Development of Latex Transducer for Rubber Tapping Process

Abstract

There is a huge demand for rubber in India used in variety of products. Now a day’s people collect the latex from the rubber tree by manual or semi-automatic rubber tapping process. By collecting the latex, the cutting depth is fixing for an approximate value. For each and every tree the depth of the bark is varied and improper tapping damages the cambium layer of the tree. The proposed latex transducer contains two motors, embedded controller, current sensor, distance sensor, LCD display and power supply. One motor is used for drilling and other motor is for driving. The driving motor will drive the drilling motor. For driving, stepper motor is used and drilling operation brushed DC motor is used. The current sensor senses the current of drilling motor. Initially the current sensor sense the distance up to the tree surface, then the embedded controller will give the signal to the driving motor, the driving motor will drive the drilling motor up to the tree surface. Once the drilling motor reach the surface, the embedded controller initialize the distance and runs the drilling motor so the distance sensor sense the distance from the tree surface. To reach the inner wood the drilling motor takes more current, so the embedded controller will stop the drilling operation and give the signal to the LCD display. So easily find the depth of rubber tree up to the cambium layer.