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Transforming a hollow bamboo stem into a high quality MOSO® product – how is it done? With 25 years of experience in the bamboo industry, MOSO® manages the production process to perfection.
After four to five years, bamboo stems are ready for harvest. Tropical hardwoods take many many years to reach maturity, making bamboo a far better ecological choice. After harvesting, the bamboo stems are split lengthwise into strips, and the outer skin (bark) is removed. By nature, the strips are a light yellow color, but can they be steamed to a light brown color (caramel) if desired.
After treating and drying, the strips are ready to be joined in several ways to make the final product.
After drying, strips are assembled in many different ways, producing end products with various looks.
Bamboo strips are positioned horizontally and glued together. This creates an elegant line pattern with the characteristic bamboo nodes clearly visible.
Bamboo strips are positioned vertically and glued together. This creates a narrow line pattern with the bamboo nodes visible in a subtle way.
Here the bamboo strips are pressed and glued under extremely high pressure. This compression increases the density from 43.7 lbs/ft3 (700kg/m3) to more than 71.79 lbs/ft3 (1150kg/m3) which makes the final product much harder. The look of High Density® bamboo is unique. It largely resembles wood with the typical “flames,” and the bamboo nodes are only slightly visible.
Bamboo strips are connected using a flexible latex or fabric backing. Both 0.7″ (17 mm) wide solid strips and 2″ (50 mm) wide veneered strips can be used.
Bamboo’s original, natural color is light brown with a yellowish tint. By treating bamboo with steam, the light brown color becomes more intense and the yellow shade disappears, we call this Ecru. By increasing the temperature and pressure during the steam treatment, the durability and stability is enhanced and a warm brown color appears, this is called Caramel. The color Tiger was specially developed for panel materials: a mix of light and dark strips. By finishing with a stain lacquer or oil, even more bamboo product colors can be created. Ecru and Caramel products are only suitable for indoor use when further treatment is not undergone. Particularly in the case of outdoor products, the treatment is done at higher temperatures and with more pressure, which makes the bamboo dark brown, we call this color Chocolate.
Are you considering bamboo and need some advice to discover which product is the best fit?
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with our MOSO® Bamboo experts.
René Zaal
Director of MOSO International B.V., the Netherlands
