Cuba and Cigars | The Stripping House |
|
Packing
department
Here tobacco
is received and it is packed by grades. The pack of binder should weigh
58 kilograms and that of filler 52 kilograms. This process consists on
the elaboration of the compressed packages of leaves, called packs that
are made with a hydraulic apparatus. The leaves are placed inside a square
mold of approximately 1.30 m. |
The box that
serves as mold for making the bale is of hard wood.
The five
parts that form the box two men can organize them in less than one minute,
later a mobile bottom is placed, (which is retired before applying the
hydraulic press), and inside the box and on the bottom before depositing
the first leaves two pieces of yagua are placed that will have the width
and length of the bale when finished.
The box is
filled with the leaves of tobacco that arrive from the drying room in
cardboard boxes, baskets or in wheelbarrows, the leaves in very similar
proportions to those of the drying room are placed so that they fill each
empty space, placing the stripped part of the leaves pointing out.
Once half
filled, the two other pieces of the box are placed and the filling process
is completed.
Then two
wooden pieces are placed that serve as support to lift the box and to
place it in a weight that is always very near where it is filled, the
weight is proven , and if it is not completed more leaves are placed until
completing the required weight.
The following
step is to take the box to the hydraulic press to compress the leaves.
The box has a height of approximately 140 m, and as can be appreciated
in the picture it is completely full with leaves. The man that waits in
the press places a sackcloth blanket on the base of it where the box will
be placed.
Links
& Sources:
|
