Method and apparatus for removing sheets of fibres from banana plants for the production of paper products

Abstract

A method and apparatus for producing sheets from the pseudostems of banana plants in the family Musaceae, each pseudostem having a longitudinal axis. The method includes the steps of feeding a pseudostem (14) into a workstation, supporting (62, 34) the pseudostem for rotation thereof about its longitudinal axis within the workstation, and contacting the rotating pseudostem along substantially its entire length with a fiber-separating device (38), whereby a continuous sheet of fiber (60) is removed from the pseudostem by the fiber-separating device during rotation. Raw paper may also be made by laminating two or more of these sheets together such that the direction of the generally parallel fibers in at least two adjacent sheets is not aligned and then curing the sheets to form raw paper.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.