Matches are manufactured in
several stages. In the case of wooden-stick matches, the
matchsticks are
first cut, prepared, and moved to a storage area. When the matchsticks
are needed, they are inserted into holes in a long perforated belt.
The
belt carries them through the rest of the process, where they are dipped
into several chemical tanks, dried, and packaged in boxes.
Cardboard-stick matches used in match books are processed in a similar
manner. Here is a typical sequence of operations for manufacturing wooden-stick matches:
- 1
Logs of white pine or aspen are clamped in a debarking machine and
slowly rotated while spinning blades cut away the outer bark of the
tree.
- 2 The stripped logs are then cut into short lengths
about 1.6 ft (0.5 m) long. Each length is placed in a peeler and rotated
while a sharp, flat blade peels a long, thin sheet of wood from the
outer surface of the log. This sheet is about 0.1 in (2.5 mm) thick and
is called a veneer. The peeling blade moves inward toward the core of
the rotating log until only a small, round post is left. This post is
discarded and may be used for fuel or reduced to wood chips for use in
making paper or chipboard.
- 3 The sheets of veneer are
stacked and fed into a chopper. The chopper has many sharp blades that
cut down through the stack to produce as many as 1,000 matchsticks in a
single stroke.
- 4 The cut matchsticks are dumped into a large vat filled with a dilute solution of ammonium phosphate.
- 5
After they have soaked for several minutes, the matchsticks are removed
from the vat and placed in a large, rotating drum, like a clothes
dryer. The tumbling action inside the drum dries the sticks and acts to
polish and clean them of any splinters or crystallized chemical.
- 6 The dried sticks are then dumped into a hopper and blown through a metal duct to the storage area. In some operations the
sticks are blown directly into the matchmaking facility rather than going to storage.
- 7
The sticks are blown from the storage area to a conveyor belt that
transfers them to be inserted into holes on a long, continuous,
perforated steel belt. The sticks are dumped into several v-shaped feed
hoppers that line them up with the holes in the perforated belt.
Plungers push the matchsticks into the holes across the width of the
slowly moving belt. A typical belt may have 50-100 holes spaced across
its width. Any sticks that do not seat firmly into the holes fall to a
catch area beneath the belt and are transferred back to the feed
hoppers.
- 8 The perforated belt holds the matchsticks upside down
and immerses the lower portion of the sticks in a bath of hot paraffin
wax. After they emerge from the wax, the sticks are allowed to dry.
- 9
Further down the line, the matchsticks are positioned over a tray
filled with a liquid solution of the match head chemicals. The tray is
then momentarily raised to immerse the ends of the sticks in the
solution. Several thousand sticks are coated at the same time. This
cycle repeats itself when the next batch of sticks is in position. If
the matches are the strike-anywhere kind, the sticks move on to another
tray filled with a solution of the tip chemicals, and the match ends are
immersed in that tray, only this time not quite as deeply. This gives
strike-anywhere matches their characteristic two-toned appearance.
- 10
After the match heads are coated, the matches must be dried very slowly
or they will not light properly. The belt loops up and down several
times as the matches dry for 50-60 minutes.
- 11
The cardboard inner and outer portions of the match boxes are cut,
printed, folded, and glued together in a separate area. If the box is to
contain safety matches, the chemicals for the striking strip are mixed
with an adhesive and are automatically applied to the outer portion of
the box.
- 12 When the matches are dry, the belt moves them to the
packaging area, where a multi-toothed wheel pushes the finished matches
out of the holes in the belt. The matches fall into hoppers, which
measure the proper amount of matches for each box. The matches are
dumped from the hoppers into the inner portions of the cardboard match
boxes, which are moving along a conveyor belt located below the hoppers.
Ten or more boxes may be filled at the same time.
- 13 The outer
portions of the match boxes move along another conveyor belt running
parallel to the first belt. Both conveyors stop momentarily, and the
filled inner portions are pushed into the outer portions. This cycle of
filling the inner portions and pushing them into the outer portions is
repeated at a rate of about once per second.
- 14 The filled match
boxes are moved by conveyor belt to a machine, which groups them and
places them in a corrugated cardboard box for shipping.
Quality Control
The
chemicals for each portion of the match head are weighed and measured
exactly to avoid any variation in the match composition that might
affect performance. Operators constantly monitor the operation and
visually inspect the product at all stages of manufacture. In addition
to visual inspection and other normal quality control procedures, match
production requires strict attention to safety. Considering that there
may be more than one million
matches attached to the perforated belt at
any time means that the working environment must be kept free of all
sources of accidental ignition.
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