The Production of Specialty Rubber

Beaufort Specialty Rubber uses state of the art manufacturing technology to manufacture
superior quality vulcanised and grafted rubber from natural rubber latex for a niche market
which specialises in adhesives and engineering applications. The main raw material, field
latex, is brought in to the factory from the plantations managed and operated by the Sabah
Rubber Industry Board the management at the respective plantation is tasks to ensure that
only the best quality of field latex is sent to the factory. The field latex is preserved with
ammonia and transported to the factory by means of transport tankers which are constructed
of stainless steel materials. This will ensure the field latex is free of any bacterial
contamination. All documentation from the plantations are carefully verified and weight of
the field latex is captured by the computer assigned for this operation. At this stage, a sample
of foeld latex is drawn from the lorry to determine the quality of the latex. Various tests are
carried out the Quality Assurance Laboratory to determine the quality of the field latex. Only
field latex that conforms to quality specifications are accepted. After conforming the quality
of the field latex, the transport tankers are allowed to drive up to the reception area where the
field latex shall be carefully discharged to the selected products.
The field latex from the transport tankers are discharged through very fine mesh strainers the
remove any impurities.
The field latex received from various sources are first bulked and homogenise. Chemicals,
such as curatives and preservatives, are added to the homogenised field latex. The completed
mix is steam-heated under controlled conditions to ensure the latex reaches a vulcanised state.
The entire operation of vulcanisation is automated and controlled by computers. This is the
nerve centre of the factory where computers are used for chemical addition and process
control. The computers are programmed to monitor the varios stages of the process to
eliminate defect and inconsistencies in the products. The vulcanised latex is then added with
fresh proportions of field latex and coagulated with matching coagulants. The coagulated
ruber is floated out of the coagulating troughs for crushing and size reduction. The rubber is
now passed through a series of rollers, called grappers, for shearing, blending, and de-
watering of the rubber. Fresh clean water is added along the creping process to remove excess
chemicals. The creped rubber sheets are passed through machines to shred the rubber into
fine rubber crumbs. The crumbs are pumped up and separated through screens. The fine
crumbs are filled in dryer boxes for subsequent drying process. The dryer boxes, filled with
wet rubber crumbs, are mechanically fed into the drying apparatus for the removal of
mositure. The dryers are equpped with multiple heating banks. Which electronically monitors
and controls the entire drying process. The system ensures the dried rubber has a consistent
quality profile. State of the art- electronic equipment digitally controls the drying process of
the rubber. The dried rubber is meticulously inspected for any irregularity before they are
pressed to shape. The inspected dried rubber is weighed to the specific weight and pressed for
packaging. The presses bales are available in 20.83 kg and 33.33 kg. After through visual
inspection, the pressed bales are wrapped according to the end-user's requirements. The
wrapped rubber is finally unitises and stored for its final destination. Samples from the final
products are tested rigorously in the in-house laboratory to ensure the quality of the products
strictly conforms to the end-user's specifications. The major portion of the plant operation is
computer-aided. Varios stages along the manufacturing operation is closely monitored by
digital sensors and display which allows the operation to be eliminated from any defect and
inconsistency in the products manufactured by the plant.