2. Grading: Hundred-pound boxes of chriwp are eraptied Into 

 a ■\/ash vat located inside the cold holdinj^ rooiu. Mter waf^hin^ the 

 shrimp ai'e conveyed through a cut-out in the vo.ll of the cold roojn, 

 directly to the receiving end of the gradin^i machine. Tills tyije of 

 procedure is superior to the co;iJiion practice of dracGing the boxes of 

 shrimp from the cold room, hand-tiaicl:inc and emptying the shrimp 

 manually into a wash vat, and feeding them into the grader.- 



3. Peeling: Containers of graded shrimp are loaded manually 

 on the conveyor feeding past the peeling work stations. The operators 

 remove the shrimp from the conveyor, hand peel each shrimp leaving the 

 tails on, and place the peeled shrimp in a container. VJl-ien filled the 

 container is placed on a conveyor and emptied into a v/ash vat. 



k. Deveining and splitting: The peeled shrimp are removed 

 from the wash vat by means of a wire mesh scoop and placed in a con- 

 tainer. The container in turn is placed next to a splitting and de- 

 veining machine. Tlie operator feeds the peeled shrimp individually 

 into the receiver of the machine using both the right and the left hand. 

 A rotary knife blade in the machine splits the shrimp to the desired 

 depth, removing the vein by the cutting action of the knife blade. After 

 discharge by the machine the stirimp are placed in a wash vat. The capa- 

 city of the splitting machine is governed by the rate of feed by the hand 

 operator. 



5. Breading: The chrinp are removed from the wash vat and 

 brought to an automatic breading machine. This machine autoi^atically 

 breads the shriirip, discharging theiu ready for packaging. Tne machine 

 is hand-fed by operators who position the shrimp on the receiving belt. 

 From this point on to the discharge of the breaded shrimp the operation 

 is fully automatic. It is claimed that, using a forty percent breading 

 pick-up, 9^8 pounds of finished product can be produced per machine hour 

 with this machine. To maintain this rate of production a hand feeding 

 crew of 6 operators would have to be employed, tlie productivity per 

 worker averaging I58 pounds per raan-hour (one-eixth of the 9^8 pounds 

 produced per machine -hour ) . A good operator breading shrimp manually, 

 in comparison, will only produce 30 to kO pounds of finished product 

 per hour. In addition to the production advantages of the machine, an 

 appreciable savings in breading waste is claimed, as well as a saving 



in floor space. 



6. Packing: After breading, the shrimp are discharged on a 

 conveyor flowing past packing operators who hand-pack the shrimp into 

 cartons. The filled cartons are placed by the packer, lid open, on a, 

 conveyor feeding to the weighing station. 



279 



