Composite bamboo industrial mats and methods of making the same

An elongate interlocking composite bamboo industrial mat, comprising:

• top layer having a plurality of equidistantly spaced-apart elongate laminated composite bamboo boards arranged in parallel;
• a bottom layer having
• a male end with a metal Z-bend beam having at least two equidistantly spaced fingers extending outward therefrom,
• a female end with a hollow metal beam with at least two matching equidistantly receptacles extending thereinto,
• a pair of matching metal U-shaped channels equidistantly spaced from the male end and the female end wherein a space between each of the pair of metal U-shaped channels enables sliding communication of a forklift fork with the pair of metal U-shaped channels, and
• a plurality of equidistantly spaced-apart elongate laminated composite bamboo boards arranged perpendicular to the top layer and in parallel between the male end and one of the pair of U-channels, between the pair of U-channels, and between the other of the pair of U-channels and the female end,
• wherein the male end, the female end, the pair of U-channels, and the plurality of equidistantly spaced-apart elongate laminated composite bamboo boards have the same height;
• and
• a plurality of fasteners securely engaging each of the plurality of equidistantly spaced-apart elongate laminated composite bamboo boards to the male end, the female end, the pair of matching metal U-shaped channels, and the plurality of equidistantly spaced-apart elongate laminated composite bamboo boards of the bottom layer, therein each of the plurality of fasteners includes a bolt, an outward-facing concave washer engaged with a head of the bolt, and one of a sleeve nut or sleeve anchor nut and optionally having an outward-facing washer engaged with a head of the sleeve nut.

A method for producing elongate laminated composite bamboo panels, the method comprising:

• crushing a plurality of bamboo poles to produce elongate asymmetrically fractured bamboo strips;
• steaming the fractured bamboo strips for about two to four hours under a steam pressure of about 200 kPa to about 400 kPa;
• drying the fractured bamboo strips at a temperature of about 60° C. to about 80° C. to a moisture content of less than 10% wt/wt;
• cooling the dried fractured bamboo strips to an ambient temperature while maintaining the moisture content at less than 10% wt/wt;
• coating the cooled, dried fractured bamboo strips with a thermoset fluid adhesive, allowing excess adhesive to flow by gravity from the adhesive-coated fractured bamboo strips;
• drying the adhesive-coated fractured bamboo strips at a temperature from a range of about 35° C. to about 55° C., to a moisture content of 10% wt/wt or less;
• loading a selected plurality of the dried adhesive-coated fractured bamboo strips onto a bed of a flatbed hydraulic press, heating the bed to about 120° C. and applying a pressure dried adhesive-coated fractured bamboo strips from 8 kPa to about 1300 kPa for about 10 min to about 60 min to thereby produce an elongate laminated composite bamboo panel;
• cooling the elongate laminated composite bamboo panel under an ambient temperature for about 24 hours;
• trimming the ends and side edges of the cooled elongate laminated composite bamboo panel;
• and optionally
• sawing the elongate laminated composite bamboo panel into selected lengths and widths.