Tour Article Number Twenty Three - Hingurana Sugar Factory

Hingurana is located 12km from Ampara in the Ampara Siyambalanduwa road. If you want to go to the factory it is in 350m from the Hingurana roundabout. This is closed for some time but now the machines are working again. Now this is started as private factory join with the Gal Oya plantations. I have opportunity to visit this factory from my friend whose father is working in here. When I go to this factory, the machines are stopped working. However they helped me to know the procedure of making sugar. This is the things that I understood and the thing in my memory. The photos were linked because it takes long time to load.

First of all this machine is the lifting method of the load of sugar canes. It can lift 10 tons at one time. There are two machines like this. The machines put the load in to these plates and the chains on the plate will move them to this channel. For one time it will put 3 tons for the channel. In first wheel was arranging the sugar canes and burst them a little. After that the next wheel was chopped the sugar cane. Then cut in to pieces of the size of near one inch. These all happens on the moving plate and then it goes to inside of the factory.

Inside the Factory first those goes to allocating the treacle made of sugarcane. In here the chopped cane will grind from these machines. One machine has three sub units which has small channels on it. When cane goes through it, molasses will allocate to the tanks which are positions in the down of the machine. After the waste, was coming through moving plate. All the units in the factory use the steam power, which produces by this boiler. Wood takes for the start the boiler and then uses the waste cane. Long time ago they use the fuel for the engines but now only uses the wood. Then the heat produced was use in this press to make steam pressure to 250 pounds per inch. Then distribute all over the factory. There is a level to see the water level inside the press. Bottom of the boiler has a place to remove charcoal.

Then we go to see the power house of the factory. It’s also works from the steam turbine. This turbine was rotating 6000 rounds per minutes. Whole machines were working by these 440 volts electricity which produces form the power house. But sometimes it takes electricity from the Celon electricity board. But when the factory stopped working then the electricity was give to the Celon electricity board. And also there was a fuse to save the machines from the variation of the electricity. That is taken from old ship and present from the foreign county to Sri Lanka in the D. S. Senanayaka time. This fuse was keeping the Electricity in balanced level.

Allocated molasses will pomp to this big tank then mix the carbide to the tank. Carbide uses for the remove the mud and other colluviums in the molasses. When mixing carbide, they check the pH value by this machine. In the past, they use to this process slaked lime and the sulfur. In the tank the weight limit comes to the 1 ton, and then automatically releases the valve and pump to another place. And there is a meter to count the number of tons for the day. Then the molasses will pump to the steam burners and then heat for high temperature and then give high pressure such as 200 pounds per inch. Inside these burners has number of tubes, and they flow the molasses up and down to get the temperature quickly. And also the tubes were bend like this because to stop the beating of the steam flux. And this big tank use to clean the hard water. It’s doing for save the tubes from the chemical layers which corroded inside the tubes.

Then again there is another tank to collect that molasses. It is always rotating in small speed. In the tank the mud and the colluviums go to deep and clean molasses comes up. Different levels got valves and by the checking pump the clean molasses to another unit in the factory. Impure molasses clean by special machine. This machine was taken for that process. it was a cylindrical one which rotates touching impure molasses. And inside it there is a vacuum system to suck the pure molasses. And the outside of the cylinder has plate with tiny holes. And also when rotating it will clean the outside of the cylinder and remove the colluvium and mud. Load tයem outside the factory.

Then the next unit supposes to do the molasses in to pebbles. And then clean as a sugar. It is doing by given special conditions. And put some chemicals. Those chemicals did not collide with sugar but helps to increase the size of the pebbles. When it makes the pebbles in correct size it will pump to another level and other will go through again in this process. These molasses liquid is always mixing by using rotating axes inside the tanks. Next step is to remove the molasses and dry out the sugar. For that the molasses liquid put in to high pressure and spray through the heated air. For that it used a rotating cylinder. Inside this cylinder have lots of metalplates to increase the surface area. End of this cylinder there is a hole to collect the sugar and sugar dust will collected separately. Then again the sugar dust will use to make liquid and then again in to sugar pebbles.

There is some mechanism to stop the lumpish of the sugar. And then collect to big tanks. From bottom of the tanks there is automatically release 50kg at one time and collect them to gunny bags. Then after all bags goes to stores. And there is a mechanism to cool the water for the factory. That is a pond with sprinklers. One channel goes to factory with cool water and another channel goes to pond with hot water to the pond. If the heat of the pond increases the hot water channel will change and another cool water channel will open for the pond.

There will be some missing steps and thing. If there is a reader who knows about this processes please let them as comments. And I would like to thank my friend Shan Lakshitha and his father Mr. Sumanasiri who works there. And thanks for the workers in the factory, who helps me to get these knowledge.