Abstract:
A consideration of the design and development of any harvesting machine is required to
determine the physical and biomechanical properties of the tree and its fruit. Biomechanical
properties such as pull, bending and torsion strengths must be determined. In
the field experiments, trees were selected from an orchard in Rafsanjan, Kerman Province,
Iran. Parameters related to fruit properties were measured using load cells. In Rafsanjan’s
Pistachio Research Institute laboratory, subsequent measurements were made
using similar instrumentation. In a randomized design layout, 18 tree cultivars with five
replications were selected. The maximum pull, bending, and torsion strengths were found
respectively for Badami Ravar, Momtaze Tajabadi and Italiaee cultivar clusters. Minimum
pull, bending, and torsional strengths were obtained for Ghazvini, Louk and Kalleh
Ghoochi clusters. The cultivars Kalleh Ghoochi, Rezaee Zoodras and Khanjari Damghan
were found to have fruit with the highest pull, bending, and torsional strengths, with the
lowest strengths belonging to the Italiaee cultiva
