FACMA produces a range of self-propelled harvesters suitable for the gathering of hazelnuts, chestnuts, almonds, walnuts, olives, coffee, macadamias, pecan nuts, etc.

These machines represent a well-advanced solution for the mechanized harvest of the product from the ground by aspiration.

Their employment determines many advantages:

- economical: reduction of the harvesting times and costs, saving of labour (they are manoeuvrable by just 1 operator);

- qualitative: reduction of the lying times of the product on the ground thanks to the possibility of making more harvesting passages; cleaning of the product thanks to an inside selection system.

- of use: possibility to work on slopes thanks to the application of the front driving wheel (on demand), great manoeuvrability thanks to the reduced steering angle, contemporaneous windrowing and harvest thanks to a windrower-harvester head and to the lateral blower, adaptability of the frontal harvester to irregular grounds, possibility to use the machine also with the employment of manual hoses (for excessively steep grounds).

The self-propelled harvester is equipped with a propulsion system with 3 wheels, 2 posterior driving and 1 front steering (driving on demand), of hydraulic transmission both for the propulsion and for the operator elements control, it is  motorised with a water-cooled diesel engine.

The product fallen to the ground is windrowed by 2 front contra-rotating brushes, (available from 1,5 to 3,5 m of width) made of rubber scraper elements supported by radial oscillating arms (FACMA PATENT). This head can be moved on the left side thanks to a piston, so that it is possible to harvest also under-tree.

The machine is equipped with a lateral blower which using the aspiration air moves the fruits near the trunks to the following row, making the harvest faster.

The product is transferred by the brushes towards an aspirating pipe located centrally on a slide whose height can be regulated. Once aspired the product is channelled to a depression chamber where the heavier waste material is separated.

From here, the product is poured through a valve in a conveyor where it is blasted by an air jet generated by a ventilator: in this way leaves and lighter impurities are separated. There are 2 de-duster cyclones (only in the models C200S – C300S) with the purpose of lowering dusts before their dispersion in the air.

Then a screw transports the product in a double rotating sieve, where the impurities with different dimensions than the harvested fruits are separated (the sieve is made on the basis of the calibre of the products, changing only this component it is possible to use the machine for collecting different fruits).

Finally the clean product is unloaded in bags or in carriages trailed by the same machine.

For maximum harvesting performance, it is suggested to prepare the ground, working it different times by mulcher (grass cutting) during the previous year and before the produce falls to the ground.

DOUBLE GEAR

On demand it is possible to endow the self-propelled harvesters models C300S and C380S with double gear:

-advance gear, for displacements: speed until about 28 Km/h;

- job gear: speed until about 10 Km/ h.

Pre-cleaning kit

This accessory is used only if the machine unloads the product into bags. It makes a further cleaning of the collected fruits, thanks to an air flow which intervenes before the outflow of the product, separating it from the remaining impurities.

ROLL-BAR

From 2010 all factory-new Facma self-propelled harvesters are endowed with by law roll-over protective structure, homologated OCSE according to the European Directive 2006/42/EC and Italian Annex V of D.Lgs 81/08.

The produced roll-bar models for aspiration self-propelled harvesters are 2:

- RPS001FC for models C300S and C380S.

- RPS002FC for models C160S, C180S and C200S.

MECHANICAL PICK-UP RM

The new mechanical pick-up RM is an accessory applicable to the aspiration self-propelled harvesters Cimina.

The use of this device permits a series of advantages as: 1) significant suppression of the airborne dust; 2) higher harvesting speed in comparison to the use of the traditional harvester, constituted by rubber rotating brushes; 3) better harvesting performance in grass presence; 4) better final cleaning of the collected product, because the auger for debris separation immediately eliminates the soil at the entrance of the product in the gatherer; 5) less wearing of the harvester in its interior because the soil does not arrive inside the aspiration devices, with consequent inferior maintenance costs in the course of time.

For the efficient use of the mechanical pick-up it is necessary a well-prepared ground by mulcher, regular and leveled. The use on not regular grounds and very humid soils is not suggested.

The RM device is constituted by: Auxiliary feed brush; Debris separation auger, it transports the impurities and it unloads them laterally on the ground; Main harvesting brush, it transport the fruits eliminating the waste material; Cleaning auger and transport towards the central aspiration pipe, which carries the product into the depression chamber of the aspiration harvester. The gatherer is finally endowed with lateral skids and support roller. On demand it is possible to apply to the gatherer a lateral inter-row brush model D.100.