Such products are products of complex processing of wood material. The production of furniture panels, during which a monolithic finished product is obtained from individual wooden blocks by processing and gluing, allows you to save money and use timber with maximum efficiency.
Scope of application of furniture panels
The product is a safe material, which allows it to be widely used in factories as furniture semi-finished products for the manufacture of facades, panels, window sills, cabinets, and shelving.
In construction, panels are used when installing stairs:
- steps;
- balusters;
- railings;
- sites;
- stringers.
In the interior of children's rooms, kitchens, corridors, walls and ceilings are decorated with wooden panel panels. The dimensions of the furniture board are on average from 20 to 40 mm thick; it can vary depending on the wishes of the customer.
Softwood processing technology
The raw material for the production of wooden panels is unedged and edged boards from coniferous or hardwood species - ash, birch, oak. The most commonly used material is from coniferous species (pine, spruce), it is cheap and can be processed.
The shield is a worthy replacement for solid wood, thanks to more efficient use of the material, while maintaining quality characteristics, but at a low cost.
Technological operations, as well as control during the manufacturing process, must be strictly observed so that the resulting product is of high quality, meets the necessary requirements and standards, and also has an aesthetic appearance.
In the manufacture of boards, several types of boards are used, which makes it possible to expand the price range for the finished product by breaking it down by grade.
Depending on the area in which the shields will be used, they are made single-layer or multi-layer.
In the first option, bars, slats or boards are glued along the wood grain, resulting in a board with a thickness of 15 to 60 mm.
The multi-layer product has two front sides and several odd inner layers. They are laid out symmetrically in thickness, and the total height of the lamella is often 70–80 mm.
Stages of production of glued furniture panels:
- processing (trimming) and sorting of workpieces;
- identifying defective areas and cutting the workpiece to width;
- processing according to specified parameters with simultaneous removal of erroneous zones;
- connecting pieces along the length, applying glue;
- product configuration;
- elimination of irregular seams;
- final calibration and grinding;
- cutting finished material to specified dimensions.
Conditions for starting a business producing furniture panels
The demand for this type of product is quite high; the production of wooden panels is a good idea for creating your own business. To assemble and sell small wholesale quantities of goods, it is more expedient to open a small workshop where longitudinal cutting and gluing of lamellas will be carried out.
But a profitable option would be to create a facility near a forest area where trees are cut, and there are also sawmills for producing boards and timber. But working with imported raw materials will be a profitable business.
To do this, you need to rent a warehouse or workshop, the structure of which includes:
- Administrative premises.
- A warehouse with timber and, separately, finished products and an area where the necessary equipment will be installed.
- The size of the workshop space often depends on the dimensions of the machine park. To organize your own business, you need to draw up a plan and calculate all the risks.
It is easy to rent equipment for production or take out a loan and purchase used but operating machines.
Technical equipment and its features
To produce furniture panels, the following industrial equipment is required:
- Drying chambers for wood preparation - there are vacuum, convective, and aerodynamic types.
- Universal woodworking machines - units from Winner Blazer and Warrior have proven themselves.
- Double-sided thickness gauges for lamellas of domestic production, as well as Ostermann, GRIGGIO.
- Weights for gluing the board: fan - from RAUTEK, INDUK, pneumatic - Stromab.
As well as installations for optimizing end cutting, you can obtain a minimum of waste. There are walk-through machines - for piece processing from Quadro and devices with a Cursal pusher - for obtaining a bunch of boards.
Equipment for splicing along the length allows you to connect short workpieces into lamellas; this feature makes it possible to transform defects into working material. Automatic, semi-automatic lines, Beaver and OMGA tenoning machines.
Adhesive application systems are used on flat surfaces to distribute the adhesive evenly. For gluing timber, the composition is applied directly on the KM-250 machine.
Designed for cutting materials lengthwise and crosswise. There are: with a ball carriage - Ostermann, a roller carriage - FILATO, format-cutting centers - SELCO.
Additionally, during production, machines are used for artificial aging or brushing of wood. To obtain the unique texture of furniture boards, special abrasive brushes or sanding drums GRIGGIO and domestic models from the Elmediagroup company - KS200, KS1 are used.
Advantages and applications
Panels are widely in demand in furniture production, as a finishing material for interiors. Due to the textured texture of wood, the products are used for the production of both standard furniture and for individual orders.
Despite a fairly large range of other materials (chipboard, MDF), products made from laminated veneer lumber are in demand due to many advantages.
Furniture panels, unlike solid wood, do not shrink, so the dimensions remain the same over time. This feature allows you to significantly save on the operation of the material.
Panel products are environmentally friendly, so they are used as decoration for children's rooms and for the manufacture of teenage and other furniture. The technology for manufacturing wooden panels allows for efficient use of wood, which significantly saves money and helps save forests from large areas of deforestation.
The resulting material acquires a decorative appearance by imparting a beautiful texture to the wood using a brushing (grinding) operation, which allows the use of furniture panels for finishing various rooms.
The ability to produce furniture products of any size and thickness, depending on the customer’s wishes. The production of furniture panels is a good idea for a business project; there is a constant demand for such products, especially for high-quality and relatively inexpensive products. Wood parts are widely used by craftsmen both for the manufacture of furniture and for finishing premises, also due to their affordable price.
Modern production of laminated panels is a business with a short payback period and constant profit. The initial costs will be returned by the owner within the first 6 months, and a wide material base will allow this figure to be halved.
Video: Production of furniture panels
Furniture board is a sheet of wood material that has a rectangular or square shape.
It is made by gluing together wooden blocks in width and length (in some cases). The width of each individual bar is about 10 - 50 millimeters.
Furniture board production technology allows the use of coniferous wood such as spruce and pine. Panels made of beech, oak, maple, ash and birch are quite popular.
History of furniture board production technology
Furniture panels are used to make furniture, various building elements, and as decoration. This is an environmentally friendly and aesthetically attractive material, compared to its counterpart chipboard. Furniture panels have been used for quite a long time.
The technology for producing furniture panels has remained virtually unchanged over the past hundred years. In the non-conical version, the wood blocks were compressed using a metal clamp. Nowadays, this function is performed by the press. Mass use of this product began in the 70s of the last century.
Today, among laminated wood materials in the construction and furniture industry, cheaper analogues of furniture panels have appeared.
In this regard, its scope of application is quite narrow:
- it is a hypoallergenic natural material, so it is environmentally friendly;
- when processed correctly, it looks aesthetically pleasing and elegant;
- furniture board is quite a practical material.
Advantages of furniture board production technology
Glued furniture board has significant features compared to other structural materials used in furniture production:
- Long service life.
- Panel furniture is repairable. This is due to the uniformity of the wood structure. Even a damaged piece of furniture can be very easily restored, after which it will regain its original appearance.
- Wood is a hygroscopic material that regulates indoor air humidity.
- Furniture made from such a shield can adsorb harmful substances.
- The use of new gluing technologies allows the natural texture of the wooden surface to be preserved.
- The furniture board does not come apart during its operation and has minimal shrinkage.
- The environmental friendliness of this material allows it to be used for interior decoration, as well as for the manufacture of furniture.
- Furniture panels can be produced in any size (length, width and thickness).
Thanks to its numerous advantages, furniture panels are very popular not only in the Russian but also in the world market. Edged lumber is used as a raw material for the production of this material.
Stages of furniture panel production
Any production of laminated panels must have drying equipment. Only in this option can you be 100 percent sure that the wood will stick together reliably and firmly.
The technology for producing furniture panels allows us to obtain different types of this material depending on the area in which it will be used.
There are two types: single-layer and multi-layer. The first type is also called a massive or simple furniture panel. Its thickness ranges from 14 to 60 millimeters. It is made from wood slats, timber or boards, about 18 mm wide, which are glued together in one layer parallel to the direction of the wood fibers.
A multilayer shield consists of two front sides and an odd number of inner layers. All layers are laid symmetrically in thickness. It is this that determines the positive properties of this type of material. The thickness of the multilayer shield can reach 75 millimeters.
Main stages of furniture panel production technology:
- Drying the workpieces.
- Preliminary trimming of the product.
- Opening defects and cutting the resulting workpiece according to its width.
- Cutting out defective areas.
- Splicing the product along the length and obtaining lamellas.
- Calibration of lamellas.
- Applying glue.
- Shield gluing.
- Calibration and grinding.
- Trimming the shield based on the specified format.
New technologies for the production of furniture panels at the exhibition
Furniture board is a product of deep processing of wood, so gluing can significantly reduce wood costs, as well as make the most efficient use of lumber. This brings new varieties of high-quality materials to the furniture market.
FEATURES OF FURNITURE BOARD MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
(SPbGLTA, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation)
The article places for consideration key regulations of the technology of manufacture furniture shield, as well as conditions and factors having influence on the quality of treatment of the furniture shield and its gluing.
Furniture board - as the main semi-finished product used in the production of cabinet furniture made of solid wood, staircase parts, etc., is the most popular environmentally friendly material. And at the same time, the process of its manufacture is characterized by labor, material, and energy consumption, in contrast to the technology of manufacturing panel materials such as chipboard, fiberboard, MDF.
The multi-operational nature of the technological process is due to the specifics of the material itself - wood– as the object of processing, the equipment and materials used, as well as the requirements for the quality of the final product. Wood with anisotropy of properties, different densities, structure, defects, and type of sawing significantly influences the choice of technology. There are several manufacturing process schemes, but the most common and effective is the so-called “Swedish” technology. But in any case, compliance with the technology, modes, and processing parameters is a guarantee of obtaining high-quality furniture boards that meet consumer and operational requirements. As a rule, lamellas in furniture panels are glued together into a smooth fugue using PVAD-based adhesives with the addition of a hardener, or without it if this is not specified in the technical specifications. Such binders have a transparent, elastic adhesive seam of high strength, which is necessary for furniture panels, and can withstand temperature and humidity deformations, and mechanical loads. With the use of these adhesives, intensification of HDTV heating or conductive heating can be used in gluing technology.
It is necessary to note the following technological process conditions, without which gluing a high-quality board is impossible:
Uniformity of moisture indicators of the quality of lumber drying. The final humidity required by the technology (for furniture panels it is 8±1.5%). Such strict humidity limits are determined by operational and technological requirements. The lower one is associated with the gluing process (surface wettability with the binder, absorbency, penetrating ability of the glue), further mechanical processing of the shield (calibration, grinding, milling). Overdried wood impairs the quality of its processing, forms chips, peels the fiber, and has low ductility. Too high humidity of the lumber to be processed leads to even worse problems when gluing the board, its further sanding and finishing. When planing, the quality of the jointed surface of the lamellas is unsatisfactory due to the formation of hairiness. High humidity of the lamellas affects the duration of exposure in the hot press, the polymerization of the binder and the strength of the adhesive seam. The heterogeneity of the humidity indicators of the drying quality of lumber, especially differences in humidity across their cross-section, as a result of cutting into lamellas, leads to the fact that slats with different humidity levels, different from the average, get into the assembled board. This contributes to the appearance of various types of deformations. The tendency of the lamellas to reach an equilibrium moisture state in the glued board when exposed to certain conditions contributes to varying degrees to their drying and swelling. Such processes entail either warping of the shield or cracking at the ends during its processing and operation.
Of course, the uniformity of moisture indicators of drying quality is a key condition for the production of furniture panels at a high level.
The geometry of the lamellas, i.e. rectangularity and dimensional stability. This is a very important condition for pressing. If it is not observed, proper contact between the gluing surfaces is not ensured, and non-gluing is formed along the entire length of the shield - this is a defect. The geometry of the lamellas can be achieved by the precision of equipment settings, the qualifications of the operating personnel and the technical equipment of the machines on which lumber is processed. Modern equipment makes it possible to fulfill this requirement, but not always. Half-melt planing guarantees geometry if the knives in the planing drums are positioned perpendicular to the tables (planing bases) and the precision of the work of the clamps and feed rollers. When using Swedish technology, i.e. planing lumber with simultaneous cutting into lamellas, the most accurate perpendicularity of the processed edges is ensured, since the saw shaft with the saw position is perpendicular to the tables. Correct positioning of the saw shaft in relation to the tables of the four-sided machine, as well as adjusting the clamps, will make it possible to obtain a lamella with strictly perpendicular sides.
The amount of binder applied to the surfaces to be glued (glue consumption). The glue consumption is regulated by the supplier company, but is specified by the gluing conditions, viscosity, wood type, humidity, application equipment, etc. On average, the consumption is 120-150 g/sq.m. m. Insufficient application of the binder causes low strength of the adhesive seam and, as a consequence, unsticking of the board. The consumption is too high - it is necessary to increase the holding time, both before pressing and during the gluing process, the productivity of the leading equipment drops sharply. In technology for applying glue, it is convenient to use the roller method. The upper pressure is adjustable, the lower is corrugated with grooves, the depth and width of which have certain dimensions. When applied to the lamella, the glue should be located on the surface in the form of even strips without breaks.
Press pressure. An integral condition for gluing, without pressing pressure it is impossible to ensure proper contact between the bonded surfaces. The pressure does not have to be high to prevent deformation of the lamellas in the shield. The criterion for assessing the pressing pressure is a small amount of glue released along the ends and onto the surface of the board.
The conditions listed above are necessary; failure to comply with them entails serious economic problems for the enterprise. The percentage of defects increases, it is good if it is tracked at the initial operations, and not in the final product from the consumer.
In addition to the basic conditions in the manufacturing technology of furniture panels, there are a number of features that should be mentioned.
Firstly, the duration of technological exposure of the material. There is an opinion that a planed strip should not be left in a free state for a long time, more than a day, i.e., everything that has been planed should be glued together. This is due to the loss of activity of the adhesive surface, namely its oxidation and closing of wood pores. Curing of the board after gluing before further machining. German experts believe that the glued shield should be kept for at least 4 hours, some say at least 6. In any case, the boards must be cured, especially after hot pressing, to ensure relaxation of temperature and humidity stresses arising during the gluing process.
Secondly, the pressing temperature. Temperature is an intensification of the process; it must be regulated for different breeds. For coniferous species, the pressing temperature should not exceed 75 – 80 °C. If the drying of lumber was carried out without crystallization of the resin, then the high pressing temperature promotes the release of resin onto the surface of the board, and this has an unsatisfactory effect on further sanding (the abrasive quickly becomes clogged with wood dust along with the resin), the grinding surface becomes wavy and in some cases burns. As a result, it is not the process of grinding as one of the types of wood cutting that occurs, but the rubbing of wood. Consequently, finishing such a shield with paints and varnishes will be problematic. For hardwood species, especially oak, there is no need for high temperatures. The basic density of oak is significantly higher than that of pine, and accordingly the thermal conductivity coefficient is higher. In addition to temperature, the polymerization of the binder is also influenced by the duration of exposure of the boards in the hot press. It is believed that for coniferous species the holding time is at least 1.5 - 2 minutes for each centimeter of board thickness at a temperature on the surface of the press plates of 75 - 80 ° C. For hardwoods, these values should be adjusted depending on the species, its initial moisture content and other factors. Specifically for furniture board made of oak, the exposure should not be long, nor should it be at high temperature, since tannin coloring substances are released and when interacting with the binder, a dark adhesive seam is formed.
Thirdly, when assembling a shield, the condition of correct orientation of the annual layers in adjacent lamellas must be met, as well as radial, tangential and mixed cuts, especially for oak materials. Slats of different cuts should not be allowed in one panel; strict sorting must be performed. Failure to comply with these conditions in a place with poor-quality wood drying entails serious consequences during the operation of such panels. Various shrinkage (swelling) in the radial and tangential directions, when the shields are exposed to certain conditions, can cause their severe deformation and loss of integrity.
In conclusion of this work, the following should be noted: all the listed features of the technology for manufacturing furniture panels are only a small part of a huge issue. The answers to this lie in the specificity and originality of the problem being studied, since few manufacturers of furniture panels pay due attention to its technology, increasing the useful yield when cutting, improving quality, and the rational use of wood - as a product of living nature.
Today, handmade furniture items are very popular. After all, it is in them that the master can embody all his original ideas that will help decorate and personalize the interior of the home. In this regard, the question arises of how to make.
A furniture panel can be purchased at a hardware store, or you can make it yourself, saving money.
Many people who have never been involved in gluing boards believe that there is nothing complicated in this process and the technology of the work is quite simple. But gluing shields is far from a simple job, hiding many features.
The quality of a furniture panel is influenced not only by the material and its texture, but also by the craftsman’s ability to combine the grain of the wood, the accuracy of the joint and the quality of the glue.
Properly prepared shields have the following characteristics:
- preserve the natural texture and pattern of wood;
- do not shrink, deform or crack;
- are environmentally friendly material;
- Regardless of the size of the workpieces, the shields can have any required dimensions.
Selection and preparation of material
When planning to make any piece of furniture, you need to choose the right material. Typically, furniture panels with a thickness of 2 cm (or 20 mm) are used in production. This means that at home it is necessary to make blanks of similar thickness. This is where the difficulties begin: boards with a total thickness of 20 mm are not suitable for gluing the shield. Even the most ideal wood will require additional processing when gluing. It will need to be planed or sanded. Therefore, it is necessary to take boards with a reserve.
The best option for making furniture panels is boards with a thickness of 2.5 cm. An allowance of 0.5 cm is removed in 2 steps: when processing surface defects before gluing and when finishing after it. Thus, the workpiece is brought to a thickness of 2 cm.
When choosing a material, you should immediately discard warped or uneven wood. It is better to cut blanks from a solid board at least 5 cm thick: by sawing it lengthwise into 2 parts, you will get boards with the same color and texture. It is also necessary to pay attention to the length of the workpieces. It should have a margin of 2 to 5 cm, which will allow for high-quality processing of the end sections of glued boards.
To make the material with your own hands at home, you need to prepare the usual carpentry tools:
Device of a machine for gluing workpieces.
- planer or jointer;
- surface and belt sanders;
- coarse sandpaper;
- level;
- corner;
- machine for gluing blanks.
You will also need to prepare the wood from which the bars will be cut. It is better if it is wood species such as pine, aspen, birch or oak. Each furniture panel is made from bars of the same type. Typically, the dimensions of the bars have a width-to-thickness ratio of 1:1, but other dimensions can be used, for example, 1:3.
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Algorithm and manufacturing rules
After the material is prepared, its surface must be thoroughly sanded, and then the wood must be cut into bars of the required size. Cuts must be made strictly at an angle of 90 degrees. If any defects or irregularities are formed, the shield will not work. In some cases, minor distortions can be eliminated using a planer or jointer.
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Combination of elements
An extremely important stage is the combination of blanks by color, texture and pattern. There is no need to rush here; you need to match the bars to each other as accurately as possible. A properly glued board should be an even, uniform color, with a continuous pattern across its entire width. If parallel pattern lines run along one edge of the workpiece, they should also run along the other edge of the product.
In the case when the bars are glued incorrectly, the inverted shield looks like a fence made of individual boards. To prevent this from happening, you must try to choose wood for the product with a straight, rather than curvilinear or oval, grain arrangement. In addition, close attention must be paid to the orientation of growth rings on wood cuts. They are arranged according to two basic principles:
Each wood has its own shade, so it is very important to choose the right color for each panel.
- plots (boards from which furniture panels are made) alternate in the direction of the rings;
- The plots are glued together in such a way that all the rings face the same direction.
In the first case, the surface of the shield after manufacturing has a slightly wavy pattern, reminiscent of numerous deflections. With the second method, the pattern resembles one large deflection. This manufacturing method can be used when working with hard and stable woods, such as cherry.
The orientation of annual rings should also be taken into account when manufacturing furniture for various purposes. So, when assembling countertops that experience light loads and hardly warp, this factor may not be decisive. And when making door panels or massive tables that do not have reinforcing elements, preference should be given to assembly using the method of alternating rings on bars.
After all the elements are matched to each other, they are marked with triangles. This allows you to fold the bars during gluing in the way you intended.
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Preparation and gluing of blanks
In order to properly glue furniture boards, it is necessary to construct a simple device. The main feature of such a device should be its flat surface. Prepare the following materials:
You can use a sander to polish the shield.
- chipboard sheet;
- 4 planks with a height equal to the height of the bars;
- 2 wedges;
- screws or several clamps.
The next stage is assembling the device. Place the chipboard sheet on the table. The strips are installed along the sheet using clamps or self-tapping screws. The prepared slats are laid out between the slats according to the marks made during their sorting. The operating principle of the device is shown in the diagram: image 1.
Then coat each of the sides of the bars in contact with each other with glue. Any glue used for gluing wood elements will do here. It can be PVA or "Joiner". To apply the glue, use a soft brush, but you can carry out the work by spreading the composition with your finger. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that there is enough glue to glue the elements, but not too much.
All surfaces coated with glue are pressed tightly against each other. To fix the future shield, 2 more planks are installed on the edges of the planks perpendicular to them. They can also be secured with clamps or screws. The strips protect elements coated with glue from bending and deformation.
For tighter contact, the bars can be pressed against each other with wedges. Wedges are driven under the planks until drops of glue appear between the workpieces. This is the first sign that sufficient pressure is being applied to the workpieces for high-quality gluing. The shield should be left in this position for no more than 1 hour. Then it is taken out and dried for 24 hours.
