Plant cultivation equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11140834-B2
Application number	US-201515549598-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 18, 2015
Priority date	Feb 18, 2015
Publication date	Oct 12, 2021
Grant date	Oct 12, 2021

Abstract

The plant cultivation equipment performs planting work of seeds or seedlings without taking much labor and without attaching bacteria and includes a packing work room which includes a sterilization activity composition supply device which supplies the packing work room with a predetermined amount of sterilization activity composition which sterilizes the packing work space into which the packing materials are transferred, a sterilization activity composition detecting device provided in the packing work room and detecting the concentration of the sterilization activity composition, an exhaust device which discharges the sterilization activity composition from the packing work room and an outside air supply device which supplies the packing work room with the outside air through filter, capable of catching the sterilization activity composition, when the sterilization activity composition is discharged.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A plant cultivation equipment comprising:
a plurality of culture medium holding units equipped with a medium for cultivating seeds or seedlings of plants;
a planting work room, which is a highly secured air-tightness housing, with a bacteria intrusion prevention structure that can prevent bacteria from intruding inside of the planting work room from outside thereof, upon performing a planting work for planting the seeds or seedlings of the plants in the medium of the culture medium holding units within the planting work room;
a plant cultivation room for cultivating the plants planted in the medium of the culture medium holding units after transferring the plurality of culture medium holding units in which the planting of the seeds or seedlings of plants is performed in the planting work room;
wherein the planting work room includes:
a work executing room in which a worker executes work for planting seeds or seedlings of plants in the seedling culture medium of the culture medium holding units, the work executing room includes a transparent panel made of a strengthened glass and a globe into which hands and arms of the worker are configured to be inserted; and
a worker room in which the worker works, the worker room is separated from the work executing room by the transparent panel and the globe,
wherein the work executing room includes:
a sterilization activity composition supplying device which supplies the planting work room with a predetermined amount of ozone which sterilizes a working space of the planting work room and the plurality of culture medium holding units equipped with the medium transferred into the planting work room;
a sterilization activity composition concentration detecting device provided in the planting work room for detecting a concentration of the ozone;
an exhaust device which discharges the ozone from the planting work room; and
an outside air supply device which supplies the planting work room with an outside air through a filter capable of catching the bacteria when the ozone is discharged,
wherein the planting work room and the plant cultivation room are partitioned by a sliding door configured to allow the culture medium holding units to pass there through,
wherein the plant cultivation room includes an atmospheric pressure raising device that raises an atmospheric pressure level inside the plant cultivation room higher than an atmospheric pressure level inside the planting work room when supplying the planting work room with the outside air for discharging the ozone from the planting work room,
wherein the atmospheric pressure raising device prevents the ozone in the planting work room from leaking into the plant cultivation room,
wherein the planting work room further includes:
a transfer inlet through which the seedlings and the culture medium holding units are moved in,
a transfer outlet through which the culture medium holding units, under the state that the seedlings have been planted in the seedling culture medium of the culture medium holding units, are moved out, and
a transfer device which transfers the culture medium holding units from the transfer outlet of the planting work room to a transfer mechanism of the plant cultivation room,
wherein the transfer mechanism includes a plurality of transfer mechanisms provided in series in a transfer direction and each of the plurality of transfer mechanisms includes the culture medium holding unit to be transferred in the transfer direction,
wherein the plurality of transfer mechanisms transfers the plurality of culture medium holding units such that one of the plurality of transfer mechanisms positioned at an upper stream side transfers the plurality of culture medium holding units to another one of the plurality of transfer mechanisms positioned at a downstream side neighboring to the one of the plurality of transfer mechanisms when the plurality of culture medium holding units is transferred in the transfer direction, and
wherein a distance in the transfer direction between mutually neighboring culture medium holding units when the plurality of culture medium holding units is transferred in the transfer direction is set such that the distance between the culture medium holding units transferred by the another one of the plurality of transfer mechanisms positioned at the downstream side is set to be longer than the distance between the culture medium holding units transferred by the one of the plurality of transfer mechanisms positioned at the upper stream side.

2. The plant cultivation equipment according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a packing work room with a bacteria intrusion prevention structure which can prevent bacteria from intruding inside from outside when an indoor packing work for the plants which have been cultivated in the plant cultivation room, is performed, wherein

the packing work room includes:
a packing work executing room in which a worker executes work for packing the plants which have been cultured in the plant cultivation room; and
a worker packing room in which the worker works, the worker packing room is separated from the packing work executing room,
wherein the packing work executing room includes:
a sterilization activity composition supply device which supplies the packing work room with a predetermined amount of ozone which sterilizes a packing work space into which packing material is transferred;
a sterilization activity composition detecting device provided in the packing work room and detecting the concentration of the ozone;
an exhaust device which discharges the ozone from the packing work room; and
an outside air supply device which supplies the packing work room with the outside air through the filter which is capable of catching the bacteria when the ozone is discharged,
wherein the packing work room and the plant cultivation room are partitioned via a sliding door that allows the culture medium holding units to pass there through,
wherein the atmospheric pressure raising device raises an atmospheric pressure level inside the plant cultivation room higher than an atmospheric pressure level inside the packing work room when supplying the packing work room with the outside air for discharging the ozone from the packing work room in a state in which the sliding door is closed,
wherein the atmospheric pressure raising device prevents the ozone in the packing work room from leaking into the plant cultivation room, and
wherein the plant cultivation equipment further includes a transfer device of the packing work room which transfers the culture medium holding units from the transfer mechanism of the plant cultivation room to the packing work room after a packing work space is sterilized in the packing work room and the ozone is discharged from the packing work room.

Assignees

• Fuji Seiko Co Ltd
• Fuji Shoji Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yoshida Masashi

Classifications

• A01G31/04

  Hydroponic culture on conveyors · CPC title

• A01G9/24 Primary

  Devices {or systems} for heating, ventilating, regulating temperature {, illuminating}, or watering, in greenhouses, forcing-frames, or the like · CPC title

• A01G31/00

  Soilless cultivation, e.g. hydroponics (growth substrates therefor A01G24/00; cultivation of seaweed A01G33/00) · CPC title

• Y02P60/21

  Dinitrogen oxide [N2O], e.g. using aquaponics, hydroponics or efficiency measures · CPC title

• A01G7/06 Primary

  Treatment of growing trees or plants, e.g. for preventing decay of wood, for tingeing flowers or wood, for prolonging the life of plants · CPC title