Design and Fabrication of Solar Powered Low Cost Automatic Paper Bag Making Machine

Plastic bags have been introduced in the middle of 19
^th
decade and it's received a huge popularity amongst the consumers and retailers. Around the world, numerous plastic plants are manufacturing tons of plastic bags which are very commonly used by the society because of its comfort, cheapness and handiness. But the adverse impact of plastic is certainly not highlighted or not openly debated in a serious tone. The negative impact of the plastic in the environment made many counties to ban it due to public concern. Specifically, in Agri dominant countries, such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Africa, etc., the government has taking stringent efforts towards the prevention of single ended plastic. Since, plastic bags are not bio-degradable, the only way to get rid of them is to burn up which discharges the toxic fumes into atmosphere. Dumping of plastics at the soil will also results in degradation of soil quality and makes it as an unfit to the agriculture. The domestic animals will take the plastic papers as food which will lead to their death. An ultimate solution to the above said problem is the replacement of paper bags, in the place of plastic bags. The cost, ease, availability and load carrying capacity are the main factors restricting the use of paper bags among the public. Only Few manufactures are available in the field and due to the cost of machineries, complexity of production, availability of raw materials, man power and electricity demand results in higher cost which becomes as a barrier among the common man in the adoption of paper bags. In this paper, a cost effective, portable, solar powered paper-bag making machine is proposed to produce paper-bags. The proposed design will minimize the usage of plastic bags and assist in the motto of a clean and safe society. The machine is capable of handling different sizes and textures of the paper. It also has the provision to control the speed of production and monitor the quality of the output. The bags are tested for standard conditions and were found to have enough strength to replace 20-micron plastic bags.