A STUDY ON LATEX DRYING CHARACTERISTICS WITH DIFFERENCE OF THICKNESS USING GREENHOUSE EFFECT DRYER

Abstract

Latex just been tapped has a high level ofmoisture content. To be useful for production, latex should be dried to
reducewater content. Latex drying by rubber farmers is commonly to do conducted in opened areas for 14 days
with a very thick size of latex. Therefore, we should be solutions to make latex drying faster. This research, latex
dryingwas treatment by using greenhouse effect dryerwith difference of thickness. The aims of this researchwas
to find out characteristics of latex drying using dimension of greenhouse effect dryer is 150 x 70 x 120 cm. Latex
was coagulated on containers, with dimension of containers is 40 x 10 x 15 cm. Latex was formed with an
equipmentwhich intervals of 2, 1.5, and 1 cmand thenslabwas dried. Result of this research, latexwas driedwith
greenhouse for 9 hour/day for 6 days along. Temperatures of greenhouse effect dryer ranged from30 to 500Cwith
relative humidity of approximately 47%. The treatment with thickness of 2, 1,5 and 1 cm has final moisture
content respectively were 9.53%, 8.96%, and 5.87%bb, and drying acceleration during drying process were
0.3773%, 0.4119%, and 0.4445%w/w / day.
Keywords :DryingAcceleration, GrenhouseDryer, Latex,Moisture Content, Thickness