The silkworms produce an unreelable layer of silk over the cocoons called floss, which must be removed for further processing (like reeling, silkworm egg production, etc). Presently the cocoons are manually deflossed and on an average 20 kg of cocoons per hour can be deflossed by a person (in a shift of 8 hours).

Deflossing is a tedious process and involves workers who have to sit for long hours. In order to overcome this drudgery and to minimize the cost of labor, the Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute, Mysore has developed a machine for continuous deflossing of cocoons. This machine can defloss 50-100 kg cocoons per hour (depending on the capacity of the machine used) or about 400-800 kg cocoons per day (in a shift of 8 hours). The machine can be operated for long hours. The quality of deflossed cocoons by this machine is comparable to or better than that of cocoons deflossed by hand.

The machine is simple in construction and can be fabricated/manufactured using locally available material like mild steel (angles, rods, etc), bearings, V-belts, pulleys, PVC pipes, HDPE pipes, bolts and nuts, electric motor (1/2 HP), etc.

Method/Process: The raw cocoons are automatically fed through a slanting hopper to a roller covered with rough paper (specially fabricated to remove floss). As the roller moves, the floss adheres to the rough surface of the roller and the deflossed cocoons moves away due to the smoothness and is collected in another hopper kept below.  The floss collected on the rough surface is manually removed periodically.

List of Plant & Machinery Required: Fabrication/Mechanical workshop with facilities for turning, sheet metal cutting, welding, spray painting, etc.