1. Product Description: Paper bobbins and tubes are industrial products made from paper and used for winding purposes. These products are widely used in the spinning departments of textile factories. As these departments are divided into different processing sections, different types of paper bobbins and tubes are required. There are paper tubes with only two paper layers, but some with 25mm of wall thickness as well. The length of the tubes can be 10mm as for a roll of cellophane type, or eight meters as for winding cores needed in paper mills.
2. Market Potential: Paper bobbins and tubes are used for winding materials on them for making these materials ready for storing, transporting or for gradual use. In the textile factories, different sizes of bobbins are used for winding textile threads of different thickness so that the threads become convenient for transferring to other processing sections such as weaving. In paper factories these bobbins and tubes are use for winding rolls of paper of different uses. Also in textile factories, they are used for winding rolls of finished fabrics. The textile, paper and the fiber factories are the main users of paper bobbins and tubes in our country. Although the technology of producing these products is relatively simple, they are still being imported to meet the demand of the above industries. As the numbers of textile and fiber factories are increasing, the demand for paper bobbins and tubes increases. Currently the demand is estimated to be around 5000 tons and the share of the textile factories in the Amhara Region is about 2000 tons. As paper bobbins and tubes are very light in weight, 2000 tons is a huge quantity. This demand size could justify the establishment of a plant which will produce paper bobbins and tubes. Excess supply could be exported to other regions.
3. Source of raw material: As the name indicates, paper bobbins and tubes are made from craft or kahki paper of relatively low quality. This input could be secured from the two paper factories of the country.
4. Process and Technology: Narrow paper webs which are necessary for tube winding are cut on a slitter/rewinder. The webs for the winder are drawn from unwind-stand. The paper rolls are mounted one after the other. The webs run over guides through the gluing equipment to the winding machine. The inside paper webs are glued in a glue bath while the bottom web and cover web are either glued in a single gluing units. The essential element of tube manufacturing is the spiral winding machine. Here the glued strips are led onto a fixed mandrel. A winding belt wraps itself one turning around the mandrel. Once the tube is formed, it is cut to the desired length by a forward moving saw or score-cut knife. The tubes are then taken to a combined labeling and cutting machine. There it will first be wrapped with a multi-pattern picture label and then cut into the required number of tubes by means of several cutting knives. Machinery required for the plant includes slitter rewinder, unwinding stand with gluing equipment, cutt-off device, tube re-cutting machine.
Estimated Investment: For a plant which can produce2000 meter of core per day and 500,000 meters of bobbins and tubes, the required investment is about.
Ø Buildings/shades 800 m2 at Birr 2000/m2= Birr 1,600,000
Ø Machinery and equipment..................... = Birr 3,800,000
Ø Working capital..................................... = Birr 1,000,000
Total = Birr 6,400,000
Benefits: Promotes self-sufficiency, saves foreign exchange, and brings financial resources to the Region.
Location: Bahir Dar, Combolcha, Debre Birahn.