267
A Conveyor for Fruit Transport
1. Introduction
In the last few years fruit transport methods
have changed significantly. The main impetus
for those changes was the changeover from field
box to bulk containers, or bulk wagons, which
necessitates the use of heavier and bulkier
machinery to transport the fruit in the grove or
orchard. Often row width is not enough to
accommodate this machinery without mechani-
cal damage to tree and fruit. In wet soils, com-
paction and puddling damages the soil and
trees; tractors get stuck and have to be pulled out
by others, etc.
Israel’s citrus growers harvest their crop during
the rainy season. Many orchards are planted on
heavy, soft soils, where movement of tractors is
often impossible. Those conditions led to the
search for alternative solutions, one of which is
described in this paper.
2. Design considerations
The requirements are for equipment which is
(i) usable under the most difficult soil con-
ditions without causing compaction;
(ii) not tied permanently to one site;
(iii) able to handle fruit without damage;
(iv) unhampered by small width of passage
between trees and does not cause damage
to extending branches;
(v) able to operate in association with other
handling equipment;
(vi) safe in operation;
(vii) economically justified.
There are two basic types of solution:-
(a) Solutions which use the soil as a surface
for horizontal movement and bearing
(vertical support).
(b) Solutions which use the soil only for
vertical support and rely on other means
for horizontal movement.
?? Lowdermik Department of Agricultural
Institute of Technology, Haifa. Israel
on Muddy Soils
L. 1. LEVITICUS*
The prevailing soil conditions made it impos-
sible to use ordinary single-tyre equipment,
while dual or flotation tyres were not acceptable
because of limited row width.
The second solution was, therefore, selected.
The average orchard size was taken to be about
100 acres, the approximate picking season 100
days, the yield of Jaffa oranges 16 to 20 tons/acre
and that of grapefruit, up to 30 tons/acre at
maturity.
The pickers were untrained mechanically,
their ages ranging from 12 to 50 years.
The size of the picking crew was variable and
included as many as 35; it was determined mainly
by the amount of fruit to be picked at one site on
one day. This was important, because a faulty
calculation might result in finishing one site in
the middle of the day or-even worse-towards
the end of the day, with resulting loss of time and
output.
3. Development of a conveyor system
After a theoretical analysis of the problem and
time measurements of necessary parameters’, it
was decided to construct a lightweight, portable
conveyor system which would transport the
fruit from inside the orchard to bulk containers
placed on the outside, where they could be
picked up and moved by tractors.
The pickers were to hang their full picking
bags on moving hooks after taking off an empty
bag. The bags were emptied at the end of the
conveyor, which was placed between two rows
and projected into the road (Fig. 1).
The choice between cable type conveyor or
trolley conveyor was decided in favour of the
latter, as the former needs rather elaborate
tightening and apchorage, which are virtually
impossible to achieve under prevailing soil con-
ditions.
The length of the rows ranged between 100
Engineering, Israel
and 250 m and they were not always straight or
268 A CONVEYOR FOR FRUIT TRAKSPORT Oh MLDDY SO11.5

Fig. 1. The conveyor


Fig. 2. Profile of track
level. This demanded a very flexible but at the
same time foolproof construction.
This was achieved by building the conveyor
out of 4 m long sections, weighing approximately
30 lb, made up of 2 tracks of special profile
(Fig. 2).
Each section was provided with a leg which
could be folded into the track. Connection
between two segments was made by means of a
hole-pin arrangement, similar to that of a toy
train rail, and a hook and catch as used on
aluminium irrigation pipes.
On each track ran Y-shaped trolleys, spaced
2-4 m apart and attached to a $ in steel core
cable. Each trolley carried a hook, made out of
l in steel wire on which the picking bag was
tung.
The drive is of the finger-chain type, which is
often used in industry for overhead conveyors.
The fingers catch against a trolley and pull it
around the unloading end, the cable serving as a
traction member for the rest of the conveyor.
The spacing between the fingers and bags, as well
as the chain length, are matched in order to
269
achieve a uniform motion of the conveyor. The
chain is driven by a 2 hp engine (although the
power requirement is about 1 hp) through a belt
and gear reduction, which mcorporates a clutch.
The trolley speed can be varied between 13
and 24 m/min. This gives the picker ample
opportunity to take off an empty bag and attach
a full one to the same hook.
At the other end of the conveyor a revolving
drum is mounted on a sliding frame, provided
with a screw type tightener for keeping the right
tznsion on the traction cable. This tension is
much lower than would have been necessary for
a conveyor with a cable instead of a track.
4. Operation
There are several ways of operating the con-
veyor, depending on yield, row length, number of
pickers, type of bulk containers, etc. The follow-
ing is applicable in most cases, but may have to
be modified to suit local conditions.
Fruit is picked in two rows on each side of the
conveyor. The pickers start together at one end
and work towards the other.
Bags are hung on both tracks, so that some of
them make a trip round the conveyor end before
being unloaded. At the unloading end one or
two trained workers empty the bags into the bulk
containers by gently turning them upside down,
and hang them again on vacated hooks.
The picking operation was timed several times
and the results showed that the system has a
capacity of about 4.5 tons/h with a picking crew
of about 40, or when emptying the bags at both
ends of the conveyor simultaneously, of about
8 tons/h with a crew of about 65.
5. Transfer to new site
Dismantling, transfer and setting up of a con-
veyor of 120 m length, takes three to four persons
about 30-40 min, for a distance of 4 rows.
The first operation is to slacken the traction
cable at the far end, to take it off the drum and
push it together with the trolleys to the first
section after the drive (Fig. i, bottom right).
This is carried out by two people, one on each
side of the track. One or two other workers have
by then started to take the sections apart and put
them on the ground (also from the far end).
The two groups will reach the driving end
approximately together and all four (or three)
270 A CONVEYOR
carry the drive unit to the next site. After that
they take the light-weight sections and move
them in the same manner as irrigation pipes.
Setting up is done in the reverse order. Special
sections have been provided for sharp 25,30 and
90” turns, but a gradual curvature can be
managed without additional equipment, relying
only on the flexibility of the conveyor.
6. Discussion
Theconveyor has been working for two
seasons. It was found that picking output was
increased, due to a decrease in the number and
duration of meetings between pickers as well as
the fact that the pickers did not have to empty
the bags in containers. However, in some areas
the pickers, who were paid on a piece-rate basis,
refused to work with this system, because of the
FOR FRUIT TRANSPORT ON MUDDY SOILS
difficulty in recording individual output. Solu-
tion to this would be the use of individual discs
or chips to be put into the full bag and collected
at the unloading end. Efficient use is only
possible in groves where the different fruit
varieties do not necessitate frequent long trans-
fers between consecutive sites. The number of
bags used per picker is greatly increased.
It is intended to use this system also for
deciduous fruit orchards where, in many in-
stances, the soil conditions are similar to those
encountered in citrus groves.
REFERENCE
’ Leviticus, L. I. Howala weirgoen bepardessitn beadamor
kwedot (Transport and organization in citrus groves
located on heavy soils). M.Sc. Thesis, Technion-
Israel Inst. Technol., Nov. 1963 (unpublished)