"Anti-virus software for your hardware" The condom factory

"Anti-virus software for your hardware." That was one of the ad-campaigns for the condom factory that we visited. LOL!

At first I was resistant to the idea of visiting a condom factory but it turned out to be a lot of fun! The guy giving us the presentation spoke at about 100 words a minute. I am pretty sure he was speaking English but I can't say that I understood a word he said. Here are some of the things I learned about the company, Hindustan Latex and condoms in general (from his powerpoint presentation):

1. Hindustan was started in 1966


2. In addition to condoms they also make IUD's (itrauterine devices), oral contraceptives, female condoms (their line is called "confidom"), x-ray machines, blood bags and typhoid vaccine. (how random)


3. Not only do they make your standard, white latex condom, they also offer strawberry, jasmine, musk, or banana flavored, glow-in-the-dark and condoms withvibrating rings. Hmm...


4. They have 65% of market share in India for condoms and 60% for blood bags. Hmmm


5. They make over 1.066 billion condoms a year


6. The word condom comes from the latin word "condos" meaning receptacle.


7. The molecular weight of latex is 68.12 g/mol


8. Latex is made from a dispersion of rubber particles, the compund is called (cis-1,4, polyisoprene) Betcha didn't know that!
9. Only 30% of condoms is rubber
10. They use A LOT of ammonia to make condoms. Enough to make you feel a little faint
11. Condom factories are hot! (no pun intended)
12. They have pretty risque condom packaging!!
13. 20% of Hindustans business comes from the government of Brazil (I am not surprised)

Overall it was a lot of fun and in case you are wondering, no they did not give us any samples!

The pictures show different condom packaging. The last picture shows this assembly line where these women put condoms, on these metal things to get them ready for packagaing. They put use only one hand to put each condom on and they put condoms on two at a time (does that make sense?) Anyway these ladies are fast! They take less than one second to put each condom on (I guess we all have special gifts and talents)! It reminded me of the Laverne and Shirley opening credits except it was condoms!