|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 17 August 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Machine to improve productivity in tea industry Krishan Jayawardena, Director Product Development and Quality of Walker Sons and Company Engineers (Pvt) Ltd, in response to the scarcity of labour and the high cost of power in tea processing, has invented an automated tea roller. The machine will be displayed at the Tea Convention and Exhibition to be held this week It is patented in Sri Lanka and will be sold by Walker Sons under the name Walkers' Super Tea Roller. Some of the benefits of this new machine are reduction of power consumption by 50 per cent with no reduction in rolling capacity, smooth shock-free drive which reduces leaf temperature and increases rolling efficiency, reduction in components, weight and vibrations which facilitates easy installation, reduction in noise, ability to increase or decrease speed, automation of the full rolling cycle to meet customer needs, provision for centralised operation of several tea rollers. A tea roller plays an essential part in the appearance, liquid and infusion of tea. Once the leaves are picked from the estate, they are withered and introduced into tea roller where they are crushed to break the leaf cells and extract the cell juices. The juices, when fermented and dried on the leaf particle, give the appearance liquid and infusion of tea.The tea roller consists of the hydraulic motor, hydraulic pressurising attachment, hydraulic ram, Hydraulic pump and hydraulic control valves. As a safety device, the machine is equipped with an automatic power cut-off using a safety bar. Jayawardena joined Walker and Sons 25 years ago as a Trainee and rose to the position of Director. Last year, with his new appointment, he said: "I wanted to go for new inventions and this is the first. It took me three months to make it and I am confident that it will make a difference in the industry." Speaking of future plans, he said his next invention will be an automatic tea blending machine while some more items relating to the industry are in the design and production stages. "I want to complete and introduce them so that everyone in the industry can benefit by reducing costs and increasing productivity, which will enable us to be more competitive globally." Established in 1854 in Kandy, by John Walker, the company started by making machinery for the rapidly developing coffee industry. In 1880, Walker transferred the headquarters to Colombo and in 1891, the group was converted to a limited liability company registered in the UK and named Walker Sons and Co Ltd with the addition of the word UK in 1975. Now it has branches all over the country. Since 1990, Walkers has been a fully Sri Lankan-owned and managed company as its UK principal, Walker Sons and Co (UK) Ltd is a fully-owned subsidiary of Kapila Heavy Equipment Ltd, a public quoted company in Sri Lanka. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
