Design and experiments of the deboning device for Monopterus albus

The scale of Monopterus albus farming in Hubei Province is large, but there are few pre-treatment processing devices. The current Monopterus albus pretreatment device is mainly dissected and killed. Aiming at the problems of poor stability, low efficiency, and low meat yield of existing Monopterus albus deboning devices, an adaptive Monopterus albus deboning device was designed, which was mainly composed of laparotomy components, transitional components, and deboning components. The theoretical analysis of the process of fish laparotomy, transition transportation, and deboning was carried out, and the key factors affecting the performance of the deboning device were obtained. Taking the meat yield rate and sensory quality scores as evaluation indexes, the single-factor test of the distance between the pressure wheel and the V-block, the initial clearance of the transition wheel, the rotational speed of the transition wheel, the shape of the deboning blade disc and the rotational speed of deboning blade disc were carried out to determine the reasonable range of each parameter. The test results showed that when the distance between the pressure wheel and the V-block was 15.50-16.75 mm, the meat yield rate was higher; when the initial clearance of the transition wheel was 9 mm, the sensory quality scores of the fish body was the highest; the increase of the rotational speed of the transition wheel and the rotational speed of the deboning blade disc is beneficial to improve the meat yield rate and sensory quality scores; and the shape of the boning blade disc had little influence on the meat yield rate and the sensory quality scores. The orthogonal test of four factors and three levels was carried out with the distance between the pressure wheel and the V-block, the initial clearance of the transition wheel, the rotational speed of the transition wheel, and the rotational speed of the deboning blade disc as the test factors. The results showed that the order of significance of each test factor on the meat yield rate was the distance between the pressure wheel and the V-block, the initial clearance of the transition wheel, the rotational speed of the transition wheel, and the rotational speed of the deboning blade disc; and the order of significance on the sensory quality scores was the initial clearance of the transition wheel, the distance between the pressure wheel and the V-block, the rotational speed of the transition wheel and the rotational speed of the deboning blade disc. When the distance between the pressure wheel and the V-block was 16.75 mm, the initial clearance of the transition wheel was 9 mm, the rotational speed of the transition wheel was 648 r/min, and the rotational speed of the deboning blade disc was 3 200 r/min, the deboning effect was the best. The meat yield rate of the deboning device was 84%, and the total sensory quality scores of the fish after processing reached 17.3. The device can process Monopterus albus with a body mass of 75-150 g, and the production efficiency reaches 16.8 strips/min. Compared with the current commercially available deboning device, the feeding is more convenient and the production efficiency is higher. It can provide a reference for the research of Monopterus albus pretreatment device.