One of the most widespread technologies for the mechanical harvesting of olives requires that the trunk of the plant be vibrated by means of a shaker that embraces the stem itself imparting the vibration necessary for the fall of the hanging fruit (olives, almonds, hazelnuts, etc.). The agricultural engineering has provided the elements, already present in the scientific literature, with regard to breadth and frequency such that the fruit can fall without compromising the health of the plant. There are many vibrating heads on the market that exploit this vibration system which provides for an eccentric rotating mass made integral to the stem through a socket, it follows that the mass rotation axis will necessarily be at a certain distance from the axis of the trunk therefore the forced centrifuges produced by the eccentric center of gravity will produce two types of rotations on the stem:
– a bending type vibration (alternative centrifugal force directed towards the stem);
– a torsional vibration (alternative centrifugal force tangent to the stem).
The second type of vibration does not provide useful results to the fall of the fruit, rather it is the main cause of the so-called “barking” phenomenon of the stem, so it is a type of vibration that must be avoided or limited.
The NOTORQUE vibrating head is an innovative and economical system to produce a “flexional” type vibration on the plant from which to pick up the hanging fruit. The invention allows eliminating the torsional vibrations, that is, the torsional torques around the trunk produced by eccentric vibration systems.
