Comfort and order have become an integral part of our lives. We are used to sleeping on comfortable beds, dining at the table, storing clothes in a spacious closet. Special materials are used to make all these items. They make them not only durable, functional, but also aesthetically attractive. Each type of material has its own characteristics, performance qualities, price. In this publication, we will take a closer look at the main materials for furniture manufacturing, their brief characteristics.
Content
List of the most popular materials
Functional cabinet furniture and other products are made from the following raw materials:
- different types of wood,
- various metal alloys,
- plastic,
- organic, real glass,
- waste from wood processing,
- rattan,
- leatherette,
- textile.
The first five types of raw materials are used to produce regular, cabinet furniture. Rattan is used in the process of creating wicker items. They are usually used by designers in the interiors of private houses and cottages. Leatherette and textiles are the main elements of frameless products.
Metal
Durable, stylish, elegant metal furniture can be found anywhere. They often decorate the interiors of offices, hospitals, banks, restaurants, apartments. Modern manufacturers have learned to make rather compact, lightweight items from metal. Previously, they were bulky. This was the main reason for their unpopularity.
Forged, metal tables, benches, chairs, beds have a number of undeniable advantages.
- Resistance to damage. In order to break or damage metal, you need to try hard. For this reason, many owners of cafes and restaurants, where there is always a large flow of people, prefer such furniture.
- Durability. Products can serve for decades, many outlive several generations of their owners.
- Easy to maintain. For cleaning, it is enough to use simple soapy water and a soft cloth. There is no need to be afraid of corrosion. Modern alloys are quite resistant to moisture.
The main disadvantage of metal furniture items is their rather high price. We are talking about stylish, compact products.
Glass
Relatively recently, glass was used only as individual elements in furniture production. Shelves, doors, mirrors, and small doors were made from it. Today, the scope of glass application has expanded significantly. Full-fledged products for the home are made from it. Glass tables, shelves, and cabinets have taken a worthy place in home, office, and work interiors.
They have many positive characteristics.
One of them is the visual increase of space. This function is especially important when decorating small irregularly shaped rooms. Another advantage is the airiness and lightness of the products. They create the effect of weightlessness. The products do not overload the space, and let in pleasant sunlight. The glass is quite durable and absolutely safe for health.
Of course, glass tables, chairs, and other items have their weak points. Their main problem is their instability to mechanical damage. A heavy load, a sharp blow, a fall from a great height can completely destroy a beautiful structure.
Stone
This is the brightest, most original of all furniture materials. Various artificial types of stone are used in production. They make excellent benches for summer cottages, stunning tabletops, practical bar counters, and reliable window sills.
The stone has a number of advantages.
- Health safety. This is a very important criterion when choosing any household items for the home. The stone is non-toxic and does not emit harmful substances into the air.
- High hygiene. The surface of the products is always monolithic. It will not absorb dirt, grease, foreign odors. For this reason, stone countertops, bar counters are often purchased for the kitchen, dining room.
- High resistance to mechanical damage. It is difficult to cause significant damage to a stone structure. You have to try hard to do this. If a scratch appears, it is easy to remove.
The most significant disadvantage of stone is its high price. Stone countertops and garden benches will be beyond the means of an ordinary family.
Plastic
This is an artificial material widely used in the production of various household items. It is used to make practical, cheap, light furniture. It is usually purchased for use in bathrooms, toilets. It can often be found in cafes, in summer cottages. It looks organic everywhere.
Plastic chairs and tables are not afraid of harsh weather. They do not lose their original appearance even after frequent exposure to moisture and water. It is easy to construct a structure of any shape from plastic. The production process does not require large investments and is technologically simple.
This material has few disadvantages: it is very fragile, has an unattractive appearance, and does not last very long. However, more advanced types of plastic have been developed today. They are free from the above disadvantages and are more expensive.
Forest industry waste
Everyone knows that the best material for making cabinet furniture is wood. Solid wood has a number of advantages. It looks amazing, lasts a long time, and has a beneficial effect on people's health. Such products are in great demand, despite the high price. However, time is running out, and forest areas are inexorably shrinking. For this reason, waste from the forest industry has begun to be actively used in the production of furniture structures. Practical, reliable materials of various qualities are made from sawdust, shavings, and other raw materials. Let's consider the general advantages and disadvantages of boards in the table.
| Timber industry waste boards | |
| Advantages | Flaws |
| ·saving natural resources, | · limitations in creating unusual shapes, curves, |
| ·affordable cost, unlike solid wood, | ·difficulty in holding fasteners, |
| ·ease of the production process, | ·some species cannot be restored. |
| ·attractive appearance of finished furniture. |
Features of the use of chipboard
These boards are often used for the production of budget cabinet furniture. Thanks to their appearance, the furniture industry has become accessible to a wide range of consumers. Tables and cabinets made of chipboard are inexpensive and have a fairly attractive design. Another advantage of the boards is the availability of a wide variety of models. This allows you to decorate rooms in different styles, provides freedom in design even for little money. Chipboard boards can serve for a long time, provided they are used correctly.
Among the weak points of chipboard, experts note their toxicity. It is especially acute during heating. Chipboard structures cannot be installed near batteries or any heating devices. Such a mistake will cost too much. When heated, chipboards will emit formaldehyde and phenols. They will have a detrimental effect on human health. Another significant disadvantage is the impossibility of creating extraordinary, curved details. This negatively affects the interior, making it standard.
Chipboard
Chipboards showed low resistance to mechanical damage, and their appearance was not stylish enough. To improve these parameters, the boards were covered with a special coating. The coating allows imitating different types of wood. This makes the finished boards much more attractive. The special coating also improved resistance to damage. Such cabinet furniture lasts longer and retains its original appearance throughout its entire service life.
Another advantage of laminated chipboard is its resistance to temperature changes. Due to this, the boards are used to make kitchen units, cabinets, and accessories. The units are light, beautiful, and relatively inexpensive. There are not many disadvantages of laminated chipboard, but they are quite significant.
- Impossibility of fine processing. Furniture structures sometimes come out uniform, have clear boundaries, straight lines (like chipboard). It is impossible to make something unusual from such raw materials. This limits the possibilities in design.
- Contains harmful resins. It is not recommended to purchase laminated chipboard products for a child's room; they cannot be installed near active heat.
Fiberboard: pros, cons
Fiberboard is made from wood waste that is subjected to strong crushing. The manufacturing process is quite simple, does not require complex equipment or huge investments. There are two production methods.
- Dry. Resins are added during the process, pressing is carried out under the influence of high temperatures.
- Wet. The process occurs without adding additional substances.
It is difficult to call fiberboard a full-fledged raw material for furniture production. It is quite difficult to fasten. For this reason, fiberboard is used to create back walls and bottoms. Usually, the raw material is used in combination with chipboard. Then you get a fairly reliable, inexpensive, functional design. Many people call fiberboard pressed cardboard. It really resembles cardboard in appearance. It is also cheap.
MDF
The most practical, good material for furniture production is MDF. It is created from very small chips, sawdust. Its main difference is absolute safety for humans. The raw material does not contain harmful resins or substances. Lignin acts as a binder. This is a natural substance that is safe for human health. It is part of the intercellular substance of natural wood. It is safety that has become the main reason for such high popularity of MDF.
Another important advantage of MDF is unlimited design possibilities. It is easy to make various shapes from it, form attractive curves. This is important for creating an individual, unique interior of a living space. Water resistance, high strength are other significant advantages of MDF. It will last a long time, can be used in rooms with high humidity. The main disadvantages are high price, fire hazard, prohibition of partial restoration. It is impossible to replace a damaged part of MDF. You will have to buy a new product instead. This is expensive for a family with a small income.
Plywood
The main materials (wood, chipboard, etc.) and auxiliary materials are used to make furniture. Plywood belongs to the second group. It is used to make the back surfaces of cabinets, the side parts of drawers, and cheap household shelves. The plywood production process is simple: craftsmen glue several sheets of veneer together. The material is durable, easy to process, clean, and safe for others. But the properties of plywood are not enough to use it as the main raw material in the furniture industry.
