained in the central part thereof. This is largely due to the mainly transversal elasticity of the belt.

Secondly, the raised position of the belt 4 with respect to cylinder 5 enables the fruit to be unloaded by simple force of gravity, in the same way as in usual conveyor belt configurations. Obviously the unloading is done above an underlying container, or onto another conveyor belt which then loads the produce, for example, onto the back of a vehicle.

The belt 4 loading operation is very simply done, and is very rapid and requires a small physical exertion on the part of the harvesters, who basically only have to detach the bunches of grapes from the vine and drop them onto the belt 4.

A support element 6 can be predisposed below a portion of the belt 4 which immediately precedes (and is therefore closest to) the cylinder 5, with a double aim: firstly it will serve to give the correct inclination to the portion of belt 4

raised from the ground 1 and secondly it can be used to tease the belt 4 into a concave conformation, for correctly containing the fruit produce loaded on the belt 4 as it is raised from the ground 1; for this purpose the support element 6 is specially shaped, in the form of a channel.

The upper surface of the support element 6, which has a ramp function, must be sufficiently smooth to allow free sliding of the belt 4 riding over it.

To favour and possibly to accentuate the taking-on of the correct described conformation by the belt 4 as it is raised off the ground 1, in the part immediately preceding the cylinder 5, the cylinder 5 itself might be given a non-constant transversal section, characterised by greater diameter at ends thereof with respect to a central part thereof.

For normal operation, a plurality of cylinders is provided, one for each belt 4, which can be interchangeably used in the apparatus for dragging the belt 4 and for the unloading of the produce from the belt.

In a further embodiment, illustrated in figure 4, the belt 4, though having the flexibility in the longitudinal direction thereof, necessary for enabling winding thereof onto the cylinder 5, the belt 4 is not provided with much elastic deformability in a transversal direction thereof. In this case the lateral containing of the produce loaded on the belt 4 or on a part thereof closes to the cylinder 5 can be done by including two fixed lateral borders.

A further embodiment, not illustrated in the figures of the drawings, differs from the previously described embodiments in that it includes, on the belt 4 extended on the ground 1, provision of containers or trays which are deposited on the belt 4, which are superiorly open and which are destined to be filled with the agricultural produce picked off the plants or trees. In this embodiment the products are not directly deposited on the belt 4, but in the containers or trays which are placed on the belt 4; the trays effect a lateral containing of the fruits.

The belt 4 must be predisposed to afford, on a surface thereof, the containers or trays, i. e. the belt 4 must afford the necessary properties of adherence so that the trays can be drawn along on the belt 4.

Unloading can be done by tipping the container or trays or by simply removing and stacking them.

The present invention also concerns a process for gathering agricultural produce from the field, which includes, in order: laying on the ground 1, in proximity of fruit plants from which fruit is to be harvested, at least a belt 4, which belt 4 is flexible and elastically defonnable, which belt 4 is predisposed so that agricultural produce can be loaded thereon once detached from the plant or tree; dragging the at least a belt 4 on which the produce is loaded up until the produce is unloaded in a predetermined destination ; the dragging being performed by means comprising at least a cylinder 5 which is rotated so that the belt 4 is wound thereabout; the cylinder 5 being located at a predetermined height above the ground 1 and the destination for the unloading is located directly downstream of the portion of belt 4 which is wound about the cylinder 5, with reference to the advancement direction of the belt 4.

The dragging of the belt 4 by the cylinder 5 is done at a suitable speed, i. e. not a speed which might cause the produce on the belt to be moved around or lost.

The apparatus of the invention aims to enable the gathered produce to be transferred non-traumatically, that is, without any damage to the produce during the transport.

It also does not require the use of self-propelled vehicles or agricultural vehicles for collection between the rows of plants or trees, because the only operation needed is the laying of the belt 4 on the ground 1. This considerably reduces the risk of accidents for the workers.

The use of the invention, which is especially convenient in hilly areas, considerably reduces physical exertion on the part of the harvesters and, overall, reduces the manual labour required, by about 20-30%.

A considerably advantage offered by the invention, in particular relating to the harvesting of grapes, is that the harvesting of the produce on the"right"day in terms of temperature, so that the grapes can be crushed just when best results are obtainable, with no need to refrigerate the produce for any length of time.