Maybe tackle problems in a different way? The latest column of the Radstock Mayor

By Susie Watkins

7th Sep 2020 | Local News

The Radstock Mayor Rupert Bevan writes about a personal challenge.

In these days of uncertainty people are confronted with huge problems, the solving of which occupy the minds of many as they try to pick up the post-Covid reins.

Let me tell you about an aspect of my daily toil which was challenging by any standards.

I make products for a company specialising in skin care, especially for those who suffer from atopic skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis and the like. Our 'flagship' product is a type of hypoallergenic soap which is made from nice vegetable oils, turmeric and our unique, special ingredient. The oils are reacted with lye and at the right moment are poured into high-spec plastic tubes to cure. After about 10 days the soap is ready to be pushed out of the tubes and cut into tablets. A further five week's curing results in a very pleasant product which is so gentle on the skin that you can use it on the face. To push the soap out of the tubes requires high pressure, about 130 psi and this is achieved using an industrial sized air compressor.

Well, this week we experienced an unusual problem: the soap in the tubes wouldn't slide out. I tried stronger compressors from neighbouring units but even at 200 psi it stubbornly refused to budge.

A number of suggestions were made: heat up the tubes, remove the now hard soap from the exposed end, blow water down the tube; these all had a degree of merit but didn't actually work. Finally we put the tubes in a chest freezer overnight and this made the soap much less viscous and we could shoot it out with ease the following morning.

The moral of this story is really that solutions to problems are often to be found diametrically opposite to where you would suppose but with courage and perseverance, they can be solved.

     

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