Glue-laminated bamboo and bamboo-wood combination

Bamboo has been globally recognized as an ecologically friendly substitute to the commonly used timber, Its strength, lightness combined with extraordinary hardness, range in size abundance, easy propagation and short gestation period make it suitable for various construction purposes. Alipon et. al (FPRDI) developed glue-laminated bamboo-wood combination for structural uses.

Two bamboo species, kauayan tinik (Bambusa blumeana) and botong (Dendrocalamus latiflorus) and one timber species, yemane (Gmelina arborea), were used in the study. The samples were laminated by using urea formaldehyde (UF) + ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) as Glue I and UF + isocyanite as Glue II. The effects of species, glue type, and type of laminates (either bamboo-bamboo or bamboo-wood) were evaluated based on dry and wet shear tests.

Findings

• Strength properties in bending and compression parallel to the grain and shear along glue line of laminated bamboo and composite bamboo-wood lamination were found to be comparable with those of traditional timber species used for general structural purposes such as beams, girders, flooring, etc.
• In the strength classification of wood devised at the Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI), laminated bamboo was comparable to commercial timber species under Class 2 (moderately high strength) such as kamagong (Diospyrus discolor), molave (Vitex parviflora), and narra (Pterocarpus indicus). The composite bamboo-wood lamination fell under Class 3 (medium strength) to which Philippine mahogany species such as white lauan (Shorea contorta), red lauan (Shorea polysperma), bagtikan (Parashorea malaanonan), and tanguile (Shorea polysperma) belong.