KOCHI: His ability to think out of the box and come up with incredible inventions had prompted several rubber plantation owners to approach Zachariah Mathew and ask him to design a motorised rubber tapping machine.
The 70-year-old, who does not possess any degree or godfather, did not let them down. For a man who has 30 international and national patents to his credit, it was another challenge, another chance. Lack of enough experienced tappers has always been a worry in the state. Further, after the rubber prices fell, many farmers didn’t find employing tappers viable. So they let them go and started tapping the trees themselves. They soon realised a motorised machine will make their job easier,” said Mathew.
Zachariah Mathew had developed a model of rubber tapping machine eight years ago, but it was cumbersome as the batteries those days were not compact. However, with the invention of the lithium batteries, he was able to come up with a compact hand-held machine.“It has been patented and costs Rs 29,980. It has a sensor that helps the farmer gauge the depth of the cut being made on the tree. This, in turn, prevents the tree from getting ‘injured’’’, he said.
Mathew is yet to get the Rubber Board’s go-ahead even though his product has entered the market.“I’ll be submitting the machine at the Rubber Board for certification on Saturday,” he said.Rubber Research Institute of India director James Jacob said: “There’re many steps involved in certification. The machine has to undergo field testing for a few months before being certified.”
“Many similar products, mostly Chinese, are available in the market. There’re doubts about their efficiency. That’s why the institute encourages Indian ideators like Zachariah Mathew to come up with innovations,” said Jacob.
Mathew, who started off at 23, is confident of his product’s ability.“I design machines keeping the end users’ requirements in mind and I don’t feel my days of innovation are over,” he said.Mathew, an adjunct professor and chief technology officer at Amal Jyoti College of Engineering, Kanjirappally, was the one to develop and execute the self-collapsing bridge and Saptaswaras at Tirupati temple.
The device he developed to test sugarcane’s sucrose level in short time is now being used by many sugar industries in the country. His other achievements include a base-hinged hydraulic pole and and a robot to climb coconut tree.
His waste-to-energy technology was found to be superior by the National Research and Development Corporation, New Delhi. It will be implemented gradually all over the country.
Honours
● Rajiv Gandhi Shiromani Award
● National Excellence Award
● Rashtriya Ekta Award
● Felicitated by the National Innovation Foundation, Ahmedabad