SUSTAINING & ENHANCING LATEX PRODUCTS INDUSTRY

Transcription

1 SUSTAINING & ENHANCING LATEX PRODUCTS INDUSTRY Amir Hashim M.Y.*, and Rosni Mat Wan TEXT OF THE PAPER Latex is the milk of the rubber tree. Despite many rubber species, Hevea Brasiliensis remains the primary source of natural latex for many products. Latex refers to any rubberlike polymer in emulsion form. The polymer or rubber finds many applications where properties, particularly, stretching, bending and pliable are required. The major difference between natural and synthetic latex is the presence of naturally occurred non-rubber materials in the latex, which give rise to certain properties, peculiar only to natural rubber latex (NRL). After modification by crosslinking the polymer in NRL, the properties of NRL offer many advantages for products such as gloves, condom, catheters, foam product and elastic thread. Although, some of the products can be made from synthetic latex; the feeling, comfort and details (in cast and molded products) of NRL are always superior. The major categories of latex products are catheter, gloves, mattresses, cellular rubber, contraceptives and rubber thread. According to trade data), in 2008, the import values of latex products in USA amounted to US$23.5 billion with the 70% of that value is dominated by catheter, and 20% is by rubber gloves. The major exporters for catheter from this region are China (3.4%), followed by Malaysia (1.2%), India (0.3%), Thailand (0.3%) and Indonesia (0.02%). And for gloves, Malaysia leads the way with over 50% market share, with Thailand (16%), China (8%), Indonesia (5%) and Belgium (3%). For condom, it is difficult to obtain reliable data because of the different manner of procurement practices in many countries, such as having different designated class either as contraceptives or medical products. It was, however, estimated by the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) that in 2005, 10.4 billion condoms are used worldwide. The retail sales value is said to be approximately $3.2 billion. Except for most foam products, latex products are mainly short lived products. Thus, with the growth in population, increased in health conscious and environmental awareness, the demand for NR related products should increase. Nevertheless, issues facing some of NRL products must be given immediate attention for the sustainability of the business. This paper discuss some of the technological aspects of popular latex products, giving emphasis on requirements that need due attention, especially for those wish to venture into the lucrative latex product manufacturing industry. Products from NR latex, although, still have a significant share in the consumer product, are getting substitutes from their synthetic counterpart derived mainly through unsustainable source. The optimum challenge for NR-based products that are widely accepted as product derived from a sustainable source is to ensure NR products remains competitive in the consumer market. Thus, 1

2 enable the consumer to utilize products that could save the earth environment. The natural rubber-based products that remain steady through the up and down of the rubber product industry, due to the NR latex peculiar natural properties that are hard to be duplicated by manmade materials, are NR latex products such as gloves, condom, catheter and latex foam.. The properties include excellent elasticity, high physical strength, highly tacky, ease to process, natural water-based material and good feel. These superiority in NRL properties over other materials offer exceptional choice of based material for products such as thin gloves, condoms, catheter, tubing, latex thread, foam products and elastic novelty items. Thin latex gloves either examination or surgical gloves as personal protection device used in safety and health areas command huge economic return due to awareness on good health and safety practices. Condom is a vital device, not only for family planning, but it is known to be effective against diseases transmission. Catheter and tubing made from latex are flexible and ease in their application, while air introduce in latex forming foam products that found application in the cushioning and support. Most of these products exist around us as long as we can remember. Even though, the technology associated with these product, has been around for decades, there are many areas that can to be further improved, as to offer fresh and new cycle to these products, to continue serving mankind now, and beyond. The dipped products industry is the major user of NR latex concentrate. Other than thin latex gloves and condoms, the technology is able to produce balloons, finger cots, baby teats, soother, toys, finger cots, swimming caps, over boots. The dipping process starts at the latex concentrate stage. The latex, being the main material must be adequately stable at high ph, and properly characterized for its solid contents, mechanical stability, coagulum content, alkalinity, volatile fatty acid, heavy metal content and viscosity. Thus, it is important to have a set-up in the factory to at least monitor the incoming raw material. On the raw materials, the price volatility is the primary concern because the basic pricing of the dipped products depends on the amount of materials. A typical latex formulation to produce dipped NR latex is given below in Table 1. Table 1. Typical formulation for NR latex examination glove Part Per Hundred kg % NR Latex Sulphur Accelerator Antioxidant Zinc Oxide Fillers TIO

3 KOH Surfactant Dewebbing Agent 0.0 Water Ammonia In producing a dipped product such as gloves, the usage of water to dilute the latex during processing and production is high. The storage and availability of clean water is critical to ensure smooth glove production cycle. The latex accounts more than two third in the glove formulation, is a big cost factor, further to that, the price and supply are not stable. The price of latex depends very much on the current rubber market, and to stabilize the costs, to remain competitive, filler are normally added to the exam gloves; however, the quality of the product will be affected if too much filler is used. Therefore, there should be a compromise between technology quality and price. The other main costs contributor is the energy required to run the production line ( Table 2). Table 2. Costs example in Malaysia ringgit based on one line production (for 15 days) Items Estimated Costs Electric 15,000 Water 3,000 Diesel 36,000 General Maintenance 5,000 Staff 10,000 Waste Water Management 4000 The energy requirement includes electricity, fuel and water, and these energies must be available readily to support the production. The factors mentioned are all controllable within the producer, but require sound and good business plan so that the necessities can be acquired at a competitive price, and the business can be sustained. In consumer product, requirement as wanted by the consumer such as given below in Table 3 is important to sell the product. Table 3. General requirement for examination gloves Requirement Tensile strength (Unaged/Aged) Force at Break (Unaged/Aged) Minimum limit 18 MPa/14 MPa 9 N/6N 3

4 Elongation at Break (Unaged/Aged) 650%/500% Protein Content ( g/dm 2 ) 200 (powder glove) / 50 (powder free) Residual Powder (mg/glove) 150 (powder glove) / 2 (powder free) The physical capability of NR gloves is well accepted and is known to be superior for its intended application than most of the gloves made from other materials. Nevertheless, due to the costs increased in production, inferior NR gloves found their ways to the consumer and to protect themselves, new standard such as EN is asking for a better quality NR gloves. The specification can be misleading by stating vinyl gloves which is known to be less superior that NR gloves at a much lower limit (Table 4). Table 4. EN requirements for rubber gloves Surgical gloves NR Synthetic Force at Break in NRL Elastomeric (Non Nitrile) Examination/procedure gloves Nitrile Thermoplastic (e.g. PVC) During Shelf After testing challenge These are requirement dictated by consumer countries in consultation with each other in the standard committee, which may have a negative impact in manufacturing countries that produce large amount of NR gloves.. It is important that our voice is heard in the committee. Different regions tend to have their preferred specifications, and they may play by a different set of rules. Among them are ASTM, CEN, and the ISO. The concern in consumer countries are on the health and safety of the products, and it is important that these customer needs are met. Malaysia, has taken the steps to ensure that the gloves made in Malaysia are able to meet quality stipulated by the consumer, by introducing the Standard Malaysia Glove (SMG) glove program. The program is still evolving as Malaysian manufacturers are trying their best to meet their consumer needs, while keeping the costs competitive for them to survive. The SMG Program was launched in 1998 is the program mooted by the industry and supported by the Malaysia government. After taking into cognizance of consumers feedback, the technical requirements of the Program was revised a few times over the years, even now, it is in the stage of revision. Several specifications were tightened and among the important ones were the reduction in the limits for extractable protein content and residual powder content of powdered gloves from 300 µg/g to 200 µg/dm 2 and from 200mg/glove to 150 mg/glove respectively. In 4

5 2000, the revised SMG Program was introduced in the US. Among the positive outcomes was the approval given by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for SMG manufacturers to display the SMG logo in their glove boxes. The challenge among Malaysia SMG glove manufacturers is to produce their own brand with the SMG logo. Glove business is a volume business, and to survive, most of manufacturers produce OEM gloves that may not requires SMG gloves. Since the last SMG revision, several important developments have taken place in the West. These include the revision by the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) of the standard test method for the analysis of aqueous extractable protein in Natural Rubber and its products; the introduction of recommended limits for protein content and powder amount and powder free residue by ASTM; the revision of by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on glove standard and the introduction of EN standards for several requirements for rubber gloves. Several landmark technologies for glove production in Malaysia that included the on-line chlorination and polymer-coating processes for making powder-free gloves and development of long dipping lines that are equipped with innovative features for cost-effective reduction in protein and residual chemical contents of the gloves. These efforts are now paying dividends, resulting in, among other things, a downward trend of both extractable protein and residual powder contents of the Malaysian-made powdered gloves submitted for testing under the SMG Program. Recent development in the consumer market warrants MRB to embark on the product certification system for the SMG glove. MRB Product Certification System is such a system which provides the assurance of product conformity to standards or specification. The system grants permit to rubber product manufacturers to use the MRB Product Certification Mark, in addition to a Certificate of Conformity, on their products which conform to standards or specification. Continued conformance is assured through regular surveillance auditing of the products. The MRB will endeavour to use ISO system as the certification scheme as far as possible. Under this system or equivalent, certification is granted only if the product meets with the specified standard/specification and there is a proper quality management system to ensure continuous compliance with the standard or specification. CONCLUSION The paper briefly described Malaysia experience in sustaining and enhancing the glove manufacturing industry, where by Malaysia is the world largest producer with more than 60% market share. The industry is growing at an estimated rate of more than 10% per year due to growing public awareness in self protection during handling situation. The industry, over the years, underwent many challenges from health related scare issue to costs increased due to NR price volatility. Nonetheless, the Malaysia industry still remains as the global leader in rubber gloves. There are many issues that can always be put forward to challenge the industry. The key 5

6 is sustaining and enhancing the industry is to know the root of each the issue. There is always a technical solution for produce the desired product, but the question is who pays for the costs. Acknowledgement The authors wish to acknowledge the MRB for continuing supporting the Malaysian Glove industry, and the Director-General of MRB for his permission to present the paper at this conference. 6