Low-Cost Corrugated Paper-Bamboo Sports Facilities for Rural Primary Schools: Design, Safety Testing, and Field Validation

Abstract

Rural primary schools in mountainous areas often lack safe, versatile, and maintainable sports equipment because commercial systems are expensive to transport and install. This paper develops a low-cost corrugated paper-bamboo facility system in which corrugated board is used for replaceable, non-primary load panels and locally available bamboo forms the reusable frame. The design method combines a 95-response user survey, a constraint-based product specification, module-level prototype screening, and a four-week feasibility crossover with 24 pupils. Five modules were prototyped for throwing, target practice, coordination, and group games. For the most critical balance-rail assembly, the nominal design load was 1.20 kN, the measured maximum service load was 1.84 kN, and the failure load was 4.07 kN, giving a calculated ratio of 2.21; the values refer to different load definitions and are reported separately. The selected reference purchase price for a five-function commercial package was 5,470 RMB; the prototype material cost was 1,186 RMB and the full delivered prototype estimate was 1,744 RMB. During the pilot, the kit condition was associated with higher observed active-play time (27.9 versus 18.6 min per lesson) and task completion (81.6% versus 62.4%). Internal screening was designed with reference to selected criteria in ISO 8124-1 and EN 1176-1; it was not third-party certification. Use is limited to supervised, protected, low-load activities with daily inspection and replacement rules.