Performance Assessment of Chicken De-Feathering Machine in a Small Scale Slaughtering Processors

The demands of poultry meat in Egypt have imposed a great responsibility on the poultry processing industry especially in de-feathering operations. The energy and construction of the scalding and de-feathering machines are so essential innovation for the small scale poultry industry because they reduce the stress encountered within the manual de-feathering. Therefore, the aim of the current investigation is to discuss the behavior of the energy utilization efficiency of scalding and chicken feather removal machines in Egypt at small scale chicken slaughtering systems. This paper is focused on improving the efficiency of both the machines and the devices used in scalding and de-feathering operations by evaluating the used operational parameters of the machinery techniques, as well as investigating the rationalization of the energy used in small scale slaughtering process. The utilization efficiency of the de-feathering process was measured as the de-feathering machine was operating at various de-feathering drum speeds i.e., 290, 320 and 350 rpm by using three different chickens’ weights under various scalding temperatures i.e., 60, 64, and 68oC. On the other hand, the force required for de-feathering was measured through an experiment set up for this purpose. The results indicated that the optimized operation parameters were found at: 680C scalding temperature, 0.7 m3/20 birds scalding water flow, 415 mm span between two de-feathering bands, 105s de-feathering time for the de-feathering machine and 320rpm de-feathering drum rotation.