GreenFlip

Laminated bamboo furniture is a modern invention but has already become popular in many countries. It is produced from molded bamboo components and to the uninitiated eye the furniture is unrecognizable as having been produced from bamboo. A huge range of furniture can be produced, such as table and chairs, bookshelves, beds, cabinets and recliners. The furniture is durable, practical and has a modern appearance and in recent years elegant designs have been produced in China and Japan.

The laminated bamboo furniture unit is a relatively large-scale venture requiring start-up capital and a number of experienced personnel. By innovating new designs and seeking out new markets the unit will be able to develop rapidly and there are significant opportunities to open up exporting markets for laminated bamboo furniture in more affluent countries. The unit can easily be established at the community level, ideally as a cooperative venture. In view of the scale of investment required it might be preferable to establish the unit with the assistance of state agencies or NGOs to ensure the venture is successful and the community is the true beneficiaries.

Drawing the profile
In Furniture construction, full-scale drawings are utilized to enable one to pick measurements off the drawings while actual construction is on. For this purpose, the design is drawn full scale.

Bending with Heat
Following the practice of the cane furniture manufacturers of the North East, blow lamps were used to apply focused heat on to the poles and force bend it on a Wooden Horse (Mould). Basically the mould or horse is made out of solid wood. While one beam is perpendicular to the ground, there are two support beams parallel to the ground. The artisan makes a notch in the perpendicular and after hitching the bamboo in the notch, applies direct heat through the blowlamp. The notch is basically locking the bamboo in place and manual pressure is applied towards gravity to bend the heated pole. From time to time, a wet cloth is run onto the heated area of the pole so that the bend cools and solidifies. The pole is taken off the horse regularly, and measured on a drawing /profile to check for accuracy.
Though tedious and labor intensive, the method is able to achieve almost 100% accuracy. There is loss of the surface thickness as the excessive heat scorches the bamboo and the scraping the black skin reduces the thickness of the pole. However if totally solid bamboo is used, the loss of surface has a negligible effect on the strength of the bamboo.

Preparing the raw material
The outermost skin is scraped off to bring out the smooth luster and even colour of the bamboo. In the process, the knots on the internodes are also flattened /evened out.

For straight sections, the scraping is done before sizing. For sections that are to be bent into profiles, the bending is carried out before.

After the correct profile is achieved, the bamboo is then scraped to remove the outermost skin and the burnt marks.

Knot removing and planning surface
Various methods can be applied for surface finishing of bamboo. For knot removal, planer can be used to scrape the knots. The Team also explored using rudimentary sanding machine, and found it to be extremely useful in scraping the outer surface of the bamboo. This method reduces the drudgery of manual hand shaving.

Joinery and Assembly techniques
Most of the joinery used in Bamboo furniture is same as those used for wooden furniture. Simple joints like tendon -mortise joints work in totally solid bamboo. Plugs are inserted at hollow ends.

The furniture is an assembled frame-by-frame using carpenter vice. Bamboo dowels are used diagonally to seal joints. Before inserting the joints, industrial adhesive is used to add strength to the joinery.

Laminated blank making
Prepared sections of bamboo wood are coated with glue and then placed together in jigs to form the sub-sections of the furniture. Straight sub-sections can be pressed together in a standard hot-pressing machine, but curved sections require specially shaped jigs and are pressed by tightening bolts holdings the jig-forming elements together. They are then placed in a heated chamber for curing.

Finishing the product
At final assembly, the product is sanded before applying the termite resistant coating and melamine. Finishing involves the following stages, all designed to produce a high quality, uniform surface finish: Bleaching, prestaining, staining and coloring, wash coating, filling sealing or wash coating, glazing, top coating, rubbing, polishing and cleaning. Addition of upholstery and other fitting completes the furniture.

Market-Size: The consumption of wood other than plywood for making furniture is estimated at 3.36 million cubic meters in 2005 and set to rise to 4.62 million cubic meters by 2010. Bamboo as a substitute for wood to make furniture is expected to grow up to US$224 million by 2010. A range of furniture for school, office, showroom and home is made from bamboo. Bent-laminate furniture from bamboo is currently under prototyping. Consistent supply of processed bamboo is the key to the growth and development of this industry .

Source: Mayank, M (2008) Techno Economic Feasibility Study for Setting up of Bamboo SMEs, NMBA, India

Bamboo is an important means for generating income and improving the nutritional status of over 2 billion poor and disadvantaged people. It also provides the resource base for expanding Small and Medium Enterprise sector, providing employment and income generating opportunities to alleviate poverty. As such it constitutes an excellent entry point for local poverty alleviation initiatives.

Bamboo benefits rural-urban communities because it, (a) lends itself to agricultural approaches, (b) can be grown on non-agricultural land with annual harvests, (c) is easily processed by simple tools because it splits linearly, (d) bamboo based industrial development benefits the communities through its demand for human resources for growing, harvesting, transportation and processing of bamboo, (e) bamboo growth also works for land protection, soil quality improvements including improved water holding capacity, higher water capture and recharge benefiting agriculture and food security.

Bamboo remains an untapped avenue of economic growth in India. Its premise is that if the bamboo industry is pulled from its current status of a peripheral industry and pushed centre stage to being a prominent and profitable one it can successfully reverse economic downturns and bring an about-turn in the economic fortunes of the country. This would be particularly true for the Central Gondwana regions (CGR, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Western Uttar Pradesh) of the country where the resource is abundant and could be sustainably harvested in the years to come because of its amazingly quick propagation.

With its inherent properties, bamboo combines the best of forestry and agriculture. It holds the promise of rejuvenating watersheds and degraded lands, fortifying the country’s ecological security. What would distinguish growth in this sector is that it would directly benefit large sections of the rural poor, as they could be involved in the plantations, harvesting and primary processing bamboo units. The long-term relationship with this sector would help the economically disadvantaged sections escape the debilitating poverty trap. The development of the bamboo sector could follow in the footsteps of the dairy sector whose miraculous makeover has enabled 10.5 million farmer families earn a supplementary income of Rs 1,800 per month. This industry’s growth model has been successfully replicated in 22 states in the country and it spells hope for the bamboo sector.

The blueprint envisaged in meticulous detail here for the bamboo industry projects a growth in the sector from Rs 65 billion in 2003-2007 to Rs 240 billion in 2013-2017; a growth that would could even overtake that of the biggest bamboo economy of the world, China. The overarching model also projects an employment opportunity of 1.67 million in 2003-2007 that would climb sharply to 11 million in 2017. For example, the NER, whose economies have been trailing behind, the estimates are the bamboo sector can take their gross domestic product from Rs 230 billion in 2003 to Rs 290 billion in 2007 that would translate into a growth rate of 5 per cent. The bamboo industry would have a potential of employing a total of 1.88 million people in this region by 2017.

                        KEY CONCLUSIONS

§         The global market for bamboo products USD 7 billion + per annum*

§         Bamboo based enterprises can prove to be the key in rural economic development and mass employment creation

§         Governments and local administration must provide sustained and consistent support if the sector is to develop

§         The future of global bamboo markets looks strong, driven by growing demand for sustainable wood-replacement products

§         The commercialization of recent technological innovations has created significant new market opportunities for floor tiles, laminated furniture, panels and activated carbon.

§         New, higher value added processing greatly increases the potential for poor economic development compared to traditional lower value enterprises. For example, every tonne of bamboo used for producing bamboo boards has 5 times more pro-poor financial impact than if used for paper.

§         Markets in US, EU, Australia and Japan present significant opportunities for several high value products

§         The competitiveness of future bamboo enterprises will be largely driven by ‘value added utilization’ of the entire bamboo plant. 

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*Bamboo shoots, furniture, handicrafts, chopsticks, blinds, tiles, panels, charcoal and activated carbon. The value for unprocessed bamboo used in construction industry is excluded.