The Peru Gazette

L-R Nick and Richard Arnold

Machine destined for Chazy Orchards leaves the shop

By John T. Ryan

Peru – The sign outside Richard Arnold’s Dashnaw Road shop reads “Peru Welding,” but the business’ compete name is Peru Welding and Machine and for good reason. Beginning in 1978, Arnold has been manufacturing a variety of machines ranging from wood boilers to hydraulic corral gates and bridge components. For the past six years he has been working side-by-side with his son Nick. While Richard Arnold has no formal training in engineering, customers often use words like creative, clever and genius to describe him. Arnold has a simple explanation for his skills. He said, “I use the mind’s eye.”

Six years ago orchardist Mason Forrence asked Arnold to design a tractor mounted work platform. Forrence recalled, “We were working with Cornell. We knew the apple industry was going to smaller trees. We wanted to get away from using ladders.” Today Richard Arnold’s Mechanized Work Platform is being used by numerous orchardists in the Champlain and Hudson Valleys. The 9th third generation machine will be delivered in a few days.

The small trees in today’s apple orchards are supported by a trellis-pole system. If fruit develops too high in a young tree or the tree exceeds a certain height above the trellis system, limbs break and the tree’s lifetime productivity is significantly reduced. The Mechanized Work Platform, equipped with pneumatic pruning guns and electric chain saws, has revolutionized the pruning process. An 80-acre orchard that once took five men 30 days to prune can be pruned by two men in ten days. The work environment is also much safer and personnel are not exhausted at the end of the work day. Mason Forrence said, “Every grower we’ve introduced the machine to thinks it’s great!”

Workers control the tractor’s speed, direction and braking from the platforms. Arnold developed the mechanical, electrical and pneumatic systems that control the tractor, the pruning guns and the chain saws. He explained, “Standing on the platforms, orchard workers get the big picture from above. No one has to be on a ladder in the midst of the limbs. You can see the difference in row uniformity.”

Every invention undergoes a development process. The first generation work platform consisted of two fixed platforms welded to a steel beam mounted on a tractor’s drawbar. The second generation was located over a tractor’s hood, but the platforms were still fixed. Arnold recalled, “When I watched that machine work and saw the difficulty workers were having reaching the leaning trees. I knew the platforms had to extend and retract.” Today workers simply rotate switches to extend and retract one or both platforms.

Richard Arnold is very proud that his machines are “Made in the USA” and he is hopeful that in the not too distant future Peru Welding and Machine’s Mechanical Work Platform will be utilized throughout the USA and beyond. He also has a vision for more Mechanized Work Platform advances in his “mind’s eye.”

James Spencer removes apples before they damage the young trees.

Desroy Thatcher and Clifford Edwards at Forrence’s Valcour Farm

Clifford Edwards using a pneumatic pruning gun