Handmade Paper Production at TARAgram
Towards Sustainable Production
Manish Seth & Anand Nidgundi

The manufacture of handmade recycled paper has been integrated into TARAgram as it offers opportunity for using skilled manpower, mostly rural unemployed youth and unskilled women.  The design of the handmade paper unit at Orchha was based on the understanding derived through the pioneering effort in New Delhi.

The handmade paper production currently hinges on the availability of cotton rags and waste paper.  The region of Jhansi has very interesting cellulose fabrics obtained from sunhemp, amari, dhaincha and munj.  These materials will be concurrently used for blending with waste materials.  These materials are presently being cultivated locally and the fabric will be upgraded to be used directly in handmade paper production.  It is envisaged that TARAgram paper unit will use 40%  cotton rags, 30% waste paper and upto 30% of biomass fibres.

The paper unit has been designed for achieving a capacity of 180 tonnes per annum (600 kg of finished paper per day).  For this purpose, two streams of production have been installed.  The first stream consists of  a 90kg beater and three univats; each operated by 3 women operators.  The second stream consists of 180kg paper and a cylinder mould machine to produce paper for mass consumption.  These two streams merge for all subsequent operations which consist of drying, cleaning, sizing, calendering and cutting.

One major aspect of process development undertaken by TARA is the internal re-cycling of the resources, especially water.  In a proposed scheme, water from intermediate processes such as pressing is recycled and reused with the fresh pulp.  The normal consumption of water in existing units is 150 cu mts of water per tonne of paper produced.  The TARAgram unit has set a target to cut the consumption by half to 75 cu mts per tonne of paper (diagram).

The first phase of training with completely untrained manpower commenced on 22nd April, 96.  The normal training period to achieve 80% of productivity norms prevalent in the industry is 9-12 months.  It is heartening to know that the TARAgram personnel have achieved this target within the first 90 days of commencement of operations.  While the emphasis on productivity cannot be over-emphasized ; consistency of quality  reproducibility between different lots remains to be mastered.  The quality control procedures evolved by TARA lay down specifications for purchase of raw materials, control of pulp parameters and limits to rejection at each set.

In the TARAgram unit, this is facilitated by ensuring that process wastages and productivity is monitored by the training staff itself.  Standardised log sheets are filled up daily by individual operators with the help of women supervisors.  Rotation of staff amongst different positions ensures that every person in the chain knows the control parameters for different production processes.  The work force has developed skill to lift paper ranging from 100GSM to 400 GSM.  Finer waste of paper upto 80GSM will be produced as higher level of skill development results.

During the month of July, 3 tonnes of finished paper was produced with an average process shrinkage of 10% (norm is 6%).  The TARAgram unit will undertake training of staff from other franchise units set up with TARA technology.  It will also extend this network to manufacture of paper products for which purpose, an artisan village is being set up on the TARAgram premises itself.

q

Back to Contents