DESIGNING PRODUCT & PROCESS FOR THE BAMBOO INDUSTRY

Philippine Innovationin Partnership with INBAR

TREND• Green is the new black• Sustainability as the buzzword - vendors re

taking customers seriously• Tags: Green, Nature’s Legacy, Eco-Friendly• Buyers ask– Does the material come from a renewable source– Is cultivation method sustainable– How much energy is used

Acknowledged to be one of the greenest materials around, the eco movement has put bamboo in the spotlight once again.

The Context

ABRA FIGURES :Households – 1500 Municipalities – 6Villages - 18People - 4500

The Context

• Global Warming - interest in sustainable materials

• Eco-Tourism and Resorts

• Institutional Markets

The Context

• With this opportunity at hand, the task was to investigate new ways of how

• Bamboo products can be produced in village level workshops…

• At the right price…• For the 21st century market

The Context

The decision to conduct the research in the Philippines is threefold:

• International leadership position in design excellence

• Technical expertise in developing new products and processes with focus on indigenous materials

• Experience using village level workshops for its export industry

We looked at bamboo veneer being promoted by the DOST, laminated it with resin and turned them into structural components for furniture…

…opening new opportunities for community based enterprises to subcontract components for furniture makers ..especially furniture exporters

We partnered with an inventor and adopted his technology where Bamboo is used as Reinforcement in a low cost building system..

…and commissioned an environmental architect to envision its use for Resort Rooms..

… Incorporating various ways of using bamboo in the resort rooms….

…and its public areas.

We found that new plastic and metal technologies have displaced natural fibers

woven into furniture….

…as resort owners are willing to pay for weather resistant and maintenance free products….…..specifically for decks and outdoor furniture……

…leaving the Bamboo Craftsmen behind!

So.. we took the bamboo pole, cut it to 2 to 3 inch widths, cleaned out the nodes and the stomach, bent them into desired shapes with the help of blank holes, heat, moulds and clamps ….

Once shaped and cooled, the components were laminated together with resin, further milled, assembled with KD hardware and finished with weather resistant resins…

putting bamboo furniture outdoors…..as lounges,

…..as folding chairs and recliners….

…..as decking boards…

..as stackable dining chairs and classroom desks.

We took the native bamboo mats, had them woven into specific sizes ….

….Laminated them into seats replacing molded plastic and plywood altogether…..

..further using it as lighting diffusers, bathroom tiles and counter tops as envisioned by the architect!

…including turning Waste into Cash

• A drum pyrolizer with 40% recovery was fabricated in collaboration with the Cottage Industry Development Center and the Forest Products Research & Development Institute to turn bamboo into charcoal.

• This has helped every household engaged in bamboo production to turn 70 kgs. Of waste every week into 240 pesos, adding to their income stream

Scope of Replication• The innovations in this study were designed to continue to rely on the village

craftsmen for primary processing• Components are brought to a Factory in the midst of a village cluster for

curing veneering, crushing, bending, drying, lamination, and some finishing and assembly

• Clients are different furniture maker, home builders/depots that in turn assemble, finish, and deliver the final product to their Clients.

• At the center of these operations is a core group whose function it is to continuously market, conduct research and development of new products and processes

• Collaboration of the village craftsmen, the factory, and the furniture/home designers and makers

• External collaboration shall be provided by Suppliers of different materials and equipment, the Local Government Units and Indigenous Institutions, the Bamboo Industry Cluster Committee, the Philippine Bamboo Network, and INBAR.

…impactThe latest process innovations• Allows for designers to shape bamboo into almost any

form they wish and mix with any other material• Easy manipulation, aesthetics, easy maintenance,

weather resistant – brings bamboo out of the “poor man’s materials” thinking into the high end and 21st century market for building materials and furniture

• Allows the village level craftsmen to produce components for furniture manufacturers, builders, and exporters…bringing them into the 21st century

…impacts on the human capital• Capacity building provided to village craftspersons in

the usage of modern production methods and materials.

• Village craftspersons trained in the production of modern bamboo products, such as furniture and housing components, as well as in the production of bamboo charcoal.

• Community stakeholders trained to manage ARS programme activities independently.

…impacts on the social capital• Adaptation of InHand Abra, an NGO, for ARS project

implementation and management.• Development of a village-level design centre.• The project provided a fillip to the bamboo sector

and re-equipped it to compete in the market.• Formation of community partnerships with local

NGOs, government and inter-governmental

The Gender Dimension• In every household, at least one woman is involved

in the production of bamboo components. Historically, the women of the household hold the purse. She markets the products and manages the income of the household. Thus, in this case, at least 1550 women will be involved at the village level. In the factory, most of the workers in the assemble section are women, who earn at least minimum wage.

…further research needs

For furniture building materials, the production processes still need to be:

• Refined with proper presses, jigs, moulds, spray equipment, and knock down hardware

• Developed and tested before actual building of prototype house can take place.

• Its outcome will be the final costing and equipment listing before commercialization of these processes can take place.

…accessibility

• The innovations made in this action research will be learned and demonstrated in the factory to be established in village clusters. It will be open to INBAR’s network of member countries.

…onwards to the future