Swedish fish processing machine manufacturer SEAC AB has designed a brand new filleting machine for very small fish - the SEAC FPM-300.
During last three years the company has been working with the aim of making it possible to fillet fish such as sardines, anchovy, vendance; red mullet and different mackerel spices down to approximately 50 fish/kilo and with a capacity of up to 250 fish/min/4 operators.
By working 'step-by-step' out from SEAC's filleting machine, the ARENCO SFD-300, the company has been able to design a brand new filleting machine that can meet the new demand for filleting smaller fish.
The first fish to be included in the project was the smaller sardine fished outside the Croatian coast. After installing three machines in the country SEAC gained more and more experience in filleting smaller fish. The next step was to be able to fillet the small fresh water fish vendance in north Sweden - this was a big success with high yield and nice looking fillets.
From this fish the step to anchovy was not such a big one and after new tests in Croatia and one machine installed in Peru, this fish was also able to be filleted in the machine.
The machine has the following new parts/devices:
• A completely new infeed table for the smaller fish
• A stainless steel plate has been fixed on the plastic table
• The infeed chute has been changed and designed for each type of fish
• All of the devices in the machine has been adjusted to process minimum sized fish via longer shafts and new guides etc
• Material improvements have been added to the machine – for example, the main table is now made from plastic (instead of aluminium)
The SEAC FPM-300 will be able to fillet up to 250 fish/min and will do from approximately 28/30 fish per kilo down to approximately 45/50 fish per kilo with the special infeed table designed for very small fish. By changing other parts fish from approximately 6/8 per kilo and downwards can be filleted in the machine.
The end product will be butterfly fillets with skin-on, as making single fillets in the machine will be too difficult due to the small size of the fish. If the customer demands single fillets without skin, this must be made manually. However on the bigger fish a special 'single fillet device' can be added to the machine.
