Infrastructure

The  areca  leaf  plates  are  made  from  the  fallen sheath  of  areca  leaf. India  lead  producer  of  areca  leaf  in  other countries  like  Bangladesh , Indonesia , china , Malaysia , Myanamar and  Thailand.

In recent  year  areca sheath  have  significant important  place  in  the  world . Farmers  collect  the  sheaths , separate  the  sheath  from  the leaf , and  sent  it  to  the  areca  leaf merchant.

The  next  step  is  the  process  is  drying  the  areca sheath .  When  the  merchant  collect  sheath  from  the  farmer  and they  further  dry  them. The  process  is  done  for  to  remove  the moisture  from  the  sheath.

This  is  the  reason  for  the  shortage  of  raw  material in  the  rainy  season.  Sheaths  are  then  tied  in  bundles  of  25  and sent  to  the  areca  leaf  plates  manufacturer

After  coming  to  the  factory , the  worker  will  soak the  areca  sheath  in  the  water  for  20  minutes. Then  they   use  the soft   brush  to  scrub   the  sheath   to  remove  the  dust  and  the  small  sand  particle.

After  drained  in  water  , the  sheath  are  pressed  in the  Areca  leaf  plates  making   machine

The  areca  leaf  plates  machine  is  also  known  as pakkumattai  machine  in  tamil. It  is  the  only  machine  you”ll   need to  make   the  palm  leaf  plates.

The   Areca  leaf  plate  making  machine  has  two pressing  heads :  the  upper  pressing  head  and  a  lower  pressing head . The  upper  head  is  fixed  for  upper  channel  and  the  lower head is moves up and down.

Both  the  pressing heads  have  heating coil  inside. When you start  the  machine, It automatically  heat the  pressing head and  the  heat  is controlled  by  thermostat.

You  can  easily  set  the  temperature   of  these pressing  head  according  to  the  size  of  the  areca  plates.  The smaller  areca  sheath  means  you  reduce  the  temperature  to lower and  to change  the  temperature  for large  sheath. howwever   the temperature   setting  still  vary  and  its also depend  on  the  age of  heating  the  coil and  the  die

After  the  heading   of the  upper  and  lower head  in  the machine, the  next step  is  the  pressing of  the  plates . we  place  the  sheath between  the  hot  pressing  heads  and  press  them tightly  from  each  side  and  then  the  sheath  get  the  shape.

Pressing  head  also contain  cutting blades  in the edges and  its  easily  cut the plates  from  the sheath. One  thing  is important  in  this  plates  there  is  no chemical  or  any synthetic binders  are used  in  the  areca leaf  plates manufacturing process. And  also there is no content  is added  in  the manufacturing  of areca  leaf  plates

Areca  sheath  plates are  ready ,  the  extra sheath  of  areca leaf  are considered  as agro-waste .They collected  the waste Sheath  and  it  can be shredded  into powder  and  its  also used  for animal fodders.

After  pressing  the areca  sheath  into  a  plate , the next  step is to  grade  the  palm leaf  plates  manually  After  grading the palm  plates  edges are  sanded  to  give  a smooth  and beautiful finish  by  cleaning the  plate  surface.

Process for remove the  dirity  and  dust from  the plates  and  plates  are left to dry and before  packing and  then  cure the plates  using  UV lights .This  inhibits  the mold  and  microbe growing   on  the  surface  of  the  areca  leaf  plates.