Process for treating bamboo and articles made by the process

Abstract

A process to treat bamboo comprises splitting a bamboo shoot lengthwise into at least two separate bamboo lengths, and removing any internal membranes and external nodes from the bamboo lengths. The split bamboo lengths are treated to remove substantially all sugars present in said lengths, following which they are dried to a moisture content of less than about 3%. The bamboo lengths are then rehumidified to a predetermined moisture content of greater than about 3%. Then, optionally, a first plurality of the bamboo lengths suitable to form a core for a laminated bamboo article may be uniformly sized, and a second plurality of the bamboo lengths suitable to form an outer surface for a laminated bamboo article may be uniformly sized. A core may then be formed with a uniform first plurality of the lengths by laminating the first plurality of lengths together, and at least one outer surface layer may be formed with a uniform second plurality of the lengths by laminating the second plurality of lengths together. Finally, the outer surface layer may be laminated to the core so that the grain direction of the first plurality of lengths is substantially parallel to the grain direction of the second plurality of lengths.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.