KALITA et al.: A NOVEL MACHINE FOR PLATE MAKING FROM ARECA PALM LEAF SHEATH 807 Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research Vol. 67, October 2008, pp.807-811 *Author for correspondence Tel: +91-361-2583127; Fax: +91-361-2690762 E-mail: pankajk@iitg.ernet.in A novel energy efficient machine for plate manufacturing from areca palm leaf sheath P Kalita 1 *, U S Dixit 2 , P Mahanta 2 and U K Saha 2 1 Centre for Energy, 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039 Received 24 July 2007; revised 11 July 2008; accepted 14 July 2008 An efficient, high performance and user-friendly hand-operated machine for bowl and plate manufacture from areca palm leaf sheath has been designed. New machine is very effective, as production time of bowl (15 cm diam) has reduced by 50% and that of plate (30 cm diam) by 30% in comparison to existing pedal-type machine. Cost of new machine is 50% less than existing machine. Keywords: Areca palm leaf sheath, Bowl and plate manufacture, New hand-operated machine Introduction Leaf of areca tree (Areca catechu L.) is a hard material (good tensile strength), slow in biodegradation and has low calorific value 1 . About 1000 million leaf sheaths (2,33,000 tonnes) are available annually in India alone 2-4 . Areca leaf sheath (cellulose, 43%) by digestion using sulphite process at 162°C for 3.5 h gives a pulp (yield, 36-40%), which in admixture with other pulp can be used for making packing paper boards 5,6 . It is used to manufacture decorative vaneer panels and picture mounts 7 . Arecanut shows hypoglycemeic effect, mitotic activity, antihelminthic activity, cholinomimetic activity etc 8 . Existing pedal-type machine, which is used to manufacture bowl/plate from areca leaf sheath, consists of a set of die-punch, cutter, a foot lever (to lift die), and a frame 9 . It has following drawbacks: i) Performance of cutter is unsatisfactory; ii) High force is required to operate machine; iii) Structure of machine is large; iv) Operation in standing position is inconvenient especially for physically handicapped persons; v) Excessive operation leads to back pain and fatigue; and vi) Die shapes are not standardized. This study presents design and development of an energy efficient, hand operated machine (fabricated at IIT Guwahati) for bowl and plate manufacture from areca palm leaf sheath. Design of New Machine New machine (Fig. 1) consists of one set of die-punch, two sets of heater coil in case of electricity based machine, die heating by LPG gas burner and punch heating by heater coil in case of gas based machine, rack and pinion system, besides supporting plates and hand wheel. New machine (Fig. 2) operates on the principle of rack and pinion system. This machine reduces force needed to move punch and thus protects machine operator’s back from excessive strain. In this work, 4 sets of die-punch have been designed and fabricated. The design of shaft (length, 620 mm; diam, 20 mm) and key (6 mm × 6 mm) to fit pinion is very important for smooth operation of machine. At the end of shaft, one hand wheel is fitted for lifting purpose. Material selection for machine fabrication is very important (Table 1). Machine Operation New hand-operated machine is clamped on a bench using 4 nuts and bolts, and machine becomes ready for use. It is recommended that before start of operation,