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RUBBER MANUFACTURE AND FACTORY METHODS. 



By F. G. Souter, 



{Manager, Sandy croft Estate, Per ale, F.M.S.) 



It is not proposed in this paper to deal with the subject matter 

 in a general way, and an attempt will be made to confine it to 

 routine work in a factory, as being better calculated to promote 

 discussion and be of practical help to any who require it. 



The main object to be attained is the highest possible price for 

 an estate's out-turn in every grade of rubber, and as each grade 

 requires special treatment of its own, I will take them separately, 

 and give the methods adopted for each, on the estate under my 

 charge. No claim is put forward that these are incapable of 

 improvement, but they are the product of many experiments, and 

 consistently high rates obtained for the estate's output in Singapore 

 and London, appear to show that, under existing conditions, the right 

 lines have been chosen to work on, at least as far as this estate is 

 concerned. There are necessarily the elements of variability in 

 climatic conditions, systems of tapping, and types of machinery to be 

 reckoned with, which preclude any idea of uniformity in factory 

 work all over the Peninsula, but I will try to show how these 

 variations can be met to give the best possible results. 



It must be assumed that a factory is making its entire crop, 

 including lower grades, and has a full equipment of machinery, 

 sufficient space for coagulating, and adequate smoking and drying 

 accommodation. These requirements are necessarily defined by the 

 quantity of rubber dealt with, and in what form the first latex is 

 turned out, but granted that we are prepared to make either smoked 

 sheet or pale crepe as occasion demands, to do justice to a crop 

 of anything up to 200,000 lbs., a full plant of machinery would be : — a 

 washer, macerating-roller, crepeing-roller, smooth-finisher, and two 

 hand or power sheeting-machines, with a 40 H.-P. engine to drive it. 

 A smoke-house capable of holding 12,000 lbs. of rubber would be 

 wanted, drying sheds with a capacity of 10,000 lbs. and a packing-room 

 conveniently near. These buildings should be entirely apart from the 

 factory, but access to them should be by a covered way, and transport 

 of wet rubber from the factory made as easy as possible by trolleys 

 on rails. The receiving-house for latex and coagulating-shed should 

 also be, either a separate building close to the factory, or an adjunct 

 of the latter with a partition to keep coolies other than factory 

 hands away from the machinery. For estates with a much larger 

 output, equipment would be on a larger scale though not necessarily 

 proportionately. Many estates are now putting in a duplicate plant 

 to make themselves safe against a break-down of any essential, and, 

 for those in the happy position of being able to afford the cost, the 

 measure is a very commendable one. With so many high class 

 engineering firms specializing in rubber machinery a planter can get 



