7th IEEE International Conference Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology

Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM)

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) Philippine Section
12-16 November 2014 Hotel Centro, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines

Design Development and Testing of an Integrated

Bamboo Culm Splitting and Planing Machine
Rey Camillo Banawis
MEM Dept. De La Salle University
Manila, Philippines
Richmond Elbert De Vera
MEM Dept. De La Salle University
Manila, Philippines

Edwin J. Calilung

Ernest Shawn Quinones

MEM Dept. De La Salle University
Manila, Philippines
Richard Yao
MEM Dept. De La Salle University
Manila, Philippines

MEM Dept. De La Salle University

Manila, Philippines
Abstract This research paper discusses the design,
development and testing of an integrated splitting and planing
machine for pre-cut bamboo culms. The design of the bamboo
splitting section was based on existing design of commercially
available bamboo splitting machine while the planing section
utilized 2 sets of motor powered portable wood planers
integrated into the design which simultaneously planes the top
and bottom sides of the bamboo strip.
The separation of split bamboo strips and sequential transfer
to the planing section was designed by the authors and consisted
of axial-mounted vanes within a cylindrical pipe that separate
the split bamboo strips and move each strip sequentially to an
exit slide onto a chain feeder to the planing section.
The automation of the process utilized an Arduino Mega
microcontroller board which controlled a stepper motor drive
and relays to control the feeding chain motor to the planing
section.
The testing of the individual processes of bamboo culm splitting
and strip planing were tested satisfactorily, however, the process
of separating the split bamboo strips and sequential feeding to
the planing section infeed chain conveyor require further
improvements as misalignment problems were observed. The
complete process of splitting a 1.2 meter length of bamboo into 8
strips, separation and sequential feeding to the planer and
planing process required around 165 170 seconds to complete,
however, the strip transfer process had only a reliability of 80%.
Index Termsbamboo splitting machine, bamboo strip planing
machine, bamboo strip processing.

I. INTRODUCTION
The humble bamboo is one of the most versatile and useful
tropical plants with myriad of uses as shown in figure 1. As an
alternative material to wood, however, particularly for

978-1-4799-4020-2/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

furniture, wood board, floor parquet applications, bamboo has

to be processed to produce uniformly sized strips [1, 2, 4, 7].
These bamboo strips can then be further processed to form the
various finished products such as wood boards, floor tiles,
kitchen chopping boards, table tops and the like [6].
The processing of the bamboo culms into bamboo strips
requires cutting of pre-selected culms into standard lengths,
splitting and planing of four sides of each strip to produce a
uniformly sized and flat strip [5].
Currently, these steps of bamboo strip processing are done
separately and there is interest to develop a machine which
will integrate at least the bamboo splitting and planing
processes in one machine. The bamboo culm cutting can be
done as a separate step as the cut bamboo has to be pre-sorted
into similar diameter culms in order to come up with similar
width sizes of strips [5].
In particular, the main objectives of this study were to
design, fabricate and test an integrated bamboo splitting and
planing machine which:
Splits pre-sorted 1.2 meter length bamboo culms into 8
strips,
Feed the split strips sequentially to the planer section,
Plane the upper and lower sides of the strip into uniform
thickness of from 2-5 mm,
Complete the process with at least 75% efficiency and
quickest time possible as limited by the slowest processing
step which is the planing process.

7th IEEE International Conference Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology

Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) Philippine Section
12-16 November 2014 Hotel Centro, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines

III. DESIGN CONCEPT AND IMPLEMENTATION

Fig. 1. Typical uses of bamboo as a plant and as a material. [7]

The design of the bamboo splitting section is based on

commercially available bamboo splitting machine shown in
figure 3. It consists of a linear drive system to push the bamboo
tube through a set of radial blades which splits the bamboo
tube into a number of strips determined by the number of radial
blades [1]. CAD software was used to create the mechanical
design which is shown in figure 4. Key design points are the
radial blade configuration which consisted of 8 blades set at an
angle of 60 degrees from the horizontal axis and the linear
drive which was sized based on the typical splitting force
requirement of local bamboo as well as data from literature [2,
3].
After the bamboo tube is split into 8 strips, each strip must
be separated and fed sequentially into the planer section. To
accomplish this, a cylindrical strip holder and sequential feeder
system was designed and shown in figure 5.

II. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The conceptual framework for bamboo splitting and
planing machine is given in figure 2 and divided into two parts:
the automated and manual processes. The whole process starts
with placing the bamboo manually into the splitter. An operator
then initiates the process by pressing the power button for the
splitter. After splitting the bamboo into strips, the operator then
retracts the pusher and turns off its power button. The operator
will then switch the power to the stepper motor, strip pusher
and the planer. The stepper motor would then release the
bamboo strips at a set interval so that the strips would not
accumulate at the planer. Each strip that slides down will be
pushed by the strip pusher towards the planer. The planer
would then plane the top and bottom parts of the bamboo strip
which would give us the end product.
Fig. 3. Commercially available bamboo splitting machine.

Fig. 4. Mechanical design of the bamboo splitting section.

Fig. 2. Conceptual framework of the integrated bamboo splitting and
planing machine.

7th IEEE International Conference Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology

Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) Philippine Section
12-16 November 2014 Hotel Centro, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines

This consisted of eight walled partitions attached to a shaft

which separate the bamboo strips after being split from the
previous process. The inside volume of the cylinder is divided
through metal sheets welded to the shaft into eight
compartments, which hold each strip separately and allow
control in feeding it to the next process. An open slot is located
at the bottom of the outer cylinder which served as the exit
point for each strip as the shaft is rotated by a stepper motor.
The strip will then slide down by gravity onto the chain driven
feeder to the planer section.

As the strips enter the roller mechanism, the spring attached

to the roller compress which in turn clamps the bamboo in
place. Two spring loaded roller were used so that when one
rises and drops due to an encounter with the septum the
bamboo strip will not vibrate in result but has the other roller
holding it in place. Support rails were placed on both sides to
keep the bamboo strip in a straight line and prevent it from
going sideways away from the planer and causing undesired
results like jamming. The actual planing mechanism consists of
two sets of portable wood planers that were retrofitted into the
machine. Future improvements can incorporate specially
designed planing mechanism for this machine.

Fig. 5. Mechanical design of the strip holder and feeder.

The planing table is designed to catch the strips from the

inclined slider and feed the strips slowly onto the planing
machine. This is achieved by using a chain drive to push the
strips into the planer. The important component is a strip guide
and holder which holds the strip in place in order to plane the
bamboo smoothly. For this a simple roller mechanism with
spring attached to it was designed to clamp the strips as they
enter the feeding phase as shown in figures 6 to 8.

Fig. 6. Mechanical design of the strip planer and feeder.

Fig. 7. Mechanical design of the strip planer slide and feeder.

Fig. 8. Design of the spring-loaded roller clamp.

IV. TESTS CONDUCTED AND MAIN RESULTS

The individual processes of splitting, strip separation and
positioning on the feeder and planing were tested separately in
order to determine consistency in performance. Four
experiments were conducted as follows:
Experiment 1: Bamboo splitting consistency test
Experiment 2: Bamboo strip orientation and position
Experiment 3: Bamboo planing consistency test
Experiment 4: Planing speed test
A total of 5 trials were made for each experiment which is
the minimum number in order to get 90% confidence level on
the results. Following is a discussion of main results.
A. Experiment #1 Results
Bamboo culms with allowable diameter and thickness are
fed into the splitting machine which splits the bamboo culm
into eight equal strips. Proper set-up and selection of bamboo
will prevent problems with misalignment of the bamboo culm
and the center of the blades, cracks in the bamboo culms after
processing, and jamming of the bamboo strips with the rotating
divider. The measurement of the bamboo strips is directly
related to the diameter of the fed bamboo culm. Larger bamboo
culms will produce wider bamboo strips. Splitting consistency
of the machine refers to the capacity of the machine to produce
bamboo strips without any of the cited problems. After the

7th IEEE International Conference Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology

Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) Philippine Section
12-16 November 2014 Hotel Centro, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines

splitting process, bamboo strips must be aligned with the

rotating divider in order to achieve proper position and
orientation of the strips.
TABLE I. RESULTS OF EXPERIMENT 1: SPLITTING CONSISTENCY
Trial
no.

Evaluation
Test result

Passed

Passed

Passed

Passed

Passed

Reason for Failure

C. Experiment # 3 Results
The bamboo planing process involves removal of septum,
thickness reduction and flattening of bamboo strips. The final
output of planing consistency tests refers to the capacity of the
planing machine to produce bamboo strips with thickness of 25mm. The thickness range of the final output is observed in
order to align the final output with possible uses for the
bamboo strips.
Results showed a more or less uniform thickness in the
processed strips of from 3-4 mm with average of 3.6 mm
which is within the range set forth.
TABLE III. RESULTS OF EXPERIMENT 3: PLANING CONSISTENCY
Trial
no.

Success Rate: 100%

Evaluation
Test result

The test results showed 100 percent success rate when the
bamboo tubes are presorted for uniform sizing and condition.
B. Experiment # 2 Results
Bamboo strips that slide down from the rotating strip holder
occasionally fall misaligned with the planing machine which
yields poor planing quality. Misalignment of the bamboo strips
may also cause the planer to jam if not fixed immediately. The
purpose of this experiment is to determine the capability of the
machine to align the bamboo strips before they are fed into the
planing machine. Newly split bamboo strips are also positioned
skin side down before they are fed into the planing machine in
order to avoid misalignment caused by the septum inside
bamboo culms. Septum inside bamboo culms are naturally
thick thats why considerations are made in order to plane
bamboo culms evenly [3].
TABLE II. RESULTS OF EXPERIMENT 2: STRIP ORIENTATION AND
POSITIONING CONSISTENCY

Trial
no.
1

Passed

Failed

Passed

Passed

Passed

Passed

Passed

Passed

Passed

Passed

Reason for Failure

Success Rate: 100%

D. Experiment # 4 Results
The integration of several processes made the planing
process the bottleneck in the whole operation which makes it
crucial to hasten this process to increase speed and
productivity. The goal in this experiment is to determine the
capability of the planing process of the machine to plane one
bamboo strip every 20 seconds.
TABLE IV. RESULTS OF EXPERIMENT 1: SPLITTING CONSISTENCY

Evaluation
Test result

Reason for Failure

Misalignment

Success Rate: 80%

As shown by the results given in Table 2, misalignment of

the strip as it falls from rotary strip holder is a real problem and
must be addressed in the succeeding research work on this
machine.

Trial
no.

Process Duration (sec.)

21

18

21

19

18
Average: 19 sec.

As shown in Table 4 the planing speed falls within the

target speed of 20 seconds of planing duration per strip.
E. Summary of Performance Tests
Based on the four experiments conducted, the main
bottleneck in terms of process time is the planing operation
which took close to 20 seconds to process a single strip which

7th IEEE International Conference Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology

Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) Philippine Section
12-16 November 2014 Hotel Centro, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines

means that for 8 strips (from one bamboo tube) it will take at
least 160 seconds or almost 3 minutes which is not really
satisfactory. It is suggested that the planing process for the 8
strips be conducted simultaneously which will require a wider
width of cut for the planing machine.
Another area of improvement is the rotary strip holder and
feeder which is a bit prone to misalignment of the strip.
However, this problem will no longer be relevant once the
machine is modified for simultaneous planing of all the strips
from one bamboo tube as it will involve an entirely different
design.
The problem in the feeding of the strips also prevented the
reliable running of the machine for the complete processing of
the bamboo tube, and thus is very important to address in
future work.
V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This study was able to demonstrate that the processing of
bamboo tubes to planed strips can be integrated in one machine
although the particular integrated design developed, fabricated
and tested by the researchers resulted in a significant
bottleneck which limited the throughput the planing process
which required at least 20 seconds per strip or 160 seconds per
bamboo tube.
Four tests or experiments were done to evaluate the
performance for each step and also to determine the speed of
the planing process. The tests were mostly successful except
for the misalignment problem in the strip holder and feeding
system to the planer. This problem is significant as it stops the
continuous operation of the machine.
Based on these conclusions the following are the main
recommendations for future study:
There is scope for optimizing the blade design and
configuration in order to reduce power requirement
and the effect of non-uniformities in the bamboo being
split,
The planing section must be able to accommodate all
the strips produced after each splitting cycle which
means that a new strip catcher and feeder design is
needed as well as new planer with wider effective
width of cut must be designed,

Once the planing can be done simultaneously for all

strips from the splitter, then next area to be looked at is
how to reduce further the planing process by
optimizing the planer mechanism and blades,
The design of the transfer, orientation and feeding of
the strips from the splitter to the plane is also critical as
it can result to jams, mis-alignment and mis-orientation
problems that will affect the throughput and quality of
output.
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