FACMA produces a range of self-propelled harvesters suitable for the gathering of hazelnuts, chestnuts, almonds, walnuts, olives, coffee, macadamias, pecan nuts, etc.
These machines represent a well-advanced solution for the mechanized harvest of the product from the ground by aspiration.
Their employment determines many advantages:
- economical: reduction of the harvesting times and costs, saving of labour (they are manoeuvrable by just 1 operator);
- qualitative: reduction of the lying times of the product on the ground thanks to the possibility of making more harvesting passages; cleaning of the product thanks to an inside selection system.
- of use: possibility to work on slopes thanks to the application of the front driving wheel (on demand), great manoeuvrability thanks to the reduced steering angle, contemporaneous windrowing and harvest thanks to a windrower-harvester head and to the lateral blower, adaptability of the frontal harvester to irregular grounds, possibility to use the machine also with the employment of manual hoses (for excessively steep grounds).
The self-propelled harvester is equipped with a propulsion system with 3 wheels, 2 posterior driving and 1 front steering (driving on demand), of hydraulic transmission both for the propulsion and for the operator elements control, it is motorised with a water-cooled diesel engine.
The product fallen to the ground is windrowed by 2 front contra-rotating brushes, (available from 1,5 to 3,5 m of width) made of rubber scraper elements supported by radial oscillating arms (FACMA PATENT). This head can be moved on the left side thanks to a piston, so that it is possible to harvest also under-tree.
The machine is equipped with a lateral blower which using the aspiration air moves the fruits near the trunks to the following row, making the harvest faster.
The product is transferred by the brushes towards an aspirating pipe located centrally on a slide whose height can be regulated. Once aspired the product is channelled to a depression chamber where the heavier waste material is separated.
From here, the product is poured through a valve in a conveyor where it is blasted by an air jet generated by a ventilator: in this way leaves and lighter impurities are separated. There are 2 de-duster cyclones (only in the models C200S – C300S) with the purpose of lowering dusts before their dispersion in the air.
Then a screw transports the product in a double rotating sieve, where the impurities with different dimensions than the harvested fruits are separated (the sieve is made on the basis of the calibre of the products, changing only this component it is possible to use the machine for collecting different fruits).
Finally the clean product is unloaded in bags or in carriages trailed by the same machine.
For maximum harvesting performance, it is suggested to prepare the ground, working it different times by mulcher (grass cutting) during the previous year and before the produce falls to the ground.
Minto, NSW
******5065 
