Whooshh Innovations was launched in the year 2008 in Bellevue, Washington. The company was founded with a goal of refining the harvesting of soft, extremely fragile and perishable agricultural products like fruits and vegetables.
As fish is also soft, delicate to handle and slimy, therefore the task of transportation of fish to safe heavens was also taken up by Whoosh Innovations replicating the same idea as of transportation of fruits and vegetables. The aim of this prototype was to develop a mechanism for moving fish speedily, efficiently and gently over barriers and obstacles like in dams and in processing plants where maintaining hygiene is of umpteen importance.
The system was initiated and developed after thorough research by a diverse team of highly educated individuals. The prototype was established and after thorough testing and trials, it was installed in Norway as well as in many cities across the United States of America.
Working Principle
The principle on which this project is built is called the Pressure Drop or commonly known as Pressure Difference principle. It is the pressure difference between two points which forces an object to move from point of high pressure towards the point of low pressure. High-pressure point in this project is the hole for the entrance of fish where water flow pressure is high. The low-pressure point is the discharging end of the pipe where the fish is transported and delivered.
Construction and Working
Whooshh Innovations has made its utmost effort to make this project as simple in design, easy to handle, low on the maintenance end and more hygienic in nature as possible. By working on this project and making it a reality, Whooshh Innovations has actually set a new and a much higher standard for quality, productivity, and yield. The behavior of fish was studied in depth in order to devise a mechanism for its transportation. They have chosen working principle of pressure difference as already narrated above.
The materials used in manufacturing this product are all approved and certified by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A fine quality of thermoplastic tube has been used in this project which is commonly known as the Salmon Tube. The tube is specially designed to transport the fish safely as it is extremely delicate to handle. The design has considerably reduced the labor expense and energy required for transportation. The energy consumption has also been reduced greatly by the use of pressure difference mechanism in the tube.
As fish likes to swim in the opposite direction to that of the water flow or simply stating, fish loves going over obstacles hindering their way. Keeping this behavior in mind, an artificial climb has been made right on the onset of the hollow transporting tube on which the fish forces itself to climb which gives the system an automatic initial push for the motion of the fish till the end. During move in the tube, the pressure difference is in play which accelerates its move to the end point of the tube and finally drops the fish into the collecting point or whichever place you desire.
During the complete duration of the swim, the fish remains submerged in enough water to keep its gills wet. Providing it enough water is pertinent to the whole operation. The slippery interior also provides a zero-friction surface for fish to move through smoothly inside it. Furthermore, fluidity is added with the help of flow of water.
Specifications
- The rate of fish which pass through a 200-meter long pipe is 1.5 fish per second.
- The project can easily work up to the steep angle of 40 degrees.
- Fish travel in the pipe at a speed of 10 meters per second.
- Material or the medium of travel of fish is a soft, flexible thermoplastic tube which is nicknamed as the Salmon Cannon.
- Design and thickness of the pipe ensure that fish move inside the pipe in a single file.
- Counter system is also embedded in this system in order to ensure correct count of the fish passing through the pipe. This makes smooth and effortless operations possible. The counter used in this system is a simple sensor-based.
Advantages
The project is not only ideal for handling delicate animals like fish but also has several other advantages. Few of them are enlisted as under:-
- The project is a low-cost solution for dams that do not currently have fish ladders installed in them.
- This system’s design is the simplest possible design for anyone to handle it, assemble and operate it.
- It is an extremely efficient and the gentlest way of transportation of fish.
- An important factor while developing this project was hygiene. Hygiene has been given the utmost importance while designing and manufacturing.
- Another important factor in its development was to make it very low on maintenance thereby reducing maintenance costs and issues related to it.
- Due to low maintenance costs, this is a highly efficient system.
- All the materials used in manufacturing this project are certified by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is the biggest advantage of this system because, without the approval of this authority, this system could not have been used in the
- The system is designed to have a flexible configuration.
- The system is available up to the length of about 200 meters at present. However, custom designed system facility is also offered by the company.
- The design of this system is made to ensure high throughput simultaneously.
- It is able to feed the fish manually as well as automatically and transport the fish at high speeds.
- The high endurance of the material the product is made of is important to this product’s smooth functioning and success.