Dotan Technologies products

Jatropha is one of the most promising crops available today for biofuel, however the labor intensive harvest is blocking its large-scale success.Jatropha is the perfect choice for biofuel, as it doesn’t require large amounts of water or fertile soil, so it doesn’t compete with edible crops. Harvesting of the Jatropha crop is currently done manually, requiring 400-800 man-hours to harvest one ton.
Adding to the complexity, green, yellow and mature fruits are on the tree at the same time, requiring a selective harvesting solution. The DotanTech selective Jatropha Harvester is designed to selectively harvest a total of 1200 trees (~2.5 ton)  in a single day. One machine. 1200 trees . One day.

One of the most promising crops for biodiesel is Jatropha.  Dotan Technologies has developed a solution for the selective
harvesting required since flowers, unripe and ripe fruits appear at the same time.

During the 1990`s, Dotan Technologies` Citrus Trunk Shaker was operating in Florida to help citrus growers increase revenues. Since that time, we have invested resources into enhancing our mechanical harvesting solutions for a variety of crops. Today, the market is ripe for our Citrus Shaker to take on the citrus industry in areas such as Florida and Brazil. More than 90% of the citrus fruit in these countries is for juice production.

The systems excels in high field capacity, minor manpower needed and care for the tree health.
The shaking machine based on a linear shaking head that characterized in high shaking power with maximum care to the tree trunk. The collecting machine uses a innovating mechanism to collect the crop with minimal contact with the tree branches while covering the maximum area around the tree. The two pieces system has a high geometrical flexibility and can work at varying ground and trees profiles.

The following 3 movies describes the harvesting process using the Side Shaker DT-10  : Shaking , Collecting & loading , Unloading.
With optimal condition (grove and staff) the harvesting rate can reach 1200  trees/day.

During the date harvesting season, workers hand pick only the ripe fruit, a manual process which is very time consuming.  With the mechanical harvesting solution, selective picking can be performed at a rate of 25 trees per hour, with no damage to the tree, or the fruit. An added benefit is that the equipment can be operated during the cool hours of the night, which is beneficial for fruit quality.

This system attaches itself completely around the tree trunk to gently shake only the ripe fruit with no damage to the tree or to the unripe fruit remaining on the tree. Using traditional methods, five workers are required to pick. 4-5 trees in a single hour using a telescopic arm. Using Dotan Technologies` Date Harvesting solution, one operator can harvest 20-25 trees in a single hour, saving 20 man hours and the expense of 4 additional tractors.

Each cluster of dates is wrapped in a net. The shaker gently shakes the tree trunk and only the ripe fruit falls into the net. The crew following the shaker, simply opens the net and collects the ripe dates.