BrimaPack harvester for broccoli and other leaf crops operates almost entirely on electrical power

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Groente & Fruit July 10 2015

VOLLEGROND

Brimapack harvester operates almost entirely on electrical power ‘Simple and reliable’ The fully automated packing units for broccoli and other leaf crops produced by BrimaPack in Ulft are fully electrically powered; the harvesters the company builds ‘around’ the packing units are heading in the same direction. Lifting the veil on an unstoppable development with huge potential.

PHOTO: JOOST STALLEN

The harvester is a full 12 metres wide, and is fitted with 6 fully automated packing machines for packing iceberg lettuce. Its capacity is currently 6300 heads per hour. With this design, the field workers harvest in front of the machine.

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text Joost Stallen

E

lectrical cars are becoming ever more common. Take for example the Tesla: the basic

model starts at a price of 66,900 euro, and with acceleration from 0 to 100 in 5.4 seconds, you know you will always be first to take off at the lights. It is all a question of the drive system that delivers maximum torque as soon as you hit the accelerator pedal. Using the same drive technology you can also pull away extremely smoothly, thanks to the massive pulling power. Work is already well underway on developing the first electrical tractors … and an electrically powered harvester for iceberg lettuce.

This last project is being undertaken at BrimaPack in Ulft, also specialists in fully automated packing machines for vegetable products including iceberg lettuce and broccoli. The combination of fully automated packing and electrical forward propulsion has resulted in a series of self-propelling harvesters, each of which is further developed than its predecessor.

The tracks are purchased from an external supplier but the rest of the machine – including the drive system – is from BrimaPack. “Every system is built to customer specifications,” explained director Ron van de Pavert. The widest operating harvester currently available is 16 metres wide, fitted with 8 packing machines with a capacity of 8400 heads of iceberg lettuce every hour. The platform layout is also customer specific, because of the different container type(s), the number of clients for whom the products are harvested at any one time and whether the customer wants each product individually labelled. The self-propelled harvester is now also in use for harvesting other crops including spinach and bok choy (of course equipped with the necessary harvesting systems).

Electrical-hydraulic The harvester, commissioned on the first of July offers a harvesting width of 12 metres, with 6 fully automated units for packing iceberg lettuce at a maximum capacity of 6300 heads per hour.

The unit, for a British customer, is equipped with a series of electrical motors for propulsion, but that is where the comparison with the Tesla ends. Unlike the king size lithium battery fitted in the Tesla, this harvester still relies on a diesel engine mounted underneath the floor of the work platform (measuring 6 × 9 metres), the motor serves as a generator for the propulsion system that uses small electrical motors during harvesting – where it moves forward at a speed of between 30 and 300 metres per hour – and heavy duty motors for speeds up to 2.5 kilometres per hour. Another difference between the Tesla and the harvester is that the electrical motors on the harvester system in turn serve a hydraulic pump/motor, itself connected to the track drives.

At least that is the situation at present. The next step will be to deliver electrical power directly to the drives, like in a Tesla. “That development will even further reduce the already excellent fuel consumption,” stated Van de Pavert, referring to the experience acquired by two iceberg lettuce growers in Germany, each using BrimaPack harvesting units. Both harvesting units consist of a tracked vehicle equipped with four packing machines. Here, however, one harvester is a BrimaPack vehicle, equipped with the electrical/hydraulic drive system described above, while the other harvester operates with a conventional hydraulic drive system. “The first has an average fuel consumption of 3.7 litres of diesel per hour; Which is less than half of BrimaPack’s competitor.”

The nature of the drive system means that the forward speed and steering can be controlled extremely precisely; the system changes direction by running one track slightly faster, while reducing the speed of the other track. As a result, forward movement speed remains the same. The actual route to be followed is guided by a sensor suspended from a chain. The flexibility of the chain is sufficient to follow the terrain but rigid enough to ensure accurate steering. “It couldn’t be simpler.”

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PHOTO: JOOST STALLEN

A towed-chain as automatic steering device. Changes in direction are achieved by running one track slightly faster while reducing the speed of the other. As a result, forward movement speed remains the same.

Electrical-electrical Lifting more of the platform floor reveals even more technology. Everything looks clean and tidy, with only the minimum necessary cables, wires and hoses. The whole system appears solid and reliable. Something else that draws the attention is the insulation for reducing engine sounds and other ambient noise. If you add the fact that the engine speed is reduced to just 1500 rpm, the noise level remains extremely low. You can hear that something is running, but that’s it.

Van de Pavert revealed yet another trick. “It’s not even a disaster if the motor fails. The electrical unit works on a 400 Volt supply, so you can keep up and running by connecting an external generator. Or if you are harvesting close to a mains power outlet, you could even switch to ‘fully electrical power’. With a working speed of 50 metres per hour, a few hundred metres of cable will give you a considerable operating range, in ‘fully silent’ running mode.”

The machine can be operated from three locations. With a fixed console on the front of the harvesting unit, with a handheld control box that allows you to walk alongside the machine – particularly useful during manoeuvring – and via a slightly more complex panel on the platform itself.

The panel on the platform also includes the buttons for preparing the harvester for transport, a process that involves folding up the side sections of the platform with a hydraulic system, reducing the overall machine width to just 3 metres. The tarpaulin covers on both sides of the platform can be simply left hanging in place, thereby even further reducing the workload.

Interestingly, at the request of the customer, no windows have been fitted anywhere in the tarpaulin screens.

The harvesting unit, including the packing machines, is simply unhooked for transport and fixed to the back of a tractor.

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PHOTO: JOOST STALLEN

A simple winding staircase to mount the unit.

What more could you ask for.

Smart Normally, the harvesting process requires 9 workers; one and a half per packing machine.

With this model, the field workers harvest in front of the machine; the cut heads are then placed on the cups where they are transported to the packing machines (mounted higher on the unit). Each machine has a capacity of 1050 heads per hour. As Van de Pavert explained, “We also supply packing machines with a horizontally rotating table infeed with a capacity of 1100 heads per hour.” In this case, the lettuce is packed in film with a pre-printed logo. The maximum film size currently available is 650 millimetres; according to Van de Pavert, sufficient for packing two broccoli heads together, an oversized cauliflower or unevenly shaped products like romanesco.

Van der Pavert pointed out ‘one more smart addition’ in the form of the winding staircase to mount the machine. Or more accurately, such is the ease of access, ‘to climb aboard’. “The entire machine is packed with similar smart solutions based on our own experience and to compensate for the ‘shortcomings’ identified on other machines. All the time we try to avoid making things more complex than absolutely necessary.”

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PHOTO: JOOST STALLEN

Two of the four electrical motors for the forward propulsion system. They in turn drive the hydraulic pump/motor. The next step is direct electrical drive, without the intervening hydraulic stage.

PHOTO: FRANK GUSSINKLO

The harvester in full operation.

More pictures of the machine are available at www.gfactueel/vollegrond

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