Important principles for making beautiful rubber sheet

3 principles for making high quality rubber sheet.
- Cleanliness
- Thinly pressed for standardized size
- Right amount of acid used

Steps of making rubber sheet

Beginning with tapping process, the latex Collecting cup be must clean. All dust or even stain must be cleaned off. The latex container for transportation must also be clean and at being used for other purposes.

After collecting the latex, it should be immediately processed into sheet. If the latex is kept for too long, it may turn bad.

All tools and equipment must be cleaned, even though they look clean.
1. Filter the latex with filter number 40 and 60 (40 Mesh and 60 Mesh)

2. Add clean water into the filtered latex with the ratio 1:1. However, if the latex is from young rubber tree, the ratio of water: latex would be 3:2. This is because the young rubber tree would have low Dry Rubber Content. Stir and mix well.

The ratio varies depending on the percentage Dry Rubber Content or the weight of the rubber sheet. For example, using this ratio would produce more than 1.2kg of a dry raw rubber sheet, then it is suggested to reduce the amount of latex. However, if it produces less than 0.8 kg, then it is suggested to reduce the amount of latex. Normally, a dry raw rubber sheet should weight about 1 kg.

3. The mixture, the latex and water, is transferred to a 5-liter aluminum container, which can produce 1 rubber sheet.

4. Mix 1 bottle of the Tiger Brand acid to 26 liters of water. Stir and mix well. After that, use an empty can to measure out the acid mixture and add it into the latex mixture. The ratio is 1 can of acid mixture for 1 aluminum container of latex mixture.

Before mixing the acid mixture into the latex mixture, it is recommended to stir the latex mixture and slowly pour the acid mixture along the length of the aluminum container.

5. After pouring the acid mixture into the latex mixture, stir the mixture 5- 6 times. At this process, a lot off bubbles would be formed. Scoop out all the bubbles, which can be used as the good quality rubber dung

After scooping out all the bubbles, cover the aluminum container to prevent dust.

Let the mixture to set and solidify for about 30-45 minutes.

6. Immediately add some clean water once the mixture has solidified. This is to make it easy to remove the rubber out of the aluminum container before being kneaded.

7. The kneading table should be cleaned to prevent dust during kneading process. Turning over the aluminum container to allow the rubber to come out of it. After that, start the kneading by hand or using a wooden stick. The rubber should be kneaded to have the thickness of 1 cm.

8. Using a pressing machine to press the kneaded rubber to have the thickness of 3-4 mm.

9. Using a pattern-pressing machine to further press the rubber sheet to have the suitable thickness of 2-3 mm.

10. Washing the pressed sheet in a container of water. After that, air dry the sheet (don't sundry the sheet as the quality of the sheet would be dropped). once the sheet is dry, it can be stored and sold.

If a smoke house is available, as soon as the water from the sheet stop dripping, it can be put into the smoke right away.

It is shown that, as more attention is paid to the cleanliness and the use of the right ratio of acid, the produced sheet would be at a high quality and sold at a better price, benefiting to the farmer.

Mix 13 liters of the formic acid with 18 liters of clean water. Using 300 cc. of the mixture for 1 portion of latex mixture (3-4 liters of later and 2-2.5 liters of clear water). Stir and mix.

Remarks

The right amount of acid varies depending on the concentration and the amount of the latex,

which varies according to seasons. For example, more acid can be used during rainy season and less during summer.