DOST unveils improved bamboo veneering machine
The Department of Science and Technology (DoST) said yesterday export of high-value bamboo veneer products is expected to expand with the introduction recently of a newly improved veneering machine.
The new machine, designed and fabricated by engineers Belen B. Bisana and Dante B. Pulmano; and Foresters Felix B. Tamolang, Carolyn Marie C. Garcia and Elizabeth N. Dioso of the Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI), is an improved version of the old bamboo veneering machine designed by FPRDI researchers sometime back.
The old machine version can only produce a veneer with maximum width of 50 centimeters and one millimeter thick, largely contributing to the limited export of the bamboo products from the Philippines, UPLB officials said.
They said with the new machine, bamboo poles can now be developed into high-value products such as tiles, tabletops, panels, decorative laminates, toys, and other novelty items both for export and for local consumption.
The newly improved bamboo veneer lathe shaping machine can produce bamboo veneers of varying thickness ranging from 0.5 millimeters to two millimeters.
Officials said the improved machine is simple, cheap, sturdy, space-saving, and even safer than the old veneering lathe, and proven technically and financially viable for commercialization in the technology fora and demonstrations held recently in Angeles, Pampanga and Iloilo City.*PNA
