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Ideal alternative to wood
Bamboo itself:
Botanically, bamboo is not wood, but a 'grass species' that hardens and grows very fast. It could be said that bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth. It could reach the full height within only half year. Some species even could grow 30 to 50cm per day in growing season. Then it needs some time to mature and get enough hardness and density (normally for quality bamboo veneer, panels and flooring, it needs older bamboo than 5 years). |
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In Chinese history, bamboo had played a very important role for more than 4,000 years. In ancient period, bamboo had been used to make daily ware, musical instruments and 'characters' carrier etc.
The bamboo varieties are more than 1,200 in the world, which have different color, feature, strength and density. SMART BAMBOO® only uses MAO Bamboo (Phyllostachys Pubescens) because of its ideal physical and mechanical properties. MAO Bamboo has big diameter, fine color, grain and density which are comparable to hardwood and very suitable for veneer, panels and flooring industry application.
MAO bamboo is hollow inside and circular outside. For industry products manufacturing, normally the first some steps are:
--splitting the bamboo stem into strips;
--removing the green (outside) and yellow (inside) parts by a special planer;
--drying the strips and plane again to get smooth square-shaped bamboo strips;
--then assembling the strips in different methods to get specific products.
MAO Bamboo is only found in (sub) tropical climates, and China is the biggest bamboo resource in the world. This species is really the 'giant bamboo'. It could be in height of 15-30 meters and with stem in 35cm or up circumference.
The most amazing feature of bamboo is its self-replenishing characteristic. This shows its grass nature. After being harvested, bamboo needs to be treated timely to get sugar out, sterilized and dried.
Why alternative: The obvious factor is the benefit to the world with environment conservation.
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The unlimited exploitation of the natural resources is one of the worse threats to humanity. One is the global forestry. In some area, we had seen the sad influence of this. The local environments and climate are become unexpected destabilizing. The conservation on forest becomes so important now.
Bamboo, a grass with its self-replenishing characteristic and fast growing ability offers an excellent alternative to wood. Choosing bamboo could save some forest.
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| The key factor, also the most realistic one to have bamboo be ideal alternative to wood is its excellent mechanical workability. Bamboo could meet every decoration demand. The mature bamboo treated with special ways could get excellent wood-similar characteristics. For example, bamboo is much harder than oak, also it had very minimal tendency to swell or shrink.
The bamboo products, with the features of elegance, durability, stability and unique pureness, could be used in various decorative interior applications such as flooring, wall panels, furniture, stairs and ceiling etc. With special treatment, it also could be used for outdoor, such as deck and some anti-septic applications.
Environmentally friendly
As grass, bamboo has an extensive root net. Every year the parent bamboo develops new shoots. Please note, when these shoots are kept (as there are so many shoots, some are harvested for food), they will also develop their shoots by themselves from next year on. With a sustainable management system, all bamboo are marked 'the owner's family name' and 'year of origin'.
Then, after 5 years, the mature stem will be harvested. This will bring another interesting fact that the harvesting will benefit neighbor bamboo and shoots. It will extend more sun light, more space and more soil power to surroundings.
So it likes a circle which will make up by itself. With the result of without decreasing the size of forest, undoubtedly the bamboo shows the positive environmentally ability.
Besides bamboo itself, the glue and lacquer used in production also are crucial. With environmental responsibility, SMART BAMBOO® always adapts top quality materials. Whatever the European requirements (E1) or Japanese requirements (F****), we could meet it easily. |
