Hydroponic system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10412908-B2
Application number	US-201515524302-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2015
Priority date	Nov 5, 2014
Publication date	Sep 17, 2019
Grant date	Sep 17, 2019

Abstract

A hydroponic system (1) is provided with a light-collecting apparatus (3) having a pair of reflecting plates (31a) that are vertically arranged in parallel with a culture surface (23) of a culture panel (21) of a hydroponic unit (2). During a process in which natural light taken from a light-collecting opening (30) propagates while repeatedly reflected by opposing reflecting surfaces of a reflecting plates (31a), by allowing seedlings p that are transplanted into the culture panel (21) to be irradiated with the light through a light-emitting hole (32) bored in the reflecting plate (31a), a culture object can be grown efficiently at a low cost by taking natural light from the outside.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A hydroponic system comprising:
a hydroponic unit including a culture panel which is vertically arranged, the culture panel being configured to be planted with a seedling as a culture object; and
a light-collecting apparatus that receives natural light from the outside and irradiates the seedling planted into the culture panel with the natural light, wherein
the light-collecting apparatus includes a light-collecting opening and a pair of reflecting plates that are vertically provided in parallel with a culture surface of the culture panel provided in the hydroponic unit, wherein each of the reflecting plates includes a reflecting surface, the reflecting surfaces of the pair of the reflecting plates facing each other, and wherein at least one of the reflecting plates includes a light-emitting hole bored in the reflecting plate,
the light-collecting apparatus is configured so that the natural light received from the light-collecting opening is propagated by repeated reflection between the reflecting surfaces, a portion of the natural light passing through the light-emitting hole and irradiating the seedling planted into the culture panel,
each of the reflecting plates is movable from an approaching position to a leaving position relative to the hydroponic unit,
the light-collecting apparatus has a bottom part reflecting plate provided at a bottom of the light-collecting apparatus that reflects light that propagates between the reflecting surfaces and that reaches the bottom of the light-collecting apparatus towards at least one of the vertically provided reflecting plates, wherein the bottom part reflecting plate includes an apex portion which is bendable at a top of the bottom part reflecting plate,
the bottom part reflecting plate is formed in a mountain-like shape, and
as a distance between at least one of the movable reflection plates and the culture panel increases, the top of the bottom part reflecting plate rises while an apex angle of the apex portion changes.

2. The hydroponic culture system according to claim 1 , wherein, on a side part of a space between the light-collecting apparatus and the hydroponic unit, a side part-surrounding member that surrounds the space is provided.

3. The hydroponic system according to claim 1 , wherein a surface of one of the pairs of the reflecting plates facing the culture panel is a reflecting surface.

4. The hydroponic system according claim 1 , wherein the hydroponic unit comprises culture blocks in which a plurality of the culture panels are supported by a guide rail in a laterally-slidable manner.

5. The hydroponic system according to claim 4 , wherein the hydroponic unit is configured as an assembly of the culture blocks that are formed in a vertically stepwise manner.

Assignees

• Toyo Seikan Group Holdings Ltd

Inventors

• Agari Jun
• Muramoto Katsuhiro
• Murai Kunio
• Kamiya Takahiro
• Matsumoto Shinichirou
• Yoshimura Kazuto
• Fujiwara Akihiko
• Kubo Shinji
• Nishi Mari
• Itoh Akane

Classifications

• A01G31/02 Primary

  Special apparatus therefor (self-acting watering devices A01G27/00) · CPC title

• A01G9/025

  Containers and elements for greening walls (for covering roofs A01G9/033) · CPC title

• A01G31/04 Primary

  Hydroponic culture on conveyors · CPC title

• Y02P60/244

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02P60/216

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic