The Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (ICAR) has designed and developed a fishdescaling machine for removing the scales of fishes in batches. The operation of the machine can be extended for removal of scales from all types of marine as well as fresh water fishes. The descaling machine is based on a new design equipped with a perforated rotating drum and an induction motor of variable frequency drive. The drum of the descaling machine has a capacity to load 10 kg fish. The time of operation and rpm of the drum has been standardized for each species under different size categories for the efficient removal of scales. The rpm of the drum can be adjusted at minimum of 2 rotations to a maximum of 80 rotations per minute. Trials conducted have shown that 98% of the scales can be removed using descaling machine. This is a batch process and the material can be loaded and unloaded easily and only one person is required to operate the machine.

Designed and fabricated different models of Fish De-scaling machines. They are (1) Variable speed Descaling machine, 10 Kg capacity, fitted with 1.5HP induction motor and a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) to vary the speed of the drum depending on size/ variety of fishes (2) Table- top De-scaling Machine, 5 kg capacity, with constant drum speed and (3) Hand operated Low cost fish descaling machine.