Seafood is attracting attention as a future food industry. In recent years, the demand for fishery equipment of mechanization, automation, and unmanned was increased due to the environment affected by seafood processing, stricter regulations on safety, decline and aging of fishery worker. Ark shell (Scapharca subcrenata) was being produced in many steps in the production process. The process has been made such as collection–landing–washing–first sort (goods/non-goods)–transports– second sort (size). It was undergone first and second steps by delivering to the consumer. Here, the first step is to sort goods to collection and the second step is to sort by size. The fishery workers need ten people in first step and six people in second step. The workload of one hour per kg is 4,247 kg/h in first step and 2,213 kg/h in second step. In addition, the goods ratio by work process was 79% in first step and 98% in the second step. In this process, a lot of fishery worker and working time is needed. Therefore, this study developed elemental techniques for an automated size sorting system considering the working process problem, time and situation for washing and sorting of ark shell.

In order to examine the catching selectivity of the ark shell(Scapharca broughtonii) dredge, the various factors affecting the selective action of the dredge are analyzed, and the probabilities of the ark shell not shifting through the gaps between the teeth, and the mesh of the netting bag, are calculated for the various shell lengths, using the relation between the posture and the length when the shell passes through these parts.Considering that the probability of making catch is the product of the both probabilities described above, and that this probability is proportional to the relative catching efficiency, the selectivity curves for the ark shell dredge were estimated for various gaps between the teeth and for the various mesh sizes of the netting bag. The obtained results are summarized as follows :1. The ratios of the shell length of ark shell to the distance between teeth indicating the relative catching efficiency of 0%, 50, 100% respectively were 1.0, 1.26~1.28, 1.47~1.44, and that the selection ranges of selective shell length by the distance between teeth were 0.47~0.44, where the distances between teeth were 3.2cm, 3.6cm, 4.0cm, 4.4cm and 4.8cm. 2. The ratios of the shell length of ark shell to the mesh size indicating the relative catching efficiency of 0%, 50%, 100% respectively were 0.67, 0.84, 0.97 and that the selection range of shell length for catching, that in the range of selective shell length by the mesh size was 0.31, where the distance of 4.0cm between teeth, mesh size of 6.0 cm and the smaller mesh angle of 60˚3. Where the distance between teeth is 4.0 cm and the smaller mesh angle is 60˚, the selection range of shell length for catching of the ark shell dredge is decreased according to the mesh size, and it is minimized by 0.20 in the mesh size of 9.0~10.0 cm, but increased in the mesh size of over 11.0 cm. 4. Where the distance between teeth is 4.0 cm, the selective action by the mesh size of netting bag is begun with the mesh size of over 10.0 cm.

To find the tooth selectivity of the dredge for catching the ark shell Scapharca broughtonii, the probabilities of the ark shells which are not sifting through the gaps between teeth were calculated for the various shell lengths. Considering that these probabilities are in proportion to the relative catching efficiencies, selectivity curves for the ark shell dredge were estimated for the various gaps between teeth. The ratio of the shell length of ark shell to the distance between teeth indicating the relative catching efficiencies of 0%, 50%, 100% respectively, were calculated by using these selectivity curves, and the values were 1.00, 1.32, 1.54 in the distance of 4.0cm between teeth and then, the ratios showed a slight tendency to decrease as the distance between teeth increased in the relative catching efficiency of 100%, In addition, the range of shell length for catching, that is, the range of selective shell length by the distance between teeth was 0.54 in the distance of 4.0cm between teeth.