The History of Furniture Construction
Wood-Based Materials
Wood, as the basic construction material in furniture, has found widespread use in designed elements: decorative, turned, curved, beam and board. However, surface elements, such as worktops of tables, shelves, partitions and side walls of bodies, require the use of higher quality materials and dimensional stability. For these reasons, in the furniture industry, it is common to use wood-based materials that provide freedom in forming surface shapes, greater stability of thickness than wood and higher material efficiency. The most frequently used wood-based materials in the furniture industry include:
Table 4.3 Resilient properties of wood (Hearmon 1948, Bodig and Goodman 1973)
Wood property
|
Wood species
|
Oak
|
Beech
|
Ash
|
Pine
|
Alder
|
Density of wood (g/cm3)
|
0.60
|
0.75
|
0.67
|
0.55
|
0.38
|
|
Linear elasticity module (GPa)
El
|
16.21
|
13.96
|
15.78
|
16.60
|
10.42
|
Er
|
12.02
|
22.84
|
15.09
|
11.17
|
0.809
|
Et
|
0.626
|
1.160
|
0.799
|
0.583
|
0.355
|
|
Shear elasticity module (GPa)
Glt
|
0.698
|
1.082
|
0.889
|
0.693
|
0.313
|
Glr
|
0.842
|
1.645
|
1.337
|
1.181
|
0.632
|
Grt
|
0.311
|
0.471
|
0.471
|
0.070
|
0.144
|
|
Poisson’s ratio
ULR
|
0.360
|
0.450
|
0.460
|
0.420
|
0.440
|
ULT
|
0.330
|
0.510
|
0.510
|
0.510
|
0.560
|
Vrt
|
0.780
|
0.750
|
0.710
|
0.680
|
0.570
|
Vrr
|
0.370
|
0.360
|
0.360
|
0.310
|
0.290
|
Vrl
|
0.060
|
0.075
|
0.051
|
0.038
|
0.031
|
UTL
|
0.030
|
0.044
|
0.030
|
0.015
|
0.013
|
|
• boards bonded from strips and panels,
• carpentry and honeycomb boards,
• chipboards,
• fibreboards and
• plywood.
Flat L-type joints are used to connect beam elements at an angle. In regard to the value of the slant angle of adjoining elements, we distinguish perpendicular flat L-type joints …
4.6.2.1 Frontal Parallel Joints Frontal parallel joints are used to increase the length of beam elements. They are commonly used in the production of upholstery frames, strips of furniture boards, …
Due to the ease of realisation and in most cases the possibility of disconnecting the elements, mechanical connectors are widely used in furniture practice (Fig. 4.29). Staples, like nails, allow …