Introducing

THE NEW CLEANLOADER

This year’s Grimme Technica firmly focused around improving overall field efficiency, with many innovations on display throughout the four days.

This year’s Grimme Technica firmly focussed around improving overall field efficiency, with many innovations on display throughout the four days. One machine that caught many growers attention was the new CleanLoader, that focusses solely on the fact that depending on harvesting conditions, a single trailer of potatoes can contain up to 20% soil / trash (potentially 1000 tons per 100ha). The new Field Loader is designed to reduce this trash content, saving growers both time and money by limiting the amount of trash returned to the static grading line during harvest.

The CleanLoader is fully road legal and features four large wheels on a tandem axle designed to keep ground pressure to a minimum while ensuring a smooth ride during road transport. The CleanLoader is fully independent, requiring no external power source to operate due to an on-board 46KW, 4cylinder diesel engine. This efficient unit provides exceptional fuel economy, using as little as 50 liters of fuel over a 12 hour period.

The concept is built around Grimme’s proven RH24-60 self-emptying receiving hopper, with a generous volume of 21 cubic meters. The hopper automatically feeds onto twin coil units to ensure even and constant crop flow through the machine. The first set of coils provides intense soil separation, while the second coil unit can be used either for additional separation or pre-grading of the crop depending upon conditions.

The standard, double-sided picking table following these coils have built in trash conveyors allowing for simple and convenient crop inspection. Two hedgehog belts gently transfer the crop from the picking table onto the 120cm wide cart elevator that can be specified with an OptiBag web if additional cleaning is desirable. The elevator has a 25 degree (or 6.5 meters) pivot range, removing the need to constantly reposition trailers during filling, and with an impressive seven-metre overloading length it is possible to leave the trailer out of the field completely, discharging over any small hedges and ditches. The swan neck design of the cart elevator also allows for gently positioning the crop deep inside the trailer minimising bruising potential, while maintaining a generous loading height of 6.5 meters.

The CleanLoader has an impressive output of 120 tonnes/hour depending on soil type, crop and conditions.

Further advantages include the integration of Grimme’s popular VC50 control unit, that provides full touch screen control of all major hydraulic and electric functions, the integrated cross conveyors that are extendable from both sides eliminating the need for additional conveyors and the speed of preparation for road transport (approximately 15 minutes).