Grape Harvester - Nairn Harvesters Ltd
When Hydraulic Specialties was approached by
the production manager at Nairn Harvesters Ltd to offer a drive
system for their latest grape harvester there were 2 key criteria
they stressed to us: delivery needed to be short as the customer
had requested delivery of the completed machine in under 2 months,
and the system needed to work well right from the start (there was
no time for trial and error).
Machine Requirements:
• 4-wheel drive system with anti-skid
• Harvesting at a speed of 6km/hr on a gradient of up to
30%
• The machine would be able to climb a gradient of nearly
33%
• Under ideal harvesting conditions it is capable of
removing up to 28,000kg of grapes off the vine per
hour
• Top road speed of 32km/h (could be 39 km/h with a
different gearbox/pump arrangement)
That night we were on the phone to Poclain Hydraulics in
France to discuss the project. Poclain Hydraulics design and
manufacture final drive hydraulic motors, and working on wheel
drives like this is one of the things they do best. The next
morning we had 2 draft proposals based on 2 different drives
systems, and just 1 week and 1 day from the initial inquiry we had
finalised the design and Nairn's were able to place an order with
the confidence that the machine would perform as required, and the
tight delivery would be achieved.
The final drive used from Poclain is one of their standard
Smart Drive(TM) systems. Some of the other options that have
already been implemented by Poclain include; preset vehicle speeds
and cruise control; full engine management; maintaining constant
true ground speed using radar sensors; self steering of the
harvester down the row. The system can be fully customised to
achieve a lot more than this; all you need to do is
ask.
To download a movie of a vehicle with a Smart Drive system
working at Poclain's test facilities in France click here (7.6
MB).
Go directly to Poclain's website to view and download more
information on the Smart Drive System by clicking here.
