Nut Harvesters Dismantled Machines

About Nut Harvesters

A nut harvester quickly gathers a grower’s crop, saving time and labor. There are many varieties, but most fall into one of two categories, for harvesting peanuts or tree nuts. Both types come in trailed and self-propelled models.

Peanut Harvester Features

Because peanuts are legumes and grow underground, harvesting them requires a different approach than is used to harvest tree nuts. Two or three days before the harvest, a farmer will use a support machine called a digger to dig up the peanut vines, shake some dirt out of them, and heap them into rows (windrows) to dry with the peanuts lying on top.

A peanut harvester uses a rotating header, possibly with spring tines, to pick up the windrows of peanut plants, vines and all. Typically, it will sift out dirt and rocks as the peanut vines ride a linked chain belt, mesh, or screen. One or more fans may blow away leaves or draw away dust. Other mechanisms separate the peanut pods from the vines using disc separators, threshing cylinders with rotating stripper tines, and/or destemming saws. The harvester then either drops the peanuts into a bin (also known as a hopper or basket) or onto an offloading conveyor to a separately towed cart for bulk handling. It then ejects the stripped vines back onto the ground.

Tree Nut Harvester Features

A tree nut harvester collects walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts/filberts, pistachios, almonds, or other nuts that grow on trees. Most specialize in one type of nut, but some can be adapted to other nuts by the user or the dealer.

Some harvesters pick up fallen nuts by using a rotating brush or rubber-fingered drum to sweep them up off the ground. Others shake the trunk of each tree and catch nuts as they fall out. Some nut growers use a combination of the two, and most use additional support equipment to make the nuts easier to harvest.

One nut harvester type called a “row harvester” picks up windrows of nuts formed by a support machine called a sweeper. A sweeper uses spinning brushes to heap nuts, leaves, sticks, and other orchard floor material into rows, while a machine called a blower uses strong fans to blow nuts out from under the trees and into the next row. Some sweepers also have blowers, and some harvesters incorporate both.

A shaker, meanwhile, is a wheeled vehicle that clamps around a tree trunk and shakes it to make the nuts fall to the ground so they can be picked up by a ground harvester.

Some growers use a shaker as a harvester by topping it with a catching frame receiver, which is a large, sloped set of panels or deflectors. As the shaker approaches the tree trunk to clamp it, the catching frame receiver moves under one half of the tree. A shaker combined with a receiver like this may be called a “catching frame set.” A separate receiver drives under the other side of the tree; together they form a square trough with the tree in its center. When the shaker shakes the tree trunk, the receiver panels catch most of the falling nuts and guide them onto the standalone receiver’s conveyor belt. The nuts then go through chain and fan cleaning mechanism(s).

Some of the same new technology appearing in other harvesters are also showing up in nut models: GPS guidance, touchscreens, HID (high-intensity discharge) lights, video cameras, and more.