COIR PRODUCTS

Coir is a natural fibre extracted from the husk  of coconut and used in products such as floor mats, doormats, brushes, mattresses, etc. Coir is the fibrous material found between the hard, internal shell and the outer coat of a coconut. Other uses of brown coir (made from ripe coconut) are in upholstery padding, sacking and horticulture. White coir, harvested from unripe coconuts, is used for making finer brushes, string, rope and fishing nets

The English word "coir" comes from the Malayalam word 'kayar‘.

INTRODUCTION

Ropes and cordage made from coconut fibre have been in use from ancient times. Indian navigators who sailed the seas to Malaya, Java, China, and the Gulf of Arabia centuries ago used coir for their ship ropes. Arab writers of the 11th century AD referred to the extensive use of coir for ship ropes and rigging.

Coir processing is an important economic activity in India, where it provides jobs for more than 500,000 people.

In 1980, the primary producing countries of India and Sri Lanka began an on going effort to identify and correct technological limitations on coir production.

HISTORY

Total world coir fibre production is 250,000 tonnes . This industry is particularly important in some areas of the developing world. India, mainly in Pollachi and the coastal region of Kerala State, produces 60% of the total world supply of white coir fibre. Sri Lanka produces 36% of the total brown fibre output. Over 50% of the coir fibre produced annually throughout the world is consumed in the countries of origin, mainly India. Together, India and Sri Lanka produce 90% of the coir produced every year.

LOCATION AND PRODUCTION

• Fresh water is used to process brown coir, • while sea water and fresh water are both used in

the production of white coir.• In 2000, researchers announced that adding a

both containing a certain combination of 10 anaerobic (living without oxygen) bacteria to salt water can dramatically hasten the fiber extraction process without seriously degrading product quality.

• In Europe and Asia, brown coir mats may be sprayed with latex rubber for use as padding in mattresses or automobile upholstery.

RAW MATERIALS

THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS

• HARVESTING –Mainly done in 3 ways• Coconuts that have ripened and fallen from

the tree• Harvested by human climbers- So many

technological advancements have came in this area.

• third harvesting technique ,in which trained monkeys climb trees to pick ripe coconuts, is used only in countries that produce little commercial coir(Sri Lanka).

HARVESTING AND HUSKING

• Ripe coconuts are husked immediately, but unripe coconuts may be seasoned for a month by spreading them in a single layer on the ground and keeping them dry. To remove the fruit from the seed, the coconut is impaled on a steel-tipped spike to split the husk. The pulp layer is easily peeled off. A skilled husker can manually split and peel about 2,000 coconuts per day. Modern husking machines can process 2,000 coconuts per hour.

• Retting is a curing process during which the husks are kept in an environment that encourages the action of naturally occurring microbes.

• This action partially decomposes the husk's pulp, allowing it to be separated into coir fibers and a residue called coir pith.

• Freshwater retting is used for fully ripe coconut husks, and saltwater retting is used for green husks.

RETTING

Types of Retting :• For freshwater retting, ripe husks are buried in

pits dug along riverbanks, immersed in water-filled concrete tanks, or suspended by nets in a river and weighted to keep them submerged. The husks typically soak at least six months.

• For saltwater retting, green husks are soaked in seawater or artificially salinated fresh water. Often this is accomplished by placing them in pits along riverbanks near the ocean, where tidal action alternately covers them with sea water and rinses them with river water. Saltwater retting usually takes eight to 10 months, although adding the proper bacteria to the water can shorten the retting period to a few days.

• Mechanical techniques have recently been developed to simplify retting. Ripe husks can be processed in crushing machines after being retted for only seven to 10 days. Immature husks can be dry milled without any retting. After passing through the crushing machine, these green husks need only be dampened with water or soaked one to two days before proceeding to the defibering step.

• Traditionally, workers beat the retted pulp with wooden mallets to separate the fibers from the pith and the outer skin.

• In recent years, motorized machines have been developed with flat beater arms operating inside steel drums.

• Separation of the bristle fibers is accomplished by hand or in a machine consisting of a rotating drum fitted with steel spikes.

• Separation of the mattress fibers from the pith is completed by washing the residue from the defibering process and combing through it by hand or tumbling it in a perforated drum or sieve.

• The clean fibers are spread loosely on the ground to dry in the sun.

DEFIBERING

• Bristle fibers that will not immediately be further processed are rolled and tied into loose bundles for storage or shipment.

• Similarly, mattress fibers may simply be baled with a hydraulic press. However, if more processing is desired, the fibers are combed with mechanical or manual carding tools, then loosely twisted into a thick yarn (wick), and wound into bundles.

• Later, the wick can be re-spun into a finer yarn. Techniques vary from simple hand spinning to use of a hand-operated spinning wheel or a fully automated spinning machine.

• Depending on its intended final use, the yarn may be shipped to customers, or multiple strands may be twisted into twine and bundled for shipment. Both traditional manual techniques and newer mechanical methods are used to braid twine into rope and to weave yarn into mats or nets.

• For some uses, such as upholstery padding, bristle fiber is loosely spun into yarn and allowed to rest. Then the fibers, which have become curly, are separated. These fibers are lightly felted into mats that are sprayed with latex rubber, dried, and vulcanized (heat treated with sulphur).

FINISHING

• By weight, coir fibers account for about one-third of the coconut pulp. The other two-thirds, the coir pith (also known as coir dust), has generally been considered a useless waste material. Although it is biodegradable, it takes 20 years to decompose. Millions of tons sit in huge piles in India and Sri Lanka. During the last half of the 1980s, researchers successfully developed processes to transform coir pith into a mulching, soil treatment, and hydroponic(without soil) growth medium that is used as an alternative to such materials as peat moss and vermiculite. Before being compressed into briquettes for sale, the coir pith is partially decomposed through the action of certain microbes and fungi.

• An Australian company has also recently begun turning coir pith into an absorbent product used to remediate oil spills.

BY PRODUCTS/WASTE

• As improved technology increases production, industry groups and governmental agencies are actively promoting new uses for coir fiber. Geotextiles is one promising area.

• The Indian state of Kerala designated 2000 as Coir Geotextiles Year, which it observed by increasing marketing efforts and supporting research to improve production.

• The annual world demand for geotextiles is 1.2 billion square yards (1 billion square meters) and growing. Although natural fibers account for only 5% of that, the proportion is expected to increase as more users turn away from non biodegradable synthetics.

• Another new product under development is an alternative to plywood that is made by impregnating a coir mat with phenol formaldehyde resin and curing it under heat and pressure.

THE FUTURE

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