Design of Grouper Scaling Machine

　　According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the global outputs of farming grouper in 2013 reached 137 thousand ton valued at 19.9 billion NTD, and grow annually. The number shows that grouper are highly remunerative and significant farm fishes in the world. Taiwan, which was called the kingdom of grouper farming, although having greater grouper farming technique and better farming seasons, the improvement of grouper processing and marketing can be developed to having more advantages to compete other countries. Currently, the frozen grouper product is one of the progress in grouper farming industry. The product provided lower transportation cost and higher food safety. Also, the higher storability improved the problem that the provided grouper varying quality and price with season variation. Therefore, the study developed a method for grouper scaling during the procedure of frozen grouper products manufacture. The grouper conveyed form top to bottom and was descaled by impacted four water jets, two for each side. An adjustable prototype machine was designed to prove feasibility of the method. Nozzles position setting from manufactured machine was adjustable. The scaling rate was higher than 75%. By proper designed of both grouper transmission device and grouper scaling equipment, the designed machine is low cost, high efficiency and simple operation to do the grouper scaling completely. Thereby, the manufacturing procedure of frozen grouper product can be improved. Also, the grouper farming industry in Taiwan can have a greater breakthrough.