Materials & Processing

Heya,

Been looking into the use of materials to help create the furniture.. So far i have looked into Bamboo Ply, Rubber and Plastic Recycling. Listed below are links to some good examples or sites that gave some reasonable information on processes or at least another avenue for me to look at... I know may be covering some of the same grounds as what you may have already found... but maybe there lil in there that we havent seen yet.

Bamboo

I was looking at this to use for the framework of the box and or chair as well as possibly using it to line the main rolling/mounting sides of the box so that it can take the most load impact. Also i have thought and there is an example in the links below as using it as the rigid base to the chair aspect.

I have also looked at natural heat steaming and bending of the materials but from all research this is something that needs to be done during the manufacturing process of the plywood. The way to heat form after wards is usually done with a veneer which is something that we havent looked at yet.

In general thou it would appear this could be beneficial as it is simple timber construction principles once the ply has been manufactured.

The one big disadvantage at this stage is that it is a expensive process unless done in bulk orders.

Bamboo Plywood Examples

http://www.bamboohardwoods.com/items.asp?Cc=BUILDMATERIALS

http://www.bamboohardwoods.com/items.asp?Cc=FURNITURE

http://www.inhabitat.com/2005/11/20/phenomenal-plyboo/

Plywood Advantages

http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/good_wood/bamboo.htm

How it is made... and some construction tips

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5626548_bamboo-plywood-made_.html

http://www.woodistry.com/articles/BambooPlywood.htm

Raw bamboo pre finished is more porous than most ply’s and needs to be kept dry until a finishing coat is put on, else will absorb water..

Natural Rubber (Latex)

In response to Violets look into natural rubber, i looked at the use of natural rubber/latex to provide foam cushioning for the chairs. This process is a little complicated in fact that it either requires the latex to be frothed manually by hand/machine, introduction of chemicals or pumping air into it... then chilling it to below freezing and then heating. The best approach i did find was the use of the chemical combination as another chemical can be added to avoid the need to freeze and heat/vulcanise the foam to make it usable and viable.

http://www.latexrubber.com.au/

Natural Foam Latex V’s Synthetic

http://www.pfa.org/intouch/new_pdf/lr_IntouchV.8.pdf

Recycling

Natural Rubber and Synthetic can all be recycled, if just production waste or end of product use, is shredded and reconstituted with new rubber products such as carpet underlay and so forth.

Plastic Bottle Recycling

All in all, i looked at this aspect for a while. While it is nice to be able to do something to help with the waste reduction and reuse of existing materials, the reconstitution of plastic via heat and reforming appears to be something that needs to be done in a well set up process and may be slightly out of the range that we are looking at achieving. Maybe the trade of recyclable bottles for equipment or as maybe a trade pay as you go system could be something that we look at...

One thing that i did find in many articles i found was that the plastic caps of the bottles are definately not recyclable and need to be thrown away. Sally's idea of using bottle caps to decorate the chairs or furniture is a definite opportunity if we like to maybe allow the students to glue/attach their own names on back of the chairs or maybe as checker/drafts pieces to play games on top of the box bases.. I just raise this to keep the idea of interactivity going as it appears to be one of our main approaches.

Anyway i will leave it there for now... and talk to you all tomorrow night.

D