Bamboo like wood has been used for centuries as the common material in construction of building and other structures mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Bamboo is technically known as grass and grows very fast. It has a compressive strength greater than concrete and a tensile strength superior to mild steel with very good strength to weight ratio. It is widely available in the eastern part of India and Western Ghats of Karnataka. Although many characteristics of bamboo are similar to those of handwoods bamboo is not a wood. It is classified as grass that is much denser therefore stronger than wood. It is a replenishable resource.
Basically bamboo has both structural and non structural properties. After bamboo processing the bamboo is split into thin slivers of about 0.6mm to 1mm which is a basic material for making mats.
Bamboo mats are a good substitute for traditional material such as wood, asbestos sheet etc as they are water resistant, heat resistant and termite proof. The most common weaving pattern are rectangular pattern (90°) herringbone pattern (45°). The most common size of mats are 3*6 feet and 4*8 feet.
Innovation
In recent years emergence of the bamboo corrugated sheet is provided as an alternative for corrugated sheets of galvanised iron and asbestos. The present bamboo weaving machines available today are for parallel mats and they are imported from China or Taiwan.
As the demand is increasing for bamboo mats there is need to design and develop a prototype diagonal mat weaving machine. The students of PESIT, department of Mechanical Engineering, Shiva Kumar C, Sharath Chandra N and Raghavendra K under the guidance Dr Vishnukanth S Chatpalli, Professor and Dean CDP, Dept of Mech Engineering have designed an innovative bamboo mat weaving machine.
The principle of the bamboo weaving machine is that the bamboo slivers will be placed in one direction i.e. 45° It is
lifted alternatively and another bamboo sliver is passed one by one perpendicular to it and the weaved mat is then moved forward using rollers. In this spring mechanism is used to move/lift the slivers up and down which has got good compactness and reduces time and manual labour. The size of the mat weaved is one feet width and length is continuous.
The technical guidance was provided by Mr K C Mathews, Professor and HOD PDES, IPIRTI (Indian Plywood Industries Research and Training Institute) a government of India enterprise. The design has been validated and is ready for commercial production.
Dr Gopalan, Director of composite technology park has also appreciated the project. This innovation will further create a breakthrough in the production and quality of bamboo mats.
Dr T R Seetharam, Professor and Head, Dept of Mechanical Engineering and Dr K N Balasubramanya Murthy, Professor and Principal, PESIT have complemented the work in this innovative field.
DHNS