The process behind manufacturing incense sticks
The thought of fragrance brings various items in our mind. It is mostly dominated by perfumes and incense sticks. Celebrated as the founding father of the products featured by smell, the history of incense can be traced back to ancient times. The importance and necessity of fragrance infusing items cannot be underrated. From creating a refreshing environment in the washroom to enhancing the experience of a car trip in a long drive, fragrance has a hand in influencing the mood substantially. The soothing smell of fresh laundry and the enchanting environment created via burning incense stick do contribute in creating a blissful aura.
Incense stick finds its origin in a host lot of aromatic items like seeds, flowers, barks and roots. The importance of incense in ancient times accrues to the fact that aromatic environment was known to drive away demons and clear the path of Gods appearing on earth. It acted as a connecting platform of the Gods with the universe. The tree resins, appearing in the form of a gum, easily outspread their fragrance when they are ignited on charring coal. Indian incense sticks are made from perfumed plants like sandalwood, agarwood, vetiver and patchouli. The powder extracts of the plants are amalgamated with water and potassium nitrate. The mixture is then set on a stick and dried. Popularly known as agarbatti the item is then made commercially available. Vijay Shree Incense Sticks and Satya Nag Champa Incense Sticks available readily at “Meghaincenses” online selling platform are some example of the good variant available in the market.
The process of manufacturing the item can be studied under the following heads.
· Bundles of punk sticks, each available in 100 numbers, are imported. A vacuum cleaner is then utilised to clean the dust accumulated on the bundles. Bundles are then divided according to the fragrance. The even end of the sticks is painted accordingly to demarcate the fragrance. More the popularity and demand of a particular fragrance, more is it used to produce instant sticks. For example, if sandalwood is more celebrated say 1400 bundles are used to produce 14000 incense sticks. While owing to less popularity of green apple fragrance, only 250 bundles are used to produce only 2500 sticks. In order to dry out the paint on the end of the bundles, these are left overnight.
The work on the next day comprises of mixing fragrance oils. The ends coated with punk cover are then dipped into the fragrance mixture. The next step is to again dry the outer cover by leaving them segregated on the shelves. It takes a night’s time to dry completely. An incense makes is capable of storing thousands of fragrances. Some of which might have been made mixing numerous flavours. Various incense sticks are made mixing two or more such items.
Once the bundles dry, they are packed sealed in wax paper packets of numerous dimensions. As par the order, the packets are then packed in big cardboard boxes and send to the clients.
