October 1. 1919.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



2. Breeding to obtain a better strain is, for technical reasons, 

 out of the question for any commercial firm. 



3. Seedling selection offers no solution on account of the 

 inability to know what to select. 



4. Artificial propagation will overcome the difficulty. 



5. Carefully selected trees should be used for propagating 

 stock, taking into account productivity, disease resistance and 

 quality of I he rubber. 



Reducing Waste in Rubber Factories. 



By Robert C. Kelley. 



PROB.^Bi.Y in no other industry than rubber manufacturing 

 does so large a percentage of the material used, go of 

 . necessity into scrap. For this reason it became very easy 

 for all waste in rubber factories to be regarded as a necessary 

 evil, and consequently little attention was paid to it other than 

 devising means to utilize it in the product. But in these days of 

 accurate cost finding, and with the rising expense of labor, fabric, 

 chemicals, power, etc., rubber manufacturers are keenly inter- 

 ested in methods of reducing the waste item. 



While in rubber-shoe manufacturing the greater part of un- 

 vulcanized proofed cloth clippings is used over again, the loss 

 in value is a large one. Thus, a man working on the problem 

 of keeping waste down to the minimum not onlv can furnish 



Daily Tally Sheet. 



valuable information on costs l)Ut also can be instrumental in 

 saving thousands of dollars in material which formerly sold 

 for junk at a small return. 



ACCURATE INFORMATION THE FIRST STEP. 



The first step in tackling the problem is to obtain current, ac- 

 curate information on the amount of scrap and its cause. It en- 

 tails no additional e.xpense to have uncured cloth scrap kept 

 separate according to the kind of cloth and gum coating. This 

 is collected in baskets daily and charged to the department re- 

 sponsible. In a factory manufacturing gum shoes, boots, tennis 



shoes, tires, inner tubes, heels and fiber soles, where I have seen 

 a salvage system in operation, the waste is handled in the fol- 

 lowing manner. 



IMETHOD OF HANDLING WASTE. 



-Ml ends and trimmings from the cloth calenders in the mill 



room arc weighed and charged against the production of each 



machine. This instills a sense of responsibility in each calender 



man to keep his percentage as low as possible. 



DAILY SCRAP REPORT 



°='- ' Wee. Eno.no 



fESOAV I ThURSDAV | Fh H 



Nets Gum-Shoe 



Stoc« in Sweep n 



Weekly Rei-ort to Fgre.me.ni. 



Cutting-room scrap, from punching out insoles, filling soles, 

 heel pieces, tennis quarters and vamps, — all inside work for 

 rubbers, boots and gaiters, is handled directly by that depart- 

 ment on a percentage basis as part of the individual cutting 

 records. Many of the cutters are paid piece work rates on a 

 sliding scale, a higher rate being paid for a low percentage of 

 scrap, but to be successful in operation this system must be made 

 fool-proof. All scrap from the cutting machines and hand cut- 

 ters is tagged with a distinctive mark to prevent its becoming 

 confused with the general factory scrap. 



.All other waste from the cutting room, such as sweepings, 

 defective pieces thrown out in putting up the work, pressed or 

 wrinkled leg covers and boot vamps from the rolling machine, 

 holes in the fabric, etc., are charged to the department at fault. 

 Bad heels arc examined to determine the number due to poor 

 press work, low pressure, bad trimming, or poor stock. The 

 same policy is maintained throughout the plant. Thus, on the 

 stitching room report is found the amount of tennis duck 

 ■scrapped in stitching, and on that of the quarter or cement de- 

 parlmcnt the percentage of stock spoiled in being prepared for 

 the boot or gum shoe teams. 



In the making departments the makers at the end of their 

 day's work return all surplus pieces to the post office to be used 

 again on the next ticket, and leave on top of their benches all 

 defective stock or parts scrapped through their own carelessness. 

 Scrap due to poor calendering or poor cutting is sent out with 

 the waste of the milling or cutting rooms while the rest is 

 charged to the making departments. A distinction is made, 

 however, between legitimate ends or trimmings and unnecessary 

 waste. All of this material is tagged, signed for by the fore- 

 man of the department responsible and collected daily. 



