DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF AN

AUTOMATIC DEFEATHERING MACHINE

BY

IBRAHIM AHMED USMAN

PGS/18-19/2/M/9294

BEING A PROJECT PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO

THE DEPARTMENT OF MECHATRONICS AND
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING, M.ENG. MACHINE
AND MECHATRONICS ENGINEERING, FACULTY
OF ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY, ABUBAKAR TAFAWA BALEWA
UNIVERSITY BAUCHI.

FEBRUARY, 2020.
 Synopsis

Introduction

One of the steps in bird processing before it reaches the end product for
cooking is defeathering of the bird. Defeathering involves removing feathers from
the slaughtered birds. Traditionally, in this part of the world it is done manually
by the use of hand after it has been soaked in hot water for few minutes. This
process results in low output, time consuming, tedious and could lead to injury.
In order to avoid all of these challenges, there is need to design and construction
a machine from locally sourced material. David (1999) stated that it takes an
average time of 5minutes for a person to de-feather a bird while the machine
processing of a bird which is lowered in a hot water of about temperature 80oc–
85oc takes 40 – 50 seconds. Buckland (2005) reported that the objective of a
centralized poultry processing paltry of any scale of operation is to produce
hygienic, wholesome, attractive and saleable of consistent appearance and quality
of high standard. Ogundipe (2002) reported that defeathering machine saves time,
easy to operate and better picking is achieved.

Mechanical defeathering employs various defeather mechanism such as

rubber finger, rotating plate, drum and angle bar mechanism. This is done after
slaughtering the birds which is accompanied by bleeding period. The carcass is
removed and lowered into a tank of heated water to a certain temperature and
plucked. The use of de- feathering machine in processing poultry has contributed
tremendously to the successful processing of dressed and hygienic chicken for
consumption. The defeathering machine overcomes the tediousness, time
consumption, messy, nasty and discouragement in that of hand defeathering.
Also, there is mass production of processed chicken in defeathering machine than
hand defeathering.

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 It is against this backdrop that this study intends to design and construct an
automatic poultry defeathering machine, that will reduce cost of production,
processing time, and ensure high production output, which will lead to better
hygiene and food safety involved in poultry meat production.

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 Literature Review

Introduction

This chapter presents the literature review of academic and technical

papers on design and construction of defeathering machine, related works and the
functional components that are used in the system such as, the frame, scald
chamber, plucking chamber, the plucker fingers, and prime mover in order to
make it work successfully.

2.1 Review of Related Works

Several attempts have been made to design defeathering system with

limited number of operations. This chapter will discuss some of these attempts
and their shortcomings. For example,

According to Scolt, (2000) defeathering forms one of the important tasks

in poultry processing particularly when manual method are used exposes workers
to work musculoskeletal disorder, cuts, skin rashes, dermatitis and avian
influenza virus. Solutions to some of these problems were suggestions from
research findings

Poultry meat is popularly consumed among non-vegetarians world-wide

due to its low fat and calorific content. The relatively increased preference for
chicken over some other type of meat has generated keen interests in poultry
farming and processing industry. Likewise with the growing world population
livestock consumption rate may have to increase correspondingly to meet the
effective protein requirement of the world. Poultry processing has faced
challenges that are of safety and health concern some of which include tasks that
could result in cuts or lacerations, repetitive motion disorders, slips and falls,
exposure to cold and wet climates, dust, dermatitis, chemicals, and noise(Barbut,
1998, Barbut, 2002; OSHA, 2004). To avoid accidents and infections form

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poultry carcasses which may occur during some of the processing operations
there is need for user-friendly, reliably and efficient poultry processing devises
(Ralph, 1980; Scolt, 2000).

A number of important activities are involved in the production of ready-

to-cook (RTC) poultry a large percentage of which are labour intensive and these
contribute to the high cost of processed poultry meat in the market. Identified
production processes for eviscerated birds are (1) Pre-slaughter: catching and
transport; (2) Immobilizing, killing, and bleeding, (3) Feather removal: scalding
and picking, (4) Removal of head, oil glands, and feet, (5) Evisceration, (6)
Chilling, (7) Cut-up, deboning, and further processing, (8) Aging, (9) Packaging,
(10) Storage and (11) Distribution. Among the listed processes feather removal
is the most time consuming and risky next to eviscerating process especially when
carried out manually (Dicken and Shackelford, 1998).

David (1999) outlined three ways in which feathers can be removed

completely from the chicken. The first is for broilers only and is by hand. The
feathers are simply pulled from the carcass and placed in a feather bin. This
method takes a lot of time. It is tedious and results in low output. The second
method is by holding the carcass against rubber fingers protruding from a
continuously rotating horizontal drum. The drum rotates away from the operator
and the feathers follow until they are thrown towards the back of the machine.
The bird is held with a leg in each hand and laid firmly on its left breast on the
rotating rubber fingers. It is agitated backwards and forwards to pluck the left
breast and thigh. The bird is turned over to pluck the right breast and thigh. Both
legs are taken in the left hand and the tail feathers gripped in the right hand before
pulling them out with a twisting movement. The third method uses a bowl de-
feather. Scaled birds, to a weight specified by the manufacturer, are placed in the
bowl de-feather chute which passes into the body of the machine, the machine is
stopped and a door to the bottom of the machine is opened. The plucked carcasses

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emerge ready for further processing. Time taken in the bowl de-feather will
depend on the nature of the bird, its age, condition etc.

WHO (2015) observed that most of these slaughterhouses in Nigeria are

faced with public health requirements and environmental problems. These
slaughter operations are carried out in unregulated manner without recourse to
the safety of the food. According to, unsafe food poses global health threats,
endangering everyone. Infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly and
those with an underlying illness are particularly vulnerable. Every year, 220
million children contact diarrhoea diseases and 96000 die.

Level of human exposure to occupational risk and other health hazard

resulting from intense manual operation is significant in scalding and
defeathering operations. This calls for effective mechanization of the process
which will support quality, safe, ergonomic and economic operation. Various
machines have also been developed for defeathering process which can handle
either large or few number of birds (Glenn, 1998). However their demand and
acceptance are different from one country to the other. Some years ago for
instance, Nigerian government place embargo on the importation of some poultry
processed meat. This step placed a boost on the operation of local poultry Industry
and allied. There are large number of large scale processing plants currently
located around the world but small sized of household capacity are scarcely
found. (Barbut, 2002). Homemade scalders: When first starting out, some small-
scale producers use a large stockpot in the backyard heated with a fire. On-farm
processors have also used propane burners (from outdoor turkey fryers), water
bath pots made for canning, and hospital sterilizers (common before the advent
of the autoclave). This study is focused on determining optimal scalding
temperature (which is an important parameter in scalding and picking of feather),
immersion duration and feather plucking force for both exotic and local birds in
Southwestern Nigeria. The developed machine which performance test and

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evaluation is being presented has the potential of enhancing safety, comfort and
economic production of RTC birds.

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 Methodology
The machine is made up of the following main parts:
 The frame
 The prime mover
 The plucker chamber;
 The plucker fingers.
 The scalding chamber
 Relays
 Arduino TMGA 328
 Relay drivers (ULN 200N)
 At Mega 328P
 Water pump
 Water heater
The Frame:
The frame will be made up of steel angle ASTM A36 material with a size
of 2” X 2” x ¼”. The prime mover and plucker compartment is covered with
stainless steel plate ASTM A240M which is less than 5mm thick. The machine
framework has a dimension of 800mm as height, 700mm as length, and 400mm
as width.

The Prime mover:

This is made up of a single phase AC electric motor. It provides the torque

needed to rotate the scalding shaft and the plucker shaft.

The Plucker chamber:

It consists of 80 holes which serves as footings for the plucker fingers.

These holes on the surface have a diameter of 18mm and are widened to 23mm
at a distance of 2mm below the surface. This 2mm constriction is meant to secure
the plucker finger within the plucker chamber to avoid it from detaching during

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its operation. The plucker chamber is hollow with a diameter of 100mm and a
thickness of 20mm; a length of 330mm. The chamber is made of Aluminium and
produced through a permanent mould casting technique.

The Plucker Fingers:

The plucker finger is made up of polypropylene plastic. It is mounted on

the plucker chamber. Its function is to pick on the poultry feathers, then as the
drum rotates, it exerts a shear force on the poultry bird causing the feathers to be
plucked.

Mode of Operation:

The electric motor is powered via an electric power source. This electric
energy is converted by the electric motor into mechanical energy; delivering the
needed torque for the rotation of the scalding and defeathering shafts. The shaft
which connects the electric motor to the plucker transmits the torque developed
at the spindle of the electric motor to the plucker. As a result of this, the plucker
plate begins to rotate causing the plucker fingers which are mounted on the plate,
and are in contact with the scalded poultry bird to slide against the scalded bird
resulting in the removal of the bird’s feathers and scales.

The Operating Mechanism

The scalding mechanism consists of a rotating mesh tray made of galvanised steel
material slammed to soften the carcass and untoward transferred to the
defeathering chamber. The defeathering mechanism consists of a rotating circular
plate made of galvanised steel material, studded with a series of rubber fingers
slotted vertically and horizontally to the side wall of the cylinder. The remaining
space that exists between two adjacent rubber fingers will be used to make the
feathers escape from the plucking chamber. The galvanised steel was selected for
the design of the cylindrical plate because of its high resistant to corrosion or rust,

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temperature effect and fatigue, which might necessarily occur in the housing unit
as a result of a simple air-water reaction (corrosive environment), heat produced
from the chicken and effect of cyclic stress, respectively. This effect is most
pronounced when ferrous materials are utilized.

2.2 Scalding and Defeathering Processes

The defeathering process starts with the manual feeding of bird to the scalding
section of the machine which contains hot water for scalding of the feathers and
then automatically transported to the defeathering section for plucking of the
feathers. The bird being transferred automatically down into the defeathering
mechanism which is made of galvanised steel cylinder lined internally with
rubber fingers is subjected into a rotary motion by the transmitted torque from the
electric motor. The carcass is rubbed with the rubber fingers and the feathers are
thereby plucked continuously until the bird is completely scalded.

U(t) Scalding defeathering

Y(t)
chamber chamber

feedback

Block diagram of an automatic scalding and defeathering machine

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 REFERENCES

Barbut, S. (2002). Poultry Processing Systems CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL pp

81-107.

Buckland, C. (2005). Small scale poultry processing, http//www. Fao.Org

David R.A. (1999). You can build your mechanical plucker. (whizbang)
http//www.FAO.Org.

Dickens J.A & Shackelford, A.D (1988) Feather –releasing force related to
stunning, scalding time and scalding temperature. Poultry Sci. 67: 1069-
1074.

Hornby, A. S, Fowler, F.G (1990). Poultry Production Year Book, Vol. 40 FAO.
Rome.23, pp 102-103.

Ogundipe, S.O. (2002). Nigerian Journal of Animal Production Farm

Mechanization Section. Animal Production Association of Nigeria. Vol 4

OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). (2004). Guidelines for

poultry processing; Ergonomics for the prevention of musculoskeletal
disorders, Washington ,DC.

Ralph, M.(1980). Food processing technology. Ellis Horwood Publ. Cambridge,

UK.Scolt, M.R (2000) Disinfection of poultry carcasses during
scalding and immersion chilling. Retrieved www. Knaseconic.com
retrieved on January 28, 2020.

WHO (2015). Food Safety Fact Sheet. Retrieved from

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheet/fs399/en/ accessed 28/01/2020.

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SUMMARY

Consumption of poultry birds as a source of protein is on the increase due to the

spate of the fast growing eatery, restaurants and festive periods in Nigeria.
Defeathering of the birds is one process which is time consuming and
cumbersome. It involves a process of removing the feather from birds and this is
commonly done manually which results in waste of time, low output and injury.
In order to make defeathering process easy, an automatic defeathering machine
will be designed and constructed. The machine will consist of the frame, scalding
chamber, plucker fingers, plucker chamber, thermometer, LCD, switches, water
pump, shaft, and rubber spines, made of locally sourced materials thereby making
it cost effective.

The electric motor will be powered via an electric power source. This electric
energy is then converted by the electric motor into mechanical energy; delivering
the needed torque for the rotation of the scalding and defeathering shafts. The
shaft which connects the electric motor to the plucker transmits the torque
developed at the spindle of the electric motor to the plucker. As a result of this,
the plucker plate begins to rotate causing the plucker fingers which are mounted
on the plate, and are in contact with the scalded poultry bird to slide against the
scalded bird resulting in the removal of the bird’s feathers and scales.