Sanitary Napkin Making Machine

Problem addressed:

Sanitary napkin, a universally needed product, has very low penetration in India and other developing countries, partly due to its high price and partly due to the tradition of using cheaper but unhygienic old cloth piece. As a result they become the host of many infectious diseases. This is due to lack of awareness and economic inability for adopting better precautions like use of good sanitary napkins during menstruation period. Usually different varieties of sanitary napkins are found available in the market but they are very expensive and are not affordable for rural & under-privileged women and girls.

Product:  

Muruganantham has developed a set of four different small machines namely de-fiberation unit, core forming unit, sealing unit and UV sanitizing unit, which reduce the cost of production making products affordable to all. The production rate using manually operated machine set is 900 to 1000 napkins/day while with semi automatic machine set it is 3000 napkins/day (production efficiency may vary depending upon the skill & speed of operators). The machines are easy to operate and maintain. 

In the first stage, by using deliberation unit, the raw material in the form of wood fiber is de-fibred to produce soft pulp. In second stage, de-fibered pulp is given required shape of the napkin in core forming units operated by a foot pedal.  The third stage involves sealing the pads. The fourth stage involves passing the sealed pads through a dedicated Sterilization unit. Once the sterilization is complete, the pads are ready for the finishing operations consisting of trimming, position strip fixing, packing and dispatch.

Technical specifications : 

• It requires manpower of 3 to 4 to operate the machine set.  
• Five step procedure for manufacturing a sanitary napkin
• Production rate:
  • o    Model 1 - Manually operated machine set - (900 to 1000 napkins /day) and
  • o    Model 2 - Semi Automatic machine set (3000 napkins/day) 

(Note: Production efficiency may vary depending upon the skill & speed of operators.) 

• Sanitization is through UV lights
• De-fibered unit is powered by 1 HP Motor and sealing units requires 40 watts power. 

De-fibred size of wood pulp filament: 1-1.5 mm.

Key   Competitive Advantage:  

• Easy to operate and maintain.  Innovator is providing one day training to operate the machine.  This machine set produce sanitary napkins @ Rs. 1.50 per pads approximately. 
• This machine heralds a new revolution in personal hygiene, for women across all sections of society.
• It creates potential perennial revenue stream for small scale entrepreneurs, and self help groups by deploying a self sustaining micro-enterprise model.