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🎋How it is made

Bamboo · A fast grass culm sold as timber — scaffolding, flooring and a glue story that decides the indoor air.

At a glance
Score intensity

Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.

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Quick answers

Is Bamboo non-combustible?

Declared reaction class in this atlas: untreated D-class typical; treated products vary. Assemblies still need resistance tests.

Does Bamboo insulate?

Thermal mark 40/100 versus the atlas. Conductivity note: ~0.1–0.2 W/m·K across the wall.

What is the density band?

~0.6–0.8 g/cm³ culm

How is it made?

Origin story: ancient scaffolding; industrial strand board late 20th c. (East and South Asia).

Can it be recycled?

Circularity mark 86/100 — editorial, route-specific.

Typical melting or failure heat?

chars; does not melt

heat 28 · fire 32

Start with this section - How it is made

Making Bamboo is a chain: feedstock, conversion (ancient scaffolding; industrial strand board late 20th c.), forming, heat, finish, install.

Skip a step and the properties chapter is describing a different object.

Process steps

01 Feedstock

Ore, monomer, fibre, mineral or scrap that can legally become Bamboo.

02 Conversion

ancient scaffolding; industrial strand board late 20th c.

03 Forming

Cast, spin, weave, sinter, foam, laminate or coat — the step that sets anisotropy.

04 Heat / cure

Temper, vulcanise, calcine or dry: skip it and the datasheet is fiction.

05 Finish

Coatings, sizings, facers, galvanizing, anodising, painting.

06 Install

Fasteners, adhesives, DFT, compression, dryness — site quality is a material property.

Routes

Primary

Virgin route around East and South Asia.

Recycled / secondary

Bamboo has a real loop when sorting is honest.

Specialty

High-spec grades leave the commodity mill.

Site-applied

Coatings, sprays, casts — the factory is sometimes a jobsite.

Diagrams

Bamboo process path

Feedstock to installed product.

  1. Feed — in
  2. Convert — mill
  3. Form — shape
  4. Finish — coat
  5. Install — out
  6. Spec — code
  7. Scrap loop — rec

Bamboo heat & fire

Energy in, class out.

  1. Heat — in
  2. Bamboo — mat
  3. λ / char — out
  4. Ignition — fire
  5. Euroclass — class
  6. Assembly — sys

Hard limits

Envelope

Melting/softening chars; does not melt; conductivity ~0.1–0.2 W/m·K across the wall.

Environment

Moisture, UV, chlorides, alkalis or oxygen — pick the one that actually kills Bamboo.

Code

Fire class untreated D-class typical; treated products vary is a starting letter, not a wall rating.

Process energy and scrap quality belong in the carbon passport, not in a footnote.

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