Design and fabrication of low cost paper bag manufacturing unit

Abstract

Plastic, although considered as one of the greatest inventions by virtue of its use in carrying things but has become a major element in polluting the environment. Plastic bags are known for their carcinogenic gas release after burning in air, for choking of sewage lines during monsoon season and the harmful effect on aquatic life. Government is promoting the use of paper bag to reduce plastic pollution. The project aims at designing a model of paper bag manufacturing unit, which would manufacture paper bags from A4 size educational sheets also commonly known as assignment papers (21.7 X 28.8 cm). The assignments which each student write during his academic year are used as raw material for our manufacturing unit. The paper bags are designed by taking into consideration it’s cost, load carrying capacity and aesthetics. These paper bags have been tested at standard conditions and were found to have enough strength to replace plastic bag of 20 micron (10 X 14 cm). This project is based on reuse of papers for manufacturing paper bags instead of using recycled papers. It also aims on switching traditional manual method of paper bag manufacturing to low cost semi-automated system in order to achieve the goal of mass production of paper bags through automation. The motive behind doing this project is to manufacture paper bag which are easily disposable, cause no harm to environment and replace the current trend of using plastic bags in India.