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Design, development and demonstration of an improved bird washing machine

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Abstract

Since oil was first extracted, pollution of the seas and oceans or adjacent coasts has been an obstacle for the oil industry and environmental activists. The major concern is oil discharge into the water which may lead to birds’ affliction or death, besides putting marine life in jeopardy. This paper presents the first description of the design and implementation of a new bird washing machine that can be utilized for cleaning of oil-coated birds with the minimum of stress. The machine is equipped with a pneumatic system comprised of 19 moving nozzles which evenly cover the bird’s body and is designed to be used in contaminated environments where a vast number of birds are affected. Experimental trials show an improvement in operation efficiency compared to other methods in a reduction in washing time, energy consumption and a decrease in fatality rate of washed birds.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Prof. A. Darvizeh for his valuable comments that were included in the revised version of the paper. We would like to give special thanks to the editorial office of Ecotoxicology and the respected reviewers for their thoughtful and helpful comments on our paper. This work was financially supported by the Ahrar Institute of Technology and Higher Education.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ahrar Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Rasht, Iran

    H. Rajabi, M. Zare & A. Armandei

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

    H. Monsef & M. Moghadami

Authors
  1. H. Rajabi
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  2. H. Monsef
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  3. M. Moghadami
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  4. M. Zare
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  5. A. Armandei
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Correspondence to H. Rajabi.

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Rajabi, H., Monsef, H., Moghadami, M. et al. Design, development and demonstration of an improved bird washing machine. Ecotoxicology 23, 960–965 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-014-1238-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-014-1238-2

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