The present disclosure relates to a wick cutting and inserting system.

Such a system is for instance known from applicant’s own prior publication WO- 2013/164235, in particular figures 16 - 21 thereof, which figures also form part of the disclosure of US-2014/3110227. However, the prior disclosed system proved in practice susceptible to improvement, in terms of simplicity, robustness and functionality.

An answer to this desire was developed and will be elucidated herein below.

In accordance with the present disclosure, a system is provided, which is configured to arrange a wick in a plant pot, the plant pot having a bottom and at least one side wall extending from the bottom up to a rim, and at least one hole arranged in the plant pot, the system comprising:

- a supply of uncut wick material; and

- a cutting station to cut predetermined lengths of wick material and provide cut wicks to

- a driven lance with a head configured to engage the wick and insert the same in the hole of the plant pot, and leave the wick in the hole of the plant pot by retraction of the lance out of the hole, wherein the cutting station comprises selectively and individually operable holders at the supply to selectively engage wick material, a cutter in between the holders at the supply, and an opposing moveable head having at least one holder and configured to move between a position at the supply and a wick material extending position remote from the supply, where a distance between the supply and the wick material extending position corresponds with the predetermined length of the wick to be cut from the uncut wick material.

The system further exhibits a feature that the holders at the supply are arranged on a moveable head, alternating places with the opposing moveable head at the supply and at the wick material extending position. Optionally, the opposing moveable head further comprises at least a further holder or clamp. Additionally or alternatively, the moveable head and the opposing moveable head are configured to move along a common path between the supply and the wick material extending position. Then, the moveable head and the opposing moveable head may be arranged opposite one another, relative to the common path.

In a preferred embodiment the system exhibits a feature that any holders comprise clamps.

In a preferred embodiment having clamps as holders, the system may exhibit the further feature that one of the moveable head and the opposing moveable head, when returning to the supply from the wick material extending position without engaging a wick or wick material, is configured to fully open the clamps thereof, to allow passage there through of the clamps of the other of the moveable head and the opposing moveable head, moving from the supply to the wick material extending position while engaging wick material to extend the wick material to the wick material extending position. Optionally, then, outer shapes of the clamps may be oblique or beveled.

In a preferred embodiment the system exhibits a feature that one of the selectively and individually operable holders at the supply, that is closest to the supply, is configured to maintain engagement on the wick material, as a more remote other of the selectively and individually operable holders at the supply is configured to disengage the wick after cutting and engagement thereof by the lance. Optionally, then, the at least one holder of the opposing moveable head maybe configured to disengage the wick at the wick material extending position thereof remote from the supply, at essentially the same time as the more remote other of the selectively and individually operable holders at the supply.

In a preferred embodiment the system exhibits a feature of a pot throughfeed formed by at least an infeed, a pots piercing station preceding the lance, and an outfeed. Optionally, then, the pots piercing station may comprise at least one pot piercing element from a group comprising a blade, a knife, and a punch, and an anvil type press, arranged opposite the pot piercing element relative to the pot’s wall or bottom. Additionally or alternatively, the pots piercing element may be designed to create a hole in the pot with a shape from a group, comprising circular, linear, X- shaped and star shaped, and with a size corresponding with a cross sectional size of the cut wick or the uncut wick material.

Also the present disclosure relates to a method. In essence the appended system claims are defined relative to a supply side, from which wick material to be cut into wicks of predetermined length is taken up. In contrast the method claims define the gist of the present disclosure relative to a free end of the wick material to be cut into wicks.

The present invention is discussed above in terms of the appended claims, but will be described in further detail herein below, where reference is made to the accompanying drawings of several preferred and other embodiments, in which the same reference numbers may be used for the same or similar features of distinct embodiments, and of which it is noted that scope of protection for the invention is not to be limited to any such embodiment, but that the invention is only bound by the limitations of the accompanying claims, and then only the independent ones of these claims. In the drawing:

Fig. 1 shows a schematic side view of a plant pot and a wick to be inserted in the plant pot;

Fig. 2 shows a schematic perspective view of the plant pot of Fig. 1 after insertion of the wick;

Fig.’s 3 - 8 schematically show a succession of steps and parts of a station for inserting a wick into a plant pot as depicted in Fig.’s 1 and 2;

Figure 9 shows a more detailed embodiment of a station for performing the steps of figures Figures 10, 11 show details of the station of figure 9 in various stages of the process explained on the basis of figures 3 - 8; and

Figure 12 exemplifies a possible embodiment of a cutting station for arranging cuts in a bottom of a plant pot, to thereafter insert a lance and wick there through.

Fig. 1 shows a plant pot 1, containing soil 2 or any suitable substrate, like coco, peat, stone wool or glass wool or the like. Also in plant pot 1 a plant 3 is shown to clarify the purpose of the plant pot. However, at the stage depicted in fig. 1 more usually a plant 3 will not already be growing in the soil 2.

Namely, plant pot 1 comprises a number of bottom holes 6 in the bottom thereof. These are customary and pre-arranged or may be drilled or cut in the plant pot 1 at a time just before inserting the wick is to be executed. For instance customary holes 6 may allow a surplus of water to be discharged from the plant pot 1, and/or roots 7 of a plant 3 may be provided with air through the bottom holes or may be allowed to grow through the holes 6 in the bottom of the plant pot. A newly drilled or cut hole may be provided in a plant pot 1 solely for the purpose of arranging a wick 4. Notwithstanding the moment of arranging the hole 6 (during production of the plant pot 1 or later, just before inserting the wick), measures need to be taken to allow aligned inserting of the wick 4 through the hole 6.

In fig. 1 an inserting lance 5 is shown, forming a part of a station for processing plant pots 1, of which in fig. 1 only the inserting lance 5 is shown in conjunction with a drive 14. The inserting lance 5 has an engaging head 8, which is for example hook-shaped in order to engage the wick 4. The wick 4 has a predetermined length, and the engaging head 8 is arranged to engage the wick 4 approximately midway. At this time the wick may be tensioned as shown in and described below referring to figures 3 - 8. Where in the present specification an inserting lance 5 is referred to, this expression is intended to encompass all possible equivalents, such as a needle, a simple stick or rod, or any other elongate element capable of being aligned to a bottom hole and driven there through, and enabling that the wick is engaged and inserted though the pot’s bottom hole.

The engaging head 8 is to have sufficiently small dimensions to pass the inserting lance 5 with the engaging head 8 through one of the bottom holes 6 of the plant pot 1, when the drive 14 is selectively operated or activated. In order to be driven through a selected one of the bottom holes 6 in the bottom of the plant pot 1, the inserting lance 5 with the engaging head 8 is connected to the drive 14. The drive 14 enables the inserting lance 5 with the engaging head 8 to be inserted into and withdrawn back out of the plant pot 1 through the bottom hole 6 thereof in the direction of double arrow A. Thereby, the inserting lance 5 is driven upwards, taking the wick 4 along to be extended into the soil 2 in the plant pot 1. Lance 5 may be driven - and wick 4 may consequently extend after insertion - up to a top level of soil 2 or substrate in pot 1, up to a top rim of pot 1, or any other level inside pot 1 and lie on or extend upwards above the bottom of pot 1. The wick 4 may even be inserted through a hole 6 in side wall of the plant pot 1.

Thereafter, the inserting lance 5 is retracted by the drive 14 in a downward direction in the schematic representation of fig. 1, leaving the wick 4 behind. To this end, the rough exterior of the wick 4 is engaged by the soil 2 or any other present substrate, and the inserting lance 5 can be withdrawn, while leaving the wick 4 behind in the soil 2 or substrate. If no substrate is present in the pot at the time of inserting the wick 4, sizes of the wick 4 and the bottom hole 6 preferably exhibit a pre-defmed relationship, so that the exterior of the wick 4 is engaged by an inner edge of hole 6, whereby the wick 4 is stripped from the lance 5 as the lance 5 is retracted. The wick 4 then remains not upright, as in figure 2, since there’s no soil 2 in pot 1 to keep wick 4 upright, and the wick 4 may come to rest on the bottom of the pot 1. As a side consequence it is noted that this allows pots 1 with an inserted wick 4 to be stacked and transported without requiring additional transport space, relative to stacks of pots 1 without wicks 4 inserted therein. When filling soil 2 or substrate into a pot 1 with a wick on the bottom, the wick does not need to be raised upright, because roots of growing plants will surprisingly tend to grow faster towards the bottom of pot 1, with wick 4 on the bottom thereof, yielding better crops.

The inserting speed of the inserting lance 5 may vary and depend for instance on the consistency of the soil or other substrate in the plant pot. Speeds of more than 0,5 up to 5 or 15 cm/s may be effective for inserting the wick 4 using the lance and the drive 14 thereof. For automated applications as envisaged here with the present invention, the inserting speed may vary also and depend on (must at least correspond with) the supply and throughput speed of the plant pots. Preferred inserting speeds may be approximately 2 - 10 cm/s.

The wick 4 can be made from any suitable material that can exhibit a capillary action, such as a fibrous material, a woven or non-woven material, cotton, woven cotton rope, wool, acrylic string, hemp rope, synthetic shoe laces, chamois e.g. 100% rayon, braided polypropylene rope, polyester cord, nylon rope, etc. The wick material may be synthetic and/or natural, and/or designed not to be susceptible to rotting or quite the opposite - be allowed to rot in the course of time.

It is noted here that one or more than one additional wick may be inserted into a singular plant pot 1, which is schematically represented with additional arrow and second wick 4, which is shown in a dashed line. This may especially be called for in case of larger diameter pots for relatively large plants and/or if bottom holes 6 are small in relation to a desired wick thickness, where a desired water pull up capacity may be achieved using a plurality of wicks, optionally inserted in or through one bottom hole 6 or through a plurality of separate bottom holes 6.

Bottom holes may be dimensioned to have a diameter or effective opening (for instance in case of square holes) of 0, 1 cm2 - 5 cm2, more preferably a size between 0,2 - 4 cm2 and even more preferably a size of approximately 0,3 - 3 cm2. Additionally or alternatively, bottom holes 6 may comprise linear or crossing cuts of any of the aforementioned lengths, and below and embodiment is discussed of cutting the bottoms of pots, to that a wick thickness may be selected freely, without limitation imposed by dimensions of holes 6 if these are pre-arranged. The engaging head 8 must be dimensioned to pass through the bottom holes 6, without damage to the plant pots in the vicinity of the bottom holes 6. Either the holes (when designing the plant pot to correspond with the inserting head) of the head of the inserting lance (when designing the inserting lance, for instance to be used with pots of standard sizes) or both must be made to correspond.

Also, the choice of wick material must take the size of the bottom hole into account in particular since - as described below - the wick is doubled up in itself. Thus the wick may have dimensions, that are at most equal to half the free or effective opening of the bottom holes, into or through which it is to be inserted. Conversely, holes 6 may be cut at a size or dimension to accommodate wicks 4, and for wicks 4 to be stripped from the lance 5 in a retracting movement thereof.

The pot may have any suitable and possibly commercially already available size, in non limiting examples: a height of 11 cm and a top rim diameter of 12 cm; a height of 16 cm and a top rim diameter of 17 cm; or a height of 16,2 cm and a top rim diameter of 18,7 cm, etc. The size of the plant pots in fact does not really matter for the scope of the invention.

In fig. 3 and 9, respectively, a schematic and a more detailed representation are shown of a wick inserting (or “wicking”) station 200 for inserting a wick into a plant pot (not shown). The station comprises a storage and supply 202 containing an length of wire, cable, fabric or other wick material 203, which extends into a gripper head 201, comprising a pair of individually operable clamps 204, 205. The right clamp 205 does not engage the uncut wick material 203, whereas the left clamp 206 does engage the uncut wick material 203. The gripper head 201 then is moved to the right, in the direction of arrow B, pulling the uncut wick material 203 out of the supply 202, to arrive at the position shown in fig. 4. At the same time, opposing gripper head 206, comprising a left clamp 207 and a right clamp 208, is moved to the left along arrow B’ in fig. 3 to arrive at the position shown in fig. 4. Effectively, gripper heads 201 and 206 change positions, while extending the wick material there between. To allow gripper head 201 to pass opposing gripper head 206, clamp 205 may need to close before heads 201, 206 are reversed in position, as in figures 9 and 10. All clamps 204, 205, 207 and 208 have oblique or beveled outer surfaces 210 (shown in fig. 10, for a selection of clamps) to allow wick material 203 holding head 201 to pass through empty head 206, where the latter has opened all clamps 207, 208. Alternatively, movement along arrows B, B’ may be embodied along a curved trajectory, as indicated by curved arrows B, B’ in fig. 3.

However, the beveled or oblique outer surfaces and closing of empty clamp of wick material holding head 201 while opening both clamps 207, 208 of empty head 206 allows for an optimally simple design with only linear movement of the heads 201, 206. Thereafter, as in fig. 5, gripper head 206 is driven to engage both clamps 207, 208 on the uncut wick material 203. Due to a short distance between the clamps 207, 208 of gripper head 206, uncut wick material 203 may be easily cut using a cutter 209, as in fig. 6 and 11, without raffling and resulting in a longer life of cutter 209 (before cutter 209 becomes dull and needs sharpening or replacement). A stretching mechanism may be provided between clamps 207, 208 of head 206 to further promote these advantages. The cutter 209 may be embodied as a knife, blade saw, rotating blade, or any other suitable manner, and can be driven in the direction of arrow C to cut the wick material 203, as in fig. 6 and 11, to yield a wick 4. After cutting the uncut wick material 203 to liberate wick 4, as in fig. 6 and 11, in fig. 7 lance 5 is driven up to engage wick 4, after which right clamp 208 of gripper head 206 and left clamp 204 of gripper head 201 may disengage the cut wick 4 and lance 5 is driven up into pot 1 and back out of pot 1, in the direction of double arrow A, as in figures 1 and 7, to arrive at the situation of figure 3, but with heads 201, 206 in reversed positions.

In an alternative embodiment, right clamp 208 of gripper head 206 and left clamp 204 of gripper head 201 may maintain their clamping force on liberated wick 4, after lance 5 has engaged liberated wick 4, to tension liberated wick 4 between the head of lance 5 on the one side and the right clamp 208 of gripper head 206 and left clamp 204 of gripper head 201 on opposite sides of liberated wick 4, relative to head 8 of lance 5, and ensure that wick 4 doesn’t slip off head 8 of lance 5, in particular before or during insertion. For example, heads gripper head 201 and gripper head 206 may be driven to meet in the middle, as lance 5 is driven up, and even pot 1 may be lowered onto and over head 8 of lance 5. At the beginning, during or after lance 5 begins retraction from pot 1, right clamp 208 of gripper head 206 and left clamp 204 of gripper head 201 may then release liberated wick 4.

Thereafter, a new plat pot 1 can be subjected to the operations of a station which schematically functions in accordance with the representation of figs. 3 - 11.

In fig. 2 a resulting configuration of pot 1 and wick 4 is shown, which results from the actions disclosed above in relation fig. 1 and figures 3 - 11 herein above.

As a consequence of the feature that the engaging head 8 of the inserting lance 5 engages the wick 4 about midway, after inserting the inserting lance 5 through the bottom hole 6 all the way up to above the top level of the soil 2 and retracting the inserting wick 5 again, a loop 9 in the wick 4 results. This loop 9 is shown in fig. 2, and entails that the wick 4 is folded double - back on itself.

Moreover, in the insert detail in fig. 2, the practical use of a wick 4 in a plant pot 1 is depicted. The wick 4 is designed for and intended to suck up fluid, such as water, into the soil in the plant pot 1. To this end, a supply of water can be provided underneath the plant pot, in a growing situation following arranging of the wick 4. It has been detected that growth of roots 7, as shown in the insert detail in fig. 2, is drawn towards the wick 4 and the supply of water, provided thereby. Consequently, providing additional wicks (as schematically shown in fig. 1) may be beneficial to obtain a more homogeneous distribution of roots 7 through the soil 2 in the plant pot 1. However, as a contrary consideration, provision of water to the insides of the plant pot 1 should not be excessive for any specific species of plant. Some species of plants can be provided with practically unlimited amounts of water, whereas other plants can exhibit deterioration of the roots 7, for instance a rotting process, if an excess of water is furnished.

However, the wick 4 may also be inserted into an empty pot 1 and come to rest on the bottom thereof, not needing to be positioned upright through the soil 2 or substrate, for the wick 4 to be effective, as noted above, allowing stacked transport of wicked but otherwise empty pots 1.

In figure 12, a cutting station 300 is shown to comprise two separate cutters 301 and 302, each comprising a linear blade 303, 304. Before cutting linear cuts in a bottom of a plant pot 1, an anvil type press 305, 306 is lowered into the interior of the pot (not shown) to immobilize the pot during cutting. Pots are provided at a location of cutter 301 first, and then displaced to cutter 302 (or vice versa), to yield X-shaped cuts. However, an X-shaped cut can be realized using a single cross shaped knife, and cuts could be embodied in a circular or linear form or star shaped having more than four legs, et cetera. X-shaped cuts in bottoms of plant pots can be dimensioned sufficiently accurately by selection of a cutter dimension, to allow a lance 5 and wicks 4 to be inserted into pots 1, where triangular portions between legs of X-shaped cuts may yield at inserting the lance 5 and wicks 4, and engage wicks 4 while lance 5 is retracted.

Wicking station 200 and cutting station 300 may be arranged in a linear fashion or along the circumference of a carrousel type installation.

The wicking system may comprise a single stationary gripper head 201, 206 at the supply for cutting wick between the clamps thereof, while a reciprocally or cyclically moveable single clamp may be displaced to and from the gripper head at the supply to collect wick material from the stationary gripper head and extend the wick material through the then opened stationary clamps of the gripper head. With the moveable clamp at the wick material extending position, remote from the stationary gripper head, the gripper head may engage both clamps on the wick material for cutting a wick off the wick material between the clamps. The moveable clamp and the one clamp of the gripper head on the side of the cut wick may disengage from the wick, after the lance has picked up the wick for inserting the wick into the hole in or of the pot, while the other of the two clamps of the gripper head (closer to the supply) remains in engagement on the uncut wick material. The remote single clamp then returns to the gripper head, to engage an end of wick material at the still closed clamp of the gripper head, for the clamp in question to also open and allow the moveable clamp to extend the wick material through the gripper head. However, although this may be considered a simplification in terms of numbers of parts more in particular of moving parts, the perceived simplification goes at the cost of operational speed in view of inefficiently used time as the remote single clamp needs to return to the supply / gripper head, while the above disclosed embodiment with reference to the appended drawing is capable of extending wick material as soon as the lance has engaged the cut wick.

Where reference is made in the above to uncut wick material, it is self-evident that this is intended to refer to what remains after a wick at the predetermined length is cut therefrom.