Nacoco copra dryer campaign progressing

Title

Creator

Montes, A. C.

Language

English

Year

1941

Subject

Copra industry—Philippines

Coconut products—Philippines

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

The campaign of the National Coconut Corporation to encourage the use of modern copra dryers is making fast progress. The Nacoco has received many testimonials from enthusiastic planters regarding the benefits derived from the use of the modern dryers.

Fulltext

THE COCONUT JOURNAL Nacoco Copra Dryer Campaign Progressing By A. C. MONTES Staff Member, Coconut Journal T HE campaign of the National Coconut Corpora tion to encourage the use of modern copra dry ers is making fast progress. The Nacoco has received many testimonials from enthusiastic plant ers regarding the benefits derived from the use nf the modern dryers. We reproduce here one of them, from Judge Servillano Platon. Judge Platon writes as follows: "In connection with the Ceylon Drier constructed by the National Coconut Corporation in my plantaHon. Servillano Platon, an enthusiastic champion of modern copra dryers. the same length of time on palciao system is 9.74 me ters. The production per day of the daily-wage weaver ranges from 3 to 16.35 meters, while that of the pakiao weaver, from 2.80 to 19.40 meters. The fifteen weavers of the daily-wage group show aver ages of 6.98, 6.25, 6.59, 6.66, 6.80, 7.34, 6.87, 9.15, 7.09, 7.99, 8.12, 8.41, 6.95, 7.32 and 7.75 meters, while the averages of the pakiao group were 11.52, 8.62, 12.35, 9.17, 9.49, 6.83, 9.91, 8.47, 10.00, 11.26, 9.17, 10.27, 9.17, 9.92 and 9.97 meters. This difference in per formance between the two classes of weavers is, like in spinning work, always attributable perhaps to material ends. The pakiao weaver, having no fixed compenPAGE 16 tion at Camarines Sur, I am pleased to state that it produces a very good quality of copra-the kind that can stand competition in the open markets anywhere. "I observed that the white copra produced from the Ceylon Dryer in my plantation commands a great er p1·ice than that produced from my old "tapahan". The difference in price ranges from fifty centavos (P0.50) to about one peso and twenty-five centavos (P1.25) per 100 kilos of copra. This is due to the de crease in moisture and other waste matter ordinan"ly found in copra d1·ied under the old "tapahan" system. "I further noticed that the copra is d1·ied uni fonnly. Overheat1�ng and scorcl!ing of copra are eli minated. These are advanta.ges which I do not doubt copra dealers will be willing to pay in order to get a better price for thei1· copra. "It is an admitted fact that heretofore, about 82 per cent of Philippine copra is bad copra. This e::rplains why Philippine copra does not rom mand rr good price in foreign markets. I believe that yo11r present campaign to impro�·e the quality of Philip pine cop1·a must, and should continue 11ntil u.•e 1m i formly produce copra of the highest quality". Very t1·uly yours, SERVILL.4.NO PLATON Through the good offices of Judge Ser\'illano Platon, the holding of a demonstration of the work ings of modern copra dryers by the Nacoco on hi� plantation in Tinambac, Camarines Sur from Dec. G to Dec. 8 of this year will be made possible, following the approval of a resolution to that effect by the :\1,• nicipal Council of that town. Each councilor of Tinambac was enjoined in the resolution to take charge of inviting the coconut pro perty owners in different districts of the province to attend this demonstration. All the mayors of Camarines Sur have likewis� been invited to be present at the affair. sation as a daily-wage earner, naturally wants to obtain ag much money as possible from his weav ing efforts, hence his finishing more length of bur lap than the latter. There is, however, an econ omic disadvantage in the former's daily practice. In his eagerness to accomplish as much a11 po<�siblc,, he docs not not cut the correct length for an exact number of sandbags, hence considerable amount of burlap is wasted in this process. This is, of course, the problem of the management and can probably be remedied by daily measuring and cutting the ex act length of burlap for an equivalent number of sandbags in the presence of the pafcitw weaver him self, whether he entertains the idea or not. As the vital life-line of the factory Aeemll to lie on the weight of every sandbag produced, which would necessarily meet the management's e:-�timate, otherwise face losses o1· dissolution ultimately, OCTOBER, 1941 there is the urgent need for the constant inspection of the filling yarns used by weavers. It has been observed that, if the number of filling is increased from one to four, the weight of the sandbag is con siderably increased. Some results of observations on sotne burlap received from other units and all containing 1-ply warp ends and from 1 to 4-ply fillings indicate that the average weight per sana bag of 4-ply-filling burlap is 814 grams; 3-ply filling, 783 grams; 2-ply-filling, 600 grams; and 1ply-filling, 480 grams. These results apparently show that, in the profitable production of sandbags. only burlap with 1-ply warp ends and fillings should be woven. Of course, the number of fillings is not the only determining factor in increasing the weight of burlap for the number of its warp ends does in crease its weight also. If the number of warp ends is more than that required for the exact weight of the burlap to be woven, the excess number automa tically adds some weight to the finished product. This unprofitable practice may be avoided by rigid ly enforcing the warping of the correct number of ends required for every loom in operation. Waste As equally important as the spinning of coir yarns and weaving of coir sack burlap in the pro fitable production of sandbags is the waste incurred in the processing from the fibers to the finished product. As discussed elsewhere in this paper, the percentage of waste in spinning per kilo of fibers ranges from 17 to 38. This result apparently indi cate-s that from 620 to 830 grams of yarn is only spinable from a kilo of coir and some 170 to 3go grams of fiber go to waste, so that if one ton of fiber is spun, some 170 to 380 kilos of this amount are wasted; at P.07 per kilo this wastage will cost from P11.90 to P26.60 which means a lot of money to the factory. It becomes necessary, therefore, to avoid or minimize as possible the waste fibers from spinning. It has been observed that not all of the waste fibers are really waste in the strict sense of the word. They became so because they were care lessly thrown on the floor by the spinners them selves whose practice is to select the best fibers, especially when coir is abundant, in their mad rush to finish as much amount of yarn as early as pos sible. Observation bears out the fact that, in the absence of available fibers for spinning, the pakia.o Rpinners used to muddle over the heap of fibers that once were called waste and still could make their average daily production of yarn from it. This finding evidently shows that the percentage of f1·om 17 to 38 of waste per kilo of fiber can be lessened yet and that the minimizing of the waste fiber can probably be accomplished by strict rationing of fibers to each spinner, who must not be allowed tl) aRk for more until all his fibers, without carelessly or intentionally throwing some, have been spun. Some wastes are also encountered in the weav ing processes. If the correct number of ends for the exact width of the burlap to be woven is nol. warped, either some of the warp ends or the woven burlap is wasted. For if more number of ends than necessary is warped, the excess ends become waste and, if the number warped is less than required, the woven burlap turns useless as it lacks the needed width. There is not much waste, however, if the exact length of warp yarn for an equivalent num ber of sandbags is not made because, allowing for possible shrinkage and the cloth beam tyeing-up which is quite unavoidable, the remaining warp ends that cannot be woven anymore can still be knotted with those of the succeeding warp, in which case the knots so made are from the waste yarn. This knotting method has even some merit in it in that it precludes the need of another threading in the succeeding warp. It seems that one way of minimizing the waste incurred in the processes of coir sack burlap weav ing ia the determination of the number of warp and filling yarns or the total approximate number of meters consumed in a burlap of sandbag size. It has been found through various tests that desirable sandbag-sized burlap contains an average number of 125 meters of 1-ply yarn, 67 warp ends and 101.4 fillings and weigh 447 grams on the average. This filling, besides its importance to the management and other interested parties in the estimating of the cost of production per sandbag, is equally important to the weaver himself. For ascertaining, at the out set, the requisite number and ply of warp ends and filling yarns in a sandbag will enable him to know the amount of yarn to warp and to use for fillings and also the equivalent of his finished burla p in number and approximate weight of sandbags, thus avoiding unnecessary waste yarn and expensive, ad ditional burlap weight. Another method of avoid ing waste yarn is perhaps to collect, knot and wind into balls again all the yarns scattered around the premises of each loom. The resulting balls will be useful, once more, as fillings. The practice of not cutting the correct length of burlap for an equivalent number of sandbags from each loom also produces some waste. Some data on the waste from numerous burlap rolls received from other units indicate that the average length of burlap wasted from sandbag cutting is 0.326 me ter per roll. This length of wasted burlap is indeed a big loss to the factory when we consider its money value in big scale production. For, out of every possible 1,000 meters of burlap, some 326 meters value at P22.82, if we pay P0.07 for weaving every meter, go to waste (cost of materials not consid ered). It becomes, therefore, imperative to effect uate some means of avoiding or at least minimizing some of the waste effected by indiscreet burlap cutting from every loom in operation. Probably LA CORPORA CION NACIONAL ... ( Con tinuacion de la pagina 24) Cuanta verdad! En Sariaya he visto un juego magnifico de te hecho de unas chiretas bien labradas. ;, Han vis to ustedes alg(m ejemplar de esa clase, para exhibicion siquiera, en los "tea parties" que se celebr{m por nuestras sociedades femeninas y masculinas? (Continua a la pagina 19) PAGE 17

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