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Selected postharvest operation from harvesting to conveying and cleaning/sorting/grading and warehousing of dry beans are shown in Figure 4.2, which include:

1 Direct harvest combine for cutting upright beans. The cutter heads may be 40 feet across, and the full hopper of beans is directly transferred to a field truck for transport to elevator.

2 Dumping/unloading of truck at receiving station of elevator. The total weight and sample taken for quality grading that is used for payment to the grower.

3 Conveying beans: Beans are conveyed on rubber conveying belts (to minimize damage) for in‐plant bean cleaning.

4 Beans conveyed over air aspiration and “gravity table” for cleaning. Cleaning employs air aspiration (for removal of pods and light debris), size screening (removal of over and under sized beans and debris), and “gravity table” (removal of stones and mud balls).

5 Electric eye sorting machine. Beans are distributed in channels and individually passed over optical sensors. Out of specification beans are rejected with a blast of air (for removal of off‐colored beans).

6 Packaging in polyethylene (PE) bags. Beans in 100‐pound (45.5‐kg) PE bags are stacked on pallets for truck or rail car shipment.

7 Packaging in the “super sack” PE totes. Beans in 2,200‐pound (1,000‐kg) PE totes are warehoused for rail or truck shipment.A variety of high‐efficiency equipment is used to perform above‐mentioned postharvest operations; further details are discussed in the following sections.

Fig. 4.2. Harvesting through packaging and warehousing of dry beans. (For color detail, please see color plate section.)

Source: Original images by authors.