TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY MODEL
BAMBOO SPLITTING AND SLIVERING UNIT
INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR BAMBOO AND RATTAN
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.
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.
How are splits and slivers produced?
1. Bamboos are crosscut into sections
2. Sections are split
into splits
3. Splits are split into
slabs
4. Slabs are split longitudinally to
produce slivers of the desired
thickness
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.
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.
Photo: Sets of
splitting knives
• As a primary processing activity, the
splitting and slivering unit is ideally
established as one of the central core
units in a broader, communitybased, 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.
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
Financial aspects of a splitting and slivering unit
(based on a unit exclusively supplying a matboard factory)
•
•
•
•
Capital costs for machines
Land and buildings
Working capital margin
Preliminary and preoperative costs
• TOTAL
$130, 000
$110, 000
$ 25, 000
$ 35, 000
$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.
For further information
See
Contact
• INBAR, Beijing 100101-80,
China
• IPIRTI, P.B. No. 2273, Tumkur
road, Bangalore, India
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)