A MACHINE FOR HARVESTING FRUIT AND BERRIES AND THE LIKE,FROM FRUIT TREES AND BUSHES PLANTED IN A ROW

摘要

In order to ensure well controlled speed and amplitude of motion of the shaker members (11) of this harvesting machine, while still allowing said shaker members to adapt well individually to the thickness of the vegetation of fruit trees and bushes, the shaker members are constituted by rods (11) made of a material having a high degree of flexibility, and the rods are curved into an arcuate shape with its convex side facing towards the longitudinal mid axis (12) of the machine. The ends of the flexible rods (11) are held at a substantially constant distance from said longitudinal mid axis, and a control mechanism (20) is provided to cause the curvature of the flexible rods to vary cyclically about an average value of curvature in such a manner that one of said flexible rods has its maximum value of curvature when the corresponding flexible rod on the opposite side has its minimum value of curvature, and vice versa.