TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY MODEL BAMBOO SPLITTING AND SLIVERING UNIT

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TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY MODELBAMBOO SPLITTING
AND SLIVERING UNIT

• INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR BAMBOO AND RATTAN

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Why bamboo?

• Bamboos grow more rapidly than trees and start to
  yield within three or four years of planting.
• Plantation establishment requires minimal capital
  investment and builds upon the inherent
  plant-cultivation skills of local farmers and
  foresters.
• Bamboos can be harvested annually and
  non-destructively.
• Bamboos are excellent for rejuvenating degraded
  lands and protecting against soil erosion.
• Bamboos may easily be intercropped with
  shallow-rooted crops.
• As well as the culms, all other parts of the
  bamboo plant can be used in rural livelihoods -
  shoots for food, leaves for fodder, and branches
  for items such as brooms and for firewood.

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What are bamboo splits and slivers?

• Bamboo splits and slivers are longitudinal
  sections of a bamboo culm.
• Bamboo splits are produced when the culm is
  initially sectioned. They are the full thickness
  of the culm wall and have the green outer layer
  still attached. They are a primary stage in the
  production of slivers.
• Bamboo slivers are long, thin strips of bamboo,
  much thinner than they are broad. They are very
  pliable and can be used to weave a wide range of
  products, including the mats used to produce
  bamboo matboard.

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How are splits and slivers produced?

• 1. Bamboos are cross- 2. Sections are split
  3. Splits are split into
• cut into sections into splits
  slabs
• 
  
• 4. Slabs are split
  longitudinally to
• produce slivers
  of the desired
• thickness

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Main development attributes of a splitting and
slivering unit

• Reduces dependence on timber resources and
  thereby increases environmental protection and
  conservation.
• Permits rehabilitation of degraded lands through
  increased areas of bamboo plantations.
• Creates income-generating opportunities for
  bamboo growers who will supply the unit, and
  employment for unskilled, semi-skilled and
  technical staff at the unit.
• Provides a regular supply of slivers to weavers
  who will not have to split bamboos themselves and
  so can use their time more efficiently and
  productively in weaving.
• Can be established as a central community
  enterprise to supply a wide range of different
  community bamboo-weaving enterprises.

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Some salient facts

• Hand splitting and slivermaking has been
  practiced for millenia but is time consuming and
  only suitable for small scale production.
• The splitting and slivering unit is suited only
  to the splitting of large culmed species of
  bamboo. It is not suitable for areas in which
  only small, narrow culmed bamboos are grown, such
  as high altitude regions of the temperate and
  subtropical zones.

• As a primary processing activity, the splitting
  and slivering unit is ideally established as one
  of the central core units in a broader,
  community-based, bamboo development programme,
  along with a bamboo preservation unit and a
  bamboo propagation unit.
• The unit may also be established to supply, or as
  a subsidiary part of, a matboard or roofing
  sheets unit. Such units utilise large quantities
  of woven mats produced from slivers. Mat weaving
  is often a major source of income for women who
  can weave at home.

Photo Sets of splitting knives
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Requirements for success

• Sustained supply of bamboos suitable for
  splitting.
• Some technically-trained personnel to manage and
  maintain the unit.
• Start up capital.
• Well established linkages to the secondary
  processors who are the market for the slivers
  produced.

Above Coarse bamboo splits. Left Weaving mats
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Financial aspects of a splitting and slivering
unit(based on a unit exclusively supplying a
matboard factory)

• Capital costs for machines 130, 000
• Land and buildings 110, 000
• Working capital margin 25, 000
• Preliminary and preoperative costs 35, 000
• TOTAL 300, 000

• Notes
• The costs shown above are based on a large unit
  providing a sufficient
• number of slivers to produce 1, 300 mats (1.2
  x 2.4m) per day.
• Facilities with lower production rates can be
  established for considerably less.
• Costs will vary with location and source of
  machines.

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For further information

• See
• TOTEMs
• Splitting and Slivering unit TOTEM
• Matboard TOTEM
• Woven Bamboo Products TOTEM
• Village bamboo preservation unit TOTEM
• Bamboo preservation by sap displacement TOTEM
• Book
• Local Tools, Equipment and Technologies for
• Processing Bamboo and Rattan. INBAR
• Technical Report 9, 1997. (text file available at
  
• www.inbar.int. Covers hand-splitting only)

• Contact
• INBAR, Beijing 100101-80, China
• IPIRTI, P.B. No. 2273, Tumkur road, Bangalore,
  India