Steam Integrated Flattening Machine for Bamboo Culms

Abstract

Bamboo is a fast growing grass plant abundant in tropical and subtropical countries. Bamboo culms can be used in a variety of applications and thus needs to undergo different process one such process is the flattening process. Traditional flattening process uses the bolos, machetes and hand splitters to make slats of the bamboo. This paper aimed to present a flattening machine with a presser mechanism which utilizes heat and steam to help in the flattening process. The output of the machine was flattened semi-circular bamboo culms from varying radius a bamboo culm with minimal to no cracks. The parameters that were observed were the thickness of the culm, flattening time, heating temperature and length of the culm. From the testing, it showed that flattening time varies directly with the thickness of the bamboo culm.