Rubber smoke houses are widely used by rubber tree planters. After tapping, the rubber milk is converted into plane rubber sheets using a machine. The sheets are then dried. Conventional rubber tappers dry the sheets in sunlight. Due to this, the sheets sometimes melt & inside parts of sheets don't dry properly. Such rubber sheets are of low grade and require more time to dry. Technological advancements ensure that rubber sheets can dry within 72 hours without burns to the sheets. The rubber sheets dry with smoke from firewood, which is directed and contained in the smokehouse chamber.
Smoke House Chamber
The 1st part of building the smoke house is the furnace which is at the bottom. This is made of concrete & is circular in shape. 1/4th portion of the circular opening is closed. This ensures minimal burning of firewood & heat does not escape; but comes out from the opening at the top of the furnace. Airholes provide at the sides of the furnace helps in ease of burning of wood.
The furnace is placed inside the foundation made of bricks, cement, mortar & soil. Pipes are fitted to the furnace the airholes in such way as to extend till the outside of the foundation. Next, soil is filled in the foundation by keeping the top of the furnace open, as represented in the pic.
On top of the furnace opening a square block is built. It is fitted with a pipe on each side, which is diverted towards to bottom of the structure. The pipes have openings a few inches above the ground so the smoke from the furnace is distributed equally in the smoke house.
The smokehouse chamber consists of brickwork with a reinforced concrete frame and has proper drainage to remove serum dripping from the sheets. The roof is of asbestos sheets with no gap between the wall and the roof. This prevents heat loss due to air currents over the ceiling and helps prevent condensed moisture containing carbon from dripping on the sheets. Images indicate a fully completed rubber smokehouse.
The sheets are turned on reapers daily to ensure uniform drying and smoking and also to prevent reaper marks on dry sheets. Under normal conditions, three days of smoking is enough. During rains, it takes 4 to 5 days to dry the sheets. The final product of Ribbed Smoked Rubber Sheets is of Grade-4 quality.
Salient Features & Benefits:
- Reduced drying time & labour requirement
- Maintenance of temperature in the range of 40-60° C
- Maximum fuel efficiency with good ventilation
- Minimum heat loss & drying cost
- Easy loading/unloading of sheets
- Continuous operation
- Minimum defective sheets