Presented at SITEVI 2019, the Combi-Grape™ is a new sorting system available only on the Braud 8030L compact grape harvester. This system offers an intermediate harvest quality between a standard destemmer and the Opti-Grape™. It has been developed to meet the needs of winemakers looking for a destemming and sorting system of premium-red varietals.
Since 2002, all New Holland Braud grape harvesters can be fitted with a destemmer, a feature that has undergone continuous improvements over the last two decades, and is now able to process every grape variety, every yield in every part of the world.
The Opti-Grape, launched in 2013, was the first New Holland Braud on-board sorting table. It features a destemmer, two sorting tables with rollers and an air-cushion sorting system to perfectly clean the harvest. This system delivers the best harvest quality ever achieved on board a grape harvester.
Pierre Cayrouse, Grape Harvester Product marketing specialist for Grape Harvesters at New Holland France, says: “The Combi-Grape combines harvest quality and simple operation. We have chosen the best performance/quality ratio on our compact machine so that our customers working in private cellars continue to enhance their production while improving the quality of the harvest.
“Processing the grapes can be done directly, without crushing the harvest and with exceptional cleanliness. Our machine is perfectly sized for the needs of medium-sized vineyards. The controls are at the driver’s fingertips, making operation easy! The 8030L Combi-Grape is a concentrate of Braud know-how,” he adds.
A smart and compact sorting table
The new Combi-Grape features a sorting table with specific rollers under a standard destemmer. The receiving conveyors feed the grapes into the destemmer. The stems are expelled at the back of the machine. All the free grapes and the MOG (Material Other than Grape) fall on the sorting table, which features open rollers that allow the grapes to fall into the hopper. Leaf pieces and petioles are guided by the rollers to the side of the machine and drop down to the floor.
The Combi-Grape is able to remove all the petioles inside the harvest, delivering a higher crop quality compared to the standard destemmer.
The sorting table was built to work in very diverse conditions. Depending on the crop varieties, it can process grapes of different sizes. The operator can adjust from the cab the distance between rollers from 14 mm to 23 mm. The roller speed can be controlled from the multifunction handle to adapt the system’s capacity to the yield. The sorting table can slide to the side of the machine to facilitate daily washing operation. The Combi-Grape works on the Braud 8030L in most conditions and grape varieties
