How we make a first-class Kappus soap

To make an excellent soap you need

1) first grade raw materials
2) expert knowledge and professional help
3) a GMP (good manufacturing practice) set-up
    and a tight quality control

To acquire this basic requirements you need years of experience.

Since 150 years 5 generations of the Kappus family concentrate on one goal: to produce soaps exceptional in quality and appearance.

Food grade neutral fats like refined coconut-oil, palmtree-oil and tallow with less than 2% ffa (free fatty acid), which are used in the margarine and chocolate industry and which are nevertheless treated again to remove the last traces of protein that could endanger the stability guaranteed for decades, are the essentials of Kappus soap base.
 

These purified oils will be "saponified" with caustic soda in huge stainless steel boilers with the help of steam. The boilers 80-100 tons in volume hold raw material for several hundredthousend soaps.

In the first step the neutral fat, whose quality is much better to control then that of fatty acids, is split-up in fatty acid and glycerine. During step two fatty acid combines with the natrium of the caustic soda to a fatty-acid salt the soap. The glycerine is removed by letting salt water trickle through the soap. Soap and the lye that contains glycerine, salt and water separate in a day-long process, the soap swims up to the top of the lye.

It takes professional skill patience and time (3-4 days) to boil a kettle of 68% soap base (the number 68% means fatty acid content, very important for a first grade soap). This still 80o hot and liquid soap will be pumped to big stainless steel tanks where it waits for drying. (Another 10-12% water must be removed to get the quality needed for a first grade toilet soap that should end up with 80% fatty acid).

During the boiling process "salting" is done several times with a salt water solution. This clears the soap from all impurities. Nevertheless salting has to be done very cautiously. Salt content of the soap should be only a few fractions of 1% after the process to prevent cracking of the soap.

Drying is done in the Kappus factory in a vacuum chamber, to save energy. With the help of cooling and vacuum an additional 10-12% water is removed gently. It takes a lot of experience to control the triangle of heat, cold and pressure to get a homogenous, high quality soap.
 

The now "80% fatty acid" soap base will be extruded from the vacuum installation as a deformable "soap noodle" which is transported by belt to large wooden silos, which guarantee an exchange of humidity helping the soap to ripen.

When the soap base is taken from the silo it is milled twice to homogenise the soap base and enlarge its surface. The result are soap flakes which go to a stainless steal mixer where the actual differentiation of soap takes place.

A computerised system adds now all necessary additives like perfume, color, stabilizer, refattener, humidifier and other components by an automized tubes and valves system. By a "buzz" the system announces "soap ready". Now quality is chequed and if o.k. the colored and perfumed soap goes to another roller-mill to be homogenized again. Kappus soap is milled 4-5 times to flimsy layers where-by all ingredients are thoroughly mixed and grinded to increase quality of the soap.

Now the colored and perfumed soap flakes will be transported by a conveyor belt to a vacuum plodder. The soap will now be ventilated and compressed with the help of a 2 vacuum chambers and 2 worms. It will leave the plodder after passing a stainless steel mesh as a continuous band of homogenous soap, will be cut in roughs by an automatic cutter and then transported to a "stamper".

1-7 moulds out of stainless steal or brass deform the roughs into their final shape square, round, oval or artistic soap characters. The moulds are cooled down to a freezing - 20o C to facilitate deforming and guarantee a smooth surface. Taken out of the mould by automatic vacuum suction cups the soap is ready to be packaged now.