Abstract:
Sri Lanka is the largest manufacturer and exporter of natural Crepe rubber which is
one of the purest forms of natural rubber manufactured. Crepe rubber should be
manufactured in clean hygienic and controlled conditions in order to maintain its pale
color and hardness in the final product. Since the inception of the Rubber industry in
Sri Lanka in 1876, there hasn’t been much of a development in the manufacturing
processes. We still rely on the mechanisms that the British introduced in the colonial
era. The initial stage of manufacturing is called rubber fractionation, a process that is
specific to crepe rubber production which is done to remove the impurities in the
natural rubber latex. This process includes dry rubber content measurement,
standardization (dilution to the standard) of the latex, addition of sodium
bisulphite/metabisulphite and agitation for around 2 hours. These are high laborintensive
tasks
and
when
closely
observed
many
inefficiencies
and
health
hazards
for
those
who
are
involved
could
be
identified.
Also,
the
labor
shortages
have
been
a
major
bottleneck
in
the
crepe
rubber
manufacturing
process.
The
objectives
of
the
project
are
increasing
the
efficiency
and
output
yield
by
reducing
the
process
time
and
wastage
of
latex
and
also
minimizing
the
human
involvement
in
the
fractionation
process hence reducing the health hazards faced by the employees
involved. To achieve these objectives firstly, a more efficient and reliable dry rubber
content measurement method that enables high precision standardization and chemical
dosing are proposed as an alternative to the current measurement using the metrolac.
Then an automated solution is proposed through a working demonstration of a
prototype to perform the current manual tasks of standardization, chemical dosing,
agitation and determining the process end. The prototype enabled the entire
fractionation process to be performed in much lesser times than the observed processes
in the manufacturing facilities with higher accuracies in standardization and chemical
dosing. Hence suggested improvements are proved viable to be implemented in the
manufacturing facilities which will give the manufacturers a high output yield, reduce
rubber wastages and enable compliance with export standards in the final crepe sheets.
The ultimate goal of this study is to make a contribution to the development of the
Crepe rubber industry in Sri Lanka.
Citation:
Athukorala, V.H. (2022). Automating the latex fractionation process in the crepe rubber industry [Master's theses, University of Moratuwa]. Institutional Repository University of Moratuwa. http://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/22522
