Lamination of Bamboo for BMI
Lamination is a crucial process to produce BMIs with advantageous stability, strength, and appearance. Simply put, it is a process of gluing substrates such as bamboo, and then pressed. Prior to lamination, it is necessary that bamboo undergoes preparation (e.g., splitting, planing, edging, and sanding) to ensure favorable bonding.
Depending on the glue spread, a pre-determined amount of adhesive is coated on the surface of the bamboo slats and equally distributed all throughout the surface. Upon gluing, bamboo, laminates are mechanically pressed.
Pressing of laminated bamboo is classified based on the chemistry of the adhesive applied. For cold-setting adhesives such as polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) and polyurethane (PUR), cold-pressing is performed, which specifically uses pneumatic press. On the other hand, laminates with hot-setting adhesives such as phenol formaldehyde (PF) and urea formaldehyde (UF) carries out hot pressing, which uses a hydraulic hot press. It is important that further machining of the glued laminates to assemble BMIs should be done after at least 24 hours to allow complete curing of the adhesives.
Science in a creative industry.
The DOST-FPRDI has a Bamboo Musical Instruments Innovation R&D program aimed at improving the quality of locally-made bamboo musical instruments (BMIs) through science and innovative technologies. The program seeks to standardize the production of selected BMIs, develop prototype designs, analyze raw material sources and existing markets, and build a BMI processing facility. In addition, the program aims to document the ethnocultural story behind several BMIs and identify the bamboo species used in BMI production to promote public awareness and appreciation of the cultural importance of these musical instruments. The program is a collaboration with the University of the Philippines and Philippine Normal University for teaching modules and analyzing sound quality and standardization of BMI design. The DOST Grants-in-Aid program provides funding.
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