FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL AND AGRICULTURAL

ENGINEERING

EAB 3204
AGRICULTURAL PROCESS ENGINEERING

CLASS PROJECT
PROCESS ANALYSIS AND PLANT DESIGN

LECTURER
DR. DIYANA JAMALUDIN

SUBMITTED ON 30TH MAY 2018

NAME MATRIC NO
FAKHRIL UKAIL BIN ABD RAHMAN 179192
WAN MOHAMAD SIRAJ MUNIR BIN WAN HAMAT 178711
MUHAMAD HAFIFI HAFIEZ BIN RAMLI 180025
MUHAMMAD ARIFF BIN ISA 181480
NURUL HUSNA BINTI SHAMSUDIN 176684
CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1

PROPOSED PRODUCTS: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT INCLUDING COMMODITY ... 2

PLANT LOCATION ................................................................................................................. 2

FACTORY LAYOUT ............................................................................................................... 3

DESIGN ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................ 5

BUSINESS PLAN ..................................................................................................................... 8

PROCESSING FLOW ............................................................................................................. 10

CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................ 13

REFERENCE ........................................................................................................................... 13

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INTRODUCTION

Malaysia is the world’s largest manufacturers of latex gloves. One of the reason is the
natural resource for these gloves is rubber which is a commodity of abundance in the country.
Latex gloves are widely used as medical gloves, industrial gloves and laboratory gloves due to
its high chemical resistance and better puncture resistance. Besides that, latex gloves also offer
the best fit, feel and dexterity.

Hence, it is of great benefit we presume to choose this topic as the title of our mini
project in Process Engineering course. In relation to this course that we are learning, the
production of latex gloves comprises of processes that have been engineered over the years to
maximise its productions and maintaining quality. Thus, we hope to gain lots from this topic
in accordance to the field of process engineering.

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PROPOSED PRODUCTS: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT INCLUDING
COMMODITY

Rubber, the second largest plantation commodity of Malaysia, the economic

contribution from the rubber industry continues to generate increased export revenue for the
country, the total exports has increased from RM13.27bil to RM33.26bil for the period from
2000 to 2016.

Be that as it may, planted rubber area stood at 1.076 million hectares as at 2016, just
under one-sixth the size of oil palm area, with almost 93% of the area in the hands of
smallholders. Rubber remains an important contributor to the economy but does not receive
the attention that it deserves. The upside of the rubber story is that we are global leaders of
latex products, where Malaysia is No. 1 in gloves and condoms, with 63.2% and 20.4% market
shares respectively in 2016.

Figure 1: Rubber Commodity in 10 years duration

PLANT LOCATION

The factory plant will be located at an area that is far from community housing area to
avoid smell and water pollution. The suggested area is industrial area in Shah Alam. This is
because Selangor is the centre of industry. There will be high demand of latex gloves in this
area. This will ease the marketing and transporting the products to the consumers.

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FACTORY LAYOUT

Figure 2: Full Layout of the Factory

1. The production phase: Once farmers collect the sap, it goes to a factory for production.
2. Preparing the latex: While latex gloves come from natural rubber latex, they are not 100
percent pure. This is because manufacturers combine the latex concentrate with a number
of compounding chemicals during the initial step of the production process. This step
enhances the latex’s properties, such as the elasticity, as well as stabilizes the material and
its shelf life.
3. Cleaning the formers: To mold the latex into the shape of a glove, manufacturers use
hand-shaped ceramic formers. The first task is to wash these formers by dipping them in
water and then bleach. This ensures no residues are left from the previous batch. Afterward,
formers dip into a chemical solution of calcium carbonate and calcium nitrate to help the
latex stick.
4. Dipping in latex: Once the formers are ready, manufacturers dip them into a tank full of
latex, with the length of time the former is immersed in the tank varying based on the
desired glove thickness.

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5. Vulcanizing the rubber: To ensure the rubber does not crack while drying, the formers
enter an oven to dry and solidify. The development of the vulcanization process was
integral to the creation of the latex rubber.
6. Leaching the gloves: This process involves dipping the gloves in water tanks and
removing excess latex proteins to lower the risk of wearers having an allergic reaction and
enhance the feel.
7. Beading the cuffs: Once the gloves are done with leaching, the manufacturers roll the cuffs
to make the gloves easier to remove. The gloves may undergo leaching again after beading.
8. Applying powder: If the gloves are powdered, they enter a wet food-grade corn starch
powder slurry. Afterward, manufacturers dry the gloves again.
9. Chlorinating or polymer coating the gloves: If the gloves are powder free, they undergo
alternative processes to facilitate easier donning. The first is chlorination, which makes the
latex less tacky. The second involves coating the gloves with a polymer, which makes the
surface smoother.
10. Stripping the gloves: Once the gloves are finished, workers remove them from the formers
by hand.

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DESIGN ANALYSIS

1. Latex Centrifugation

For the process of latex concentrate, the process involved is latex centrifugation. The
processing of latex into latex concentrate by centrifugation involves the separation of preserved
field latex into two fractions, one containing the concentrated latex of more than 60% dry
rubber and the other containing 4-8% dry rubber (skim latex). The machine used here is called
the centrifuge machine (Refer Figure 3). The centrifuge machine that we chose to use is the
model DHY 400 with a throughput of 5 metric cube per hour. The price is RM 104,000.

Figure 3:Centrifuge Machine

Figure 4: Specifications of two types of centrifuge machine available in the market.

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 2. Compounding

Next, after latex concentrating we will undergo the process of compounding, hence a
mixing tank would be required to mix in the chemicals needed for compounding. The mixing
tank must be large enough and has an agitator or stirrer to mix the latex concentrate up. The
mixing tank that is decided to be used here is SJBF-3.0 which costed RM60,000.

Figure 5: Mixing tank with agitator

Figure 6: Specifications for numerous mixing tanks

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 3. Dipping

Then, the step would then be dipping. For this process before gloves are dipped into
latex that is processed, the former is dipped first in coagulant. Hence, in this process we would
require the dipping line for latex gloves. The price is RM800,000 per set.

Figure 7: Latex gloves dipping line machine

Figure 8: Specifications for dipping line

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BUSINESS PLAN

1. Capital
No. Item Value (RM)
1. Shareholders’ Investment 5 Shareholders X 100,000
= 500,000
2. Bank Loan 3,000,000
Total 3,500,000

2. Running Cost
N Salaries and Wages Per Wages/h Maximum Salary/Per Total
o. son our (RM) working hour/day son (RM) Salary
(Hr) (RM)
1. General Worker 30 4 9 1080 32400
2. Engineers 2 9 9 2430 4860
3. Technicians 2 6 9 1650 2700
4. Administration 4 4 9 1080 4320
Worker
5. Managers 2 7 9 1890 2700
6. General 1 12 9 3240 3240
Manager/Chief
Executive Officer
Total 50,220

No. General Utilities Amount Allocated/Month (RM)

1. Water 1000
2. Electricity 1000
3. Internet connection 500
4. Phone Bill 500
Total 3000

No. Rental Amount Allocated /Month (RM)

1. Factory 300,000
Total 300,000

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 No. Product Material Amount allocated/Operation
1. Chemical 100,000
2. Raw Latex 200,000
Total 300,000

No. Machineries Price (RM)

1. Latex gloves dipping line machine 200,000
2. Mixing tank with agitator 60,000
3. Centrifuge machine 800,000
4. Packaging line machine 500,000
Total 1,560,000

No. Others Amount Allocated

(RM)/Operation
1. Packaging 50,000
2. Transportation 50,000
3. Marketing and advertisement 100,000
Total 200,000

No. Items Total

1. Salaries and Wages 50,220
2. General Utilities 3,000
3. Rental 300,000
4. Product Material 300,000
5. Machineries 1,560,000
6 Others 200,000
Grand Total 2,413,220

3. Region of Interest (ROI)

- Household Gloves
- Medical Industry

4. Marketing
- Advertisement
Advertise the products through commercial television station, billboards
Create effective functional design
Use attractive packaging and names
- Price
Sell with affordable price

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PROCESSING FLOW

1. Latex concentrate

Natural Latex is a cloudy, white liquid that is collected by cutting thin strips of bark from
the tree and allowing the latex to drop into collecting vessels. The latex is then gathered, poured
into containers, and delivered to a processing station where it is strained & concentrated. The
latex is placed into a centrifuge, stabilizers are added, and the latex is centrifuged to remove
some of the water & increase the rubber content of the latex. After centrifuging, the material is
known as latex concentrate, and contains roughly 60% rubber.

2. Latex compounding

Sulphur is the universal vulcanizing agent for natural rubber and also for synthetic rubbers,
which contain olefinic unsaturation in the polymer chain, whether these polymers are in latex
form of dry rubber. Sulphur is the main vulcanizing agent for natural rubber, synthetic
polyisoprene, styrene-butadiene rubber, acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, polybutadiene rubber,
and so on. The rate of sulphur vulcanization can be increased by the addition of accelerators.
The most important class of accelerators used in latex industry are metallic and amine dialkyl
thiocarbamate, triazoles and thiurams function as secondary accelerators. For NRL products
the aging resistance is further improved by the presence of naturally occurring rubber
constituents which function as antioxidants. Similarly, some of the vulcanisation chemicals
such as ZDEC/zinc mercaptoimidazole, and so on, also improves aging resistance.

Figure 9: The process of latex concentrating and compounding

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 3. Latex dipping

Latex dipping is the largest process by user of NR-latex and is used for a wide range of
products.

The process contains in principle the following steps:

• Insertion of a mould (former) into the latex compound

• Withdrawing the former

• Drying

• Vulcanizing

• Stripping the product from the former

The variations used in the process can be divided into:

i. Straight dipping

ii. Coagulant dipping

iii. Heat-sensitive dipping

Straight dipping is used for products with a maximum wall thickness of around 0.6 mm.

The process for, i.e. condom manufacturing can be described in a flow scheme as follow:

• Cleaning the formers in water

• Drying and preheating the formers in an oven with air or infrared light

• Dipping of a first layer

• Formers turned around to avoid dripping

• Latex dried in an oven

• Dipping a second layer

• Latex dried in an oven +3

• Bead rolling of 10- 15 mm

• Vulcanization in a main oven

• Washing in hot water

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 • Stripping from the formers by water spray or brushing

• Soaking in water to rinses away harmful ingredients, such as for example processing
aids and nitrates from the coagulant compound.

• Surface treatment as chlorination to reduce stickiness and friction

• Testing and packaging

Coagulant dipping, which is used for products with a wall thickness up to 1.5 mm (i.e.
household gloves) follows the same scheme as above with the exception of the use of a
coagulant. The coagulant, which normally is a solution of a calcium salt, is used to dip the
formers into prior to the 3rd step as above and then the formers are dried in the oven again.

The coagulant makes it possible to manufacture products with thicker walls. The thickness is
beside the composition of the latex compound even depending on factors like the time the
formers are in the latex.

Heat sensitive dipping is used for the thickets products with a wall thickness up to 5 mm, i.e.
baby nipples and some industrial products.

In principle the flow scheme above is also used for these products. In the process however, the
dipping former is heated to approximately 60 °C and then dipped directly into a heat sensitive
latex compound which contents a substance, normally a water solution of polyvinyl methylene-
ether that at a higher temperature influences on the coagulation of the latex. In addition to this
the pH-value has to be lowered to approximately pH 8.0 by using for example formaldehyde.

Irrespective of the dipping technique curing depends on the thickness of the latex coating and
on the curing system used in the compound. A curing and drying time of approximately 45
minutes at a temperature of 100 - 120 °C would be a normal guideline.

The thin walled dipped latex products when stored must be protected from light and heat, which
both accelerates the ageing process. As a rule, latex products have to be packed so that the
renewal of air around the product is minimal and be stored in dark and cool locations.

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 Figure 10: The dipping of glov

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the latex gloves manufacturing process is start from latex concentrate >
compounding > latex dipping > beading > leaching > vulcanising > post leaching > slurry
dipping > stripping > tumbling > quality control > finished gloves to produce high quality
gloves.

REFERENCE

https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/columnists/commodities-today-and-
beyond/2017/08/14/making-rubber-more-elastic-secured-domestic-latex-supply-new-growth-
areas-key-for-the-fut

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