FABRICATION AND TESTING OF A SEMI-MANUALLY OPERATED FISH SCALE REMOVER

Commercial fish scale removers are very expensive. This study was conducted in order to fabricate and test the performance of a low cost, stand-alone semi-manually operated fish scale remover. The randomized complete block design (RCBD) quasi-experiment was used to test the capacity and efficiency of the semi-manually operated fish scale remover. Three (3) different kinds of fish in Northern Samar (Bangus, Sagision and Kirawan) with three (3) different sizes of scales (Large, Medium and Small) were used in the testing of the fabricated fish scale remover at three (3) different speeds of the scaling drum (High, Medium and Low). The results revealed that the higher the speed of the scaling drum, the higher is the scaling capacity of the manually-operated fish scale remover. Likewise, the bigger the scales of fish being descaled, the higher is the scaling capacity of the manually-operated fish scale remover. The average scaling capacity of the fish scale remover is higher than the average scaling capacity of an experienced fish vendors for kirawan and sagision but is lower than that of the experienced fish vendors for bangus. On the other hand, the average scaling efficiencies of the machine for all the fish used in testing the machine were highest at medium speed setting of the scaling drum. The cost and return analysis on the operation of the semi-manually operated fish scale remover revealed that it will have an annual net income of P 48,724.37, a payback period of 50 days, and a rate of return of 3.82. The actual cost of constructing the semi-manually operated fish scale remover is ₱ 12,756.00.