Comprehensive Guide to Furniture Materials and Upholstery Textiles

1. Furniture Materials

2. Veneer • Rotary-peeledveneer • Knife-cut veneer • Sawnveneer

3. Plywood • Plywood as smooth sheet • FRCW as fire retardant sheets for furniture • Plywood moulded

4. Laminatedveneer • 30-40 layers glued together • Visible layers class A • Pre-drilling for assembly • Good bendability • Very strong

5. Chipboard • Chipboard varying in hardness and density • Chipboard – different qualities • Chipboard for edging, painting, veneering

6. MDF sheets • Edges ready for finishing • Ready for surface treatment • Can be routered on the edges and surfaces without pre-treatment

7. Honeycomb • Inexpensive • Easy to transport • Dimensionally stable • Good load bearing • Can be coated with a surface or painted • Environmentally-friendly

8. Plastic surfaces • Foils • Melamine 80-90 gm² • 125 g m² • Laminate

9. Glass Furnitureglassrequirements: • The European standards organisation CEN is in the process of drafting a standard for test methods for furnitureglass in furniture. In the explanatory notes to the standard, there is lengthyadviceregarding the use of glass in furniture. • Whereglasstablesareconcerned, it is particularlyimportant to consider the type of glass, the size of the tabletop, the thickness of the glass in relation to the way in which it is held up/supported. Glass: • Glass is one of the materials, whichwe all comeintocontact with on a daily basis. It is manufactured by melting quartz sand, potash and calcium carbonate. The blending ratio depends on the type of glassbeingproducede.g. standard windowglass, colouredglass, different types of toughenedsafetyglass etc. • Glass is particularlysuitable for recycling and normallybetweenapprox. 30% and 50% recycledglass is incorporatedwhen new glass is manufactured.

10. Upholsterymaterials

11. The upholstery • Lining material • Fibre padding • Standard foam • Cold foam • Non-woven • Spring inlay • Webbing

12. Webbing Flexible webbing: • Woven rubber webbing • Rubber webbing with textile inlay • Supporting weave: • Natural materials • Fibreglass reinforced PVC • Non-flexible webbing: • Flax, jute webbing • Cotton webbing • Polyester webbing • Polyamide webbing (nylon) • Plastic strapping • Nylon weave

13. Springs in the base upholstery Wave springs, nozac springs. • These springs areattached in measuredlengthscalled the interiormeasurement (distance between front rail and back rail). Nozac springs come in hardened wire in wire sizes nos. 8,9,10,11,12 and 13. • No. 8 is the strongest. Wire no. 9 is used for seats and wire no. 12 is used for the backs. • Flat springs: • Flat springs are ”toppled” spiral springs whichare made of hardenedsteel in the sizes 1 – 2.5 mm.

14. Upholsterymaterials Cold foam is both used as part of the permanently fitted upholstery and as pads in loose seat cushions. It is a supporting foam. Standard foam is used to soften the comfort layers. • Cold foam in the seat 30-34 kg³ • Standard foam in the back 27-31 kg³ • Fibre padding

15. Special foam • Super soft standard foam • Soft standard foam • Bonded foam • CHMR foam (fire retardant foam) • Celsius foam • (thermoplastic foam)

16. Upholsterytextiles The following textiles are used as inlay in upholstered furniture • Hessian • Shirting • Stout • Triconette • Fleece fabrics • Non-woven

17. Cushions for upholstered furniture • Latex cushions • Loose granulate cushions • Cut cold foam cushions • Moulded cold foam cushions • Moulded granulate cushions • Down cushions • Poly-down cushions • Down-top cushions