Every once in a while someone sends me a materials-related question and I get to sit at a local wing joint on a rainy day, my non-typing hand covered in piquant buffalo sauce and stringy, ranch-coated celery fragments, watching multiple football games simultaneously while happily dispensing advice on subjects about which I may or may not have any expertise … and it is glorious. In the interest of sharing knowledge and offering a forum for people with actual experience and/or information concerning the question to contribute what they know (which I hope you’ll do in the comments section) please allow me to present a recent query and answer for your infotainment:

Dear Alli,

We are students of product design and are interested in knowing about the methodology used in bending bamboo or lamboo for shaping.

Can you pls how this is done–is it by air pressure or water pressure or by direct heating?

Saroj
India

Hi Saroj,

Although it’s technically a grass, bamboo acts a lot like wood, in that it performs well in tension and it’s fibrous and fast-growing. And just as with its arboreal cousin, people bend bamboo in order to make furniture, walking canes, or perhaps they bend it for more complicated reasons such as in order to feel capable of imposing their will on the natural world. And from what I can tell, all of these bending operations, whether the object of your deformation is a piece of plywood or a length of bamboo, require the application of heat.

Image courtesy made-in-china.com

While I have seen people steam the bamboo or apply heated, wet rags then bend and clamp it into position once the material has absorbed enough moisture to become pliable, I think it’s also possible to just blast the stuff with a blowtorch. (I found a highly instructive video of a craftsman in Mexico bending bamboo using said tool, upon which I plan to base this advice). I’ll include the video but for those of you on YouTube restriction, here’s how it’s done:

First, the bamboo is rotated rapidly and heated with a blowtorch that the craftsman moves continuously, allowing him to apply heat to the entire length of the bamboo stalk without scorching it. He polishes the stalk with a rag then applies heat a second time, as though to lock in the polish.

Next, one end of the stalk gets sealed off and the hollow tube is filled with sand. I think the sand acts like a flexible internal reinforcing for the bamboo as it bends, preventing it from splitting, checking, or creasing as it bends. The sealed end is placed in a clamp, whereupon more fast-moving blowtorch heat gets applied as the craftsman bends the stalk into position.

After the bamboo has cooled, he is able to unstopper the ends and drain the sand out; and BAM! that craftsman has himself a perfectly curved piece of bamboo.

Lamboo, a material I have written about before, which is basically glu-lam made from bamboo, can also be bent, although I’d imagine that the process depends on the characteristics of the resin involved in the manufacture of the material, as well as how it’s configured etc.

There is also Bendywood, a sort of permanently flexible, slightly dehydrated wood product. I’m not sure if similar techniques could be applied to bamboo but it would be fun to try!

Saroj, I hope that this answers your question or that it at least provides some content for other informed people to disagree with or correct in the comments!

Sincerely,

Alli

WU XING:

I have filed this Q&A Special under WOOD because that is where I always file bamboo. HAH!

Even if building owners aren’t always eager to spend the considerable amount of capital it takes to certify their projects with green building programs like the US Green Building Council’s LEED and the Green Building Initiative’s Green Globes, municipalities are increasingly adopting green standards into law.  Green building programs and codes don’t expressly certify materials, but material choices can go a long way towards meeting recycled content, low VOC, and reclaimed materials requirements for certification.

Kirei USA (kirei is the Japanese character signifying “beautiful”or “clean,” and it’s pronounced “Key’-ray,” in case you wondered) seeks to introduce panel products manufactured from rapidly renewable and reclaimed agricultural fibers to market for use in building interiors.

The base materials for Kirei Board, Kirei Coco Tiles and Kirei Wheatboard are the inedible stalks and husks of sorghum, coconut, and wheat plants.  The agricultural fiber that’s not sold by farmers for use in the manufacture of Kirei board takes up space in landfills or gets burned up and pollutes the air, so removing a portion of it from the waste stream is a good thing.  Additionally, rapidly renewable and/or FSC-certified wood are used as bonding strips where needed, cutting down (ha!) on “habitat destruction, water pollution, displacement of indigenous peoples, and violence against people who work in the forest and the wildlife that dwells there” (Source: Forest Stewardship Council).

I’ve often suspected that the reason people are living longer and longer these days is that we’ve been preserved by all the air born formaldehyde we’ve been inhaling our entire indoor lives.  Kirei products use “no added formaldehyde” adhesives, which sounds like an improvement over past materials – although the word “added” makes me think there might be some formaldehyde lingering in the mix.  I don’t know for certain; I do not review Materials Safety Data Sheets so I’m out of my depth.

Kirei Board: reclaimed sorghum straw and no-added formaldehyde adhesive.  A strong, lightweight, durable substitute for wood, intended for use in furniture, cabinetry, casework, and interior design elements.

Note: all images courtesy kirei USA.

Kirei Wheatboard: an answer to formaldehyde-emitting wood MDF products.

Kirei Bamboo: I’ve extolled the merits of Bamboo products before, and according to the product website, the veneers used in Kirei Bamboo panel come from dedicated bamboo plantations generally on reclaimed farmland.

Kirei Coco Tiles: reclaimed coconut shells, low VOC resins, and sustainably harvested wood backing for use as decorative tiles or panels.  Available in light and dark patterns.

WU XING:

I’m filing the Kirei family of products under wood because it’s all inedible agricultural waste and wood, and I’m also filing it under water because of the adhesives that are used to create the panels.

How can you not fall madly in love with bamboo?  It’s tall, ridiculously strong, and you can bring it home to your mother.  The source of bamboo’s heady blend of charisma and reliability is “its growth system, which generates a root system that produces 30% more oxygen and sequesters 35% more carbon than a like-sized timber forested area. This growth pattern allows bamboo to grow faster and straighter than any known tree species, meaning a shorter maturity period, i.e. a more renewable resource” (Smith).  Additionally, this wondergrass can be found sprouting away on nearly every continent, which means it’s nearly always geographically desirable.

Images courtesy Lamboo

Bamboo can be used for flooring, furniture, and now there’s a new structural material made from LAMinated bamBOO called Lamboo (get it?).  Lamboo has been developed by Lamboo Inc. (a research, development and manufacturing company working to produce sustainable design technology).  It reportedly “outperforms traditional structural materials as well as reducing environmental impact. Lamboo has three times the structural capacity of timber, achieving longer spans with less material. The use of Lamboo in a project can add up to four LEED credits for rapidly renewable materials, low-emitting materials, environmentally preferable materials and lifecycle/environmental impact” (Smith).  Think of it as a greener alternative to glu-lam with a little more span and a lot more pizazz. 

WU XING:

This is a no-brainer: wood. 

Cited:

Smith, Amanda. “Structural Bamboo by Lamboo Inc. Greens the Heart of Construction.” 3rings 03/22/10.  Accessed 03/31/10.  URL.