Fiber Cocotex from coconut husk

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Part of The Coconut Journal

Title: Fiber Cocotex from coconut husk
extracted text: • A Ill< I tlln•c fiber board i11d11�1ry L(lil /Jc set liP jro111 coco Hut fiber�. FIBER COCOTEX FROM COCONUT HUSK By ANGEL B. ABAD Technical Assistant National Coconut Corporation T HE utilization of agrit:ulture wa:>te as raw ma terial for manufacturing processes with tho:! · aim of eliminating and converting it into com modities of gTeat economic value has attracted much atention in t·ecent years. Disposal of these waste�. long- considered worthless, ot· practicall:-· so, and whose aceumulation presented oftentimes an unsightly si tuation, has challenged out· men of science and en gineering skiL And today, thanks to the tenacity of these men. many of such waste product� are now being transformed into articles of surprising Yalue and usefulness. Almost all waste pt·oduds today, whether from industrial or agricultural proce�ses. are subjected to close scrutiny. One such cla�s of waste materials i� the woodv and fibrous structure of plants. This is pm·ticulm : ly noticeable in the fiber, wallboard and insulation board industry which utilize� as raw mate rials the sut·plus mill bagasse. corn stalks, straws. eel �rass a no wood wastes. In fad. almost any fibrous waste material which could be obtainect in fairly large quantities and undt>r �tearly supply is now being in dustrialized. In ket>ping up with thi� trend of sl'it'llCl' to uncover suitable and marketable forms with which the by-products of the coconut industry can be disposed of. it is only natural that the coconut husk, an eco nomic waste and a poor sort of fuel, should be tried as raw material for fiber board manufacture. The necessity of putting up a fiber board industry of our own becomes more imperative when we realize that our import of this product, classified as wall board and corkboard, amounts to hundreds of thou sands of pesos annually. The following data will give a better idea of the flow of this material into the local market : Year Wallbua1·d Corkboard ' Total 1935 p 98,869 P19,780 Pl18,649 1936 207,017 6,233 213,250 1937 327,319 18,848 346,167 1938 298,734 29,525 328,25tl 1939 421,328 12,944 434,272 1940 291,566 33,086 324,652 The above figures illustrate that the importation of these products - which could be wholly manufactured locally out of our abundant raw materials is on the increasing trend except for abnormal times as in 1940. The accelera tion with which the Philipines adopts mod ern living conditions, such as protection from cold, heat and noise, re lays a correspondingly increasing demand for this structural insulat ing materials. The de velopment of this fiber board industry promises, therefore, a bright as pect. What Fiber Board Is Before we embark on a tonscientiouti study of the suitability of roeo nut fiber and pulp m; raw materials for board making, a thorough knowledge of thi:.-; ma terial and the industry itself is es:;ential. Fiber board is not pa per, nor can it be termed Nacoco Finished wallboard from coconut fiber$ 1/Jf•·nsc fllrll to pngc 52 I Pagt> 15 the period from January 1, 1946, to July 3, 1946, the <OtnU4l quota shall be one-half of the corresponding quota specified for the calendar year 1945. Act Establishing the National Coconut Corporation The following year, the National Coconut Cor poration was created by Commonwealth Act No. 518, approved by the National Assembly on August 7, 1940. It is subject to the provisions of the Corporation Law in so far as they are compatible with the provisions of Act No. 518, and enjoys the general powers men tioned in the said Corporation Law in addition to the �pecified powers mentioned in Act No. 518. The Na tional Coconut Corporation is managed by a Board of Directors appointed by the President of the Philip pines with the consent of the Commission on Appoint ments of the National Assembly. According to this Act, the National Coconut Cor poration shall have the following objects: (a) to es tablish, keep, maintain, and operate, or help establish, keep, maintain and operate drying plants, or copra driers, or coconut centrals with a view to adjusting the coconut industry to a position independent of trade preferences in the United States and to provide faci lities for the better curing of copra products and the proper utilization of coconut by-products, provided, that no subsidy, direct or indirect, shall be paid to producers or processors of copra, coconut oil, or allied products; and (b) to afford facilities for bona fide production loans to Philippine c oconut planters and copra producers. To carry out the foregoing purposes, the afore said corporation is empowered and authorized: (a) to grant bona fide production loans to Philippine copra producers upon the security of coconut crops or pro ducts; and (b) to buy, sell, assign, establish or operate rent or lease presses, warehouses, buildings, and any other equipment and materials necessary and proper to carry out its purposes. In accordance with the Ty dings-Kocialkowski Act, a special fund known as the "Coconut Industry Fund" was created by appropriat ing a certain amount out of the Coconut Oil Excise Fund collected on and after January 1, 1939. The to tal sum available to the corporation for the accomplish ment of its undertaking shall not exceed P20,000,000.00. The Coconut Products Board and the National Coconut Corporation Compared It is significant to note that the purposes for which the National Coconut Corporation has been or ganized are in general parallel to those of the Coconut Products Board of 1916. A notable divergence, 'how ever, lies in the fact that in the former organization the principal objective was superiority of coconut pro duction, while the one recently established, while not neglecting to place emphasis on the quality of produc tion aims principally at securing for the industry a position independent of trade preferences in the United States. P��.ge 52 The COCONUT JOURNAL FIBER FROM ... (continued from page IS) a pure building board, although it resembles lumber wallboard in many respects. It is a composition board made essentially from wood or any other ve getable fibers by a process of felting in which count less fibers are interwoven and matted to form a ri gid product. In other words, it is a synthetic lum ber in which strength, resistance to moisture and fire, insulating and acoustical properties have been built in. It is a new material, an insultaing lum ber, rather than a mere substitute for wood. Millions of square feet of it are produced annual ly to satisfy demands that its originators never fore saw. It has been given qualities in a wide variety of combinations to serve specific purposes. It enters primarily in the manufacture of cabinets, marine partitions, railroad coaches, toys, in trailers and mo tor vehicles, air-conditioning, refrigeration, theaters, etc. As a building material, fiber board is notable in its handiness and ease of application. It presents no waste, since they are delivered in specific sizes and contains no knots, sappy pieces or cross-grains. More over, its close texture renders it resistant to attacks from insect vermin. Two distinct objects of paramount importance at·e solved in the fiber board industry, namely : ( 1) the manufacture of a substitute building board material having a large unit surface area which consequent ly reduces handling and installation costs, and ( 2) the utilization of waste fibrous products. Fiber boards can be classified into two different groups-(!) the homogenous and (2) the laminated. Under the former class, sometimes called the uniforlll consistency board, are found the insulation and acous tical boards. The latter class which is a board built up from several layers to impart strength includes the composition boards used for flooring, cabinets, rail road coaches, etc. Manufacturing Process The process of board making as practised by many manufacturers today, is based upon the prin ciple of " felting " or the production of a rigid board of interlaced fibers. The treatment, however, is some times modified according to the kind of raw mate rials used and products desired. Generally, the raw material is subjected to a mechanical or chemical pulping process suffi.:ient to loosen incrusting casing materials for the fi�ers, but not to reduce the fibers into pulp. The fibers are recovered, washed, refined and finally pumped into a stock chest which feeds the molding machine. From the board machine, the wet board formed passes thru a series of rollers, suction boxes, and finally under powerful presses, whence it is taken to a long continuous drier. Sometimes, however, instead of the long continuous drier, the wet board is cut to specific sizes and loaded into a platen-press, the number of plates varying as to the numror of hoards pressed at one time. The driers deliver bvardH which are nearly bonedry and are, therefore, either treatec' in a humidified or simply sprayed with water to bring its moisture content in equilibrium with the moil! ture content of the air, thus insuring minimum of swelling and shrinking. The finished boards, after rigid inspection, are stored away ready for deliv ery . AUGUST, 19-U Basis Of Study The technique involved in the manufacture of this insulating fibrous product is to felt the fibers and to subject it only to such pressure as to entangle minute air cells which secure the insulating value and lightness of the board. The idea is to entrap in each square foot of board millions of sealed air cells which are held captive in the fibers themselves and in the interstices between fibers. It is these celJ:.; which inhibit the insulating property of high effi ciency. Formerly, air spaces between walls were re garded as the best possible insulator of heat and cold (air having a thermal conductivity constant of 0.21 B.T.U. per pound much more efficient than cork) Science has proven, however, that this hold�; true only, and this air is efficient merely, if it can be se eut·ely confioed or rendered "dead." Experimental Procedure And Results With the foregoing fact as a working guide, to gether with the recent findings that coir pulp or dust exhibits properties similar to cork, that is, -it shows excellent insulating quality, is soft, light and com pressible, plus the merits of the coconut fiber or coi;· for being long, tough and springy, experiments were conducted to determine the suitability of these waste materials for making fiber boards. Unfortunately, the work was not as easy as was predicted. It was fraught with difficulties. In fact as early as the experiments were started, problems presented themselves. For instance, it was found out that, unlike the· bagasse fibers with its serrated saw tooth surface and the presence of microscopic hooks which gi•;e to it its tenacious ability to cling to each fiber and which qualities facilitate its felting to a great extent, the coconut fibers on the other hand are devoid of these hook-like structures, has a smooth surface, and are decidedly rounded in cross-section. Moreover, unlike the abaca fibers which can be shred ded to its fine, filmy original minute fibers, the co conut fibers, once defibered, can not be shredded to any further extent. That is, each individual fiber is already the ultimate fiber itself. In structure, it resembles a short ordinary wire and no pounding ac tion could give any shredding effect. Instead, it mere ly flattens the rounded fiber. A careful study was therefore necessary to overcome these drawbacks as well as to evolve, if possible, a process of board ma nufacture suitable to the use of coir as raw material. Working on coir shorts, the first step was the mechanical preparation of the fibers. This consisted, primarily, of cutting the fibers in a fiber mill of the blade type, thus reducing the length of the fibers to one-fourth or about three-fourth inch long. To compensate for the absence of hairlike hooks and to offset the objectionable smooth surface of the round ed fibet·s, the cut fibers were given a permanent curl or a sort of wave in another mill of the hammer type which also broke up any bundle of fibers that might have been left. By virtue of the hammering action of this mill, the desired effect was produced which evi dently helped in the interlacing and interweaving of the fibers into a greater degree than if the fibers were allowed to remain as short, straight ones. The mixture of fibers used comprised of primary fibers from (Vz to % inch long) which were inter laced to form the framework and secondary (shorter fibers) which give rigidity. The space between t he fibers were then filled with coir pulp or the pith like particles to increase the insulating quality. Fi nally, a little paper pulp from old newspapers, pre viously beaten in a separate beater was added to hold the coir pulp and other fibers in place, besides, sup plying the necessary fine aggregates. The above mixture in exact proportions was de livered to a beater. Additional water and waterproof ing materials made up of rosin and alum, as well as insecticides to render them resistant to dry rot and termites were mixed at this point. Two desirable ef fects obtained in the beating process were: 1. Shortening of the fibers necessary for ease of uniform distribution. This was purely a mecha nical process which further refined the mixture of fibers in the stock. 2. A change in the character of the stock, re sulting in increased density and tensile strength. This property appeared as the feel and appearance of the stock became more and more slimy and soft, an ef fect produced by the rubbing and pounding action of the beater After 30 to 45 minutes in the beaters or after such time when the feel become slimy and the indi vidual fibers were thoroughly coated with the water proofing and termite-proofing materials, the stock was transferred to the wooden press-molds. Care was taken that the wet mixture was evenly distributed. The bulk of the water was extracted by pressing down a wire screen which left a wet lap of the ma terial. This was finally pressed down by a wooden plate to the desired thickness. After the board has set, usually from 4 to 7 hours, it was taken out of the press to dry. The drying process (air drying in this case) took from 3 to 6 days. This was the best that could be done under present conditions although the drying operation could be greatly facilitated by the use of steam heated hydraulic platen-press as previousl.v mentioned. This appartus has the advantage of tak ing care of two steps of the process in one opera tion, namely, the drying and the pressing operations. besides imparting a glossy finish to the surface of the board. Boards made by the above developed process ha= a smooth surface, which indeed is a decided improve ment over boards previously made by the dry method that employed different kinds of binders. It has the desirable properties of taking on paint economically. and can be sawed or nailed, just like ordinarly lum ber. The fact that the above wet process does not employ any kind of adhesive has tremendously low ered the cost of production. Acknowledgement The author deeply appreciates the cooperation rendered him by both the Industrial Engineering Divi sion and the Wallboard Sections of the Division of Tests and Standards of the Bureau of Science, and is especially indebted to Mr. F. D. Matoamba, Chief of tht' Industrial Engineering Division, and Mr. Moises Lu cas for their valuable and helpful suggestions. He is likewise grateful for the constructive advices re ceived from Mr. R. Aguilar, Chief of the wallboard Section. Page 5:1
Date: 1941
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