Development of a Pneumatic Olive Harvester

Abstract

A pneumatic olive harvester was developed and evaluated in this study. The components of the developed machine were the limb clamp, vibrating unit, control elements, main tube, air-pressured hoses, control valve, and power source. The measurements that related to the development of the harvester were fruit and limb damage, and some physical and mechanical properties of the olives fruit-stem system. The results demonstrated that the effectiveness of the developed machine to harvest olive fruits. The appropriateness of the developed machine was evaluated by some criteria: machine productivity, fruit removal, fruit damage, limb damage depth at the contact point with the clamp of the machine, breakage of shaken limb, and consumed energy. The suitable values of these criteria were achieved at 27 Hz frequency and 60 mm stroke.

Development of Olive Harvesting Machine by Shaking

“…These results are similar to those found by Sola- Guirado et al (2019), who reported that the optimum frequency to operate the vibrator at 7.8 Hz. Ghonimy et al (2021) found that the highest values of fruit removal, 81%, was performed at 27 Hz frequency and 60 mm or 70 mm stroke. Younis et al (2017) found that the highest harvesting productivity was achieved at 1600 rpm and 3 min.…”