Technical and Economic Examination of the Mechanical Hazelnut Collecting Machine Manufacturing

Abstract

In this study, taking into account the conditions of Türkiye, it will be possible to harvest hazelnuts grown on flat and nearly flat lands, in line with ergonomic principles, with an approach that consider operator comfort and work safety, with a mechanically effective sweeping unit with high work success, which removes the kernel+husk hazelnut from the ground, some performance values of the hazelnut harvesting machine such as collecting efficiency, labor requirement, fieldwork success, product work success, and foreign material separation efficiency, which cleans the mixed hazelnuts in the separation unit at a level that does not affect the performance of the husk peeling machine and stores the cleaned grain+husk hazelnut mixture, were determined and obtained. In light of the data obtained, it is contribution to the economy is discussed. The collecting efficiency of the mechanical hazelnut harvesting machine was 93.26%, the labor requirement was 47.85 h/ha, the fieldwork success was 0.134 ha/h, the product work success was 295.92 kg/h, and the foreign material separation efficiency was 96.85%. Considering the performance values obtained, very successful results have obtained from the field trials performed with the mechanical hazelnut harvesting machine. As a result, the production of the hazelnut harvesting machine and its implementation will make hazelnut production sustainable by significantly reducing production costs, and the import of machinery that is not suitable for the conditions of Türkiye will be no longer needed.