Balloon Factory

Another Spring Break Outing...

After going to the silk worm farms I realized that we really don't have a lot of time left here, and Ethan loved seeing how things are made. I decided to try and fit in as many factory tours as we can in the time we have left. In the US there are so many restrictions that you really don't get to go and see how things are made too much. Or at least as close up as we get to here. So...THE BALLOON FACTORY

 Vickie gave me this idea again and even took us there to see it. She had ordered balloons from the owner before and saw a small amount of how it was made. We weren't able to take pictures of the whole process, but at the end of the tour they allowed us to take pictures of the testers. I'll describe how they make them though.

First, they take the rubber from the rubber trees, see post when we went to Kerala with Alan's parents. They have a big, huge vat of liquid rubber that they heat up and mix with a big mixer that I would image a bakery to have. Then, after it has been mixed for about 4 hours they add color to it. The color is a powder that they grind up by putting it in a big jar with some marbles. Then they put the jars on a conveyer belt and as the jars roll the marbles around it grinds the powder to be very fine. So small that you can't just pick up one grain. After the color is mixed in they dip some light bulb shaped, or heart shaped sticks into the rubber. They also dip it into a chemical that they said is like vinegar only 100 times stronger. This makes the rubber dry extremely fast.

This is where we get to start taking pictures

Balloons out drying in the sun. If it is a rainy day they have a big oven type thing that they dry them in. Once they are mostly dry a guy goes around and rolls up the ends of the balloons so that it makes the part you put your lips on to blow in.

guy rolling the balloons

After they are dryed they put a powder on the outside so that they don't stick together in the middle and a lady takes them off the sticks one by one. Once they are off the sticks, there is a room with about 15 ladies testing each balloon. There is a big pipe with air being blown through it. There is a spout of sorts that comes off of the pipe that they hook each balloon on to make sure there are no holes.

They let each of the kids test some balloons. They loved it.I think Vijay was as excited as the kids.

 They let the kids all take the balloons that they tested.

 After they test each balloon another lady sits and counts out the balloons and puts them into packages. She has a scale on the floor by her that you can see she is weighing them.

 The owner was so kind. After the tour he took all of us into his office and gave us sprites and gave each of the kids a package of balloons. We tried to pay him for the balloons, but he wouldn't take any money. He did the whole tour for free.

Thanks Vickie for taking us to another fun place.