Design criteria for mass produced furniture.

Modular design approach enables product variety by mass produced standard modules. (Availability of wide range of
design and size is very important in mass production)
System concept depends on function & place of use.
Standard dimensional system-furniture are produced in parts and therefore these parts should used in the family of
furnitures.
Continuity in design for each furniture or in the family of furniture helps in mass production.
Availability of material and material property becomes critical in mass production.
Mass produced furnitures are machine made. Availability of machinery becomes an important design criterion.
Flexibility in dismantling and assembling should be considered while designing.
Materials used in mass production
What designers need to understand?
Designers need to understand why one material is better or more appropriate than another for given situation.
Should be informed about the newest materials and have a working knowledge of material properties.
Material contributes significantly to the structural integrity, comfort and aesthetics of furniture.
Considering the properties and characteristics of materials in the conception of design focuses the designers thinking
upon the limits and constraints of materials, which ironically opens the door to creative design ideas.
Materials research focuses upon environmental issues, physical properties, health related concerns and performance
related characteristics.
Digital technology and new materials have an enormous potential to influence the field of furniture design.
What are the material properties the furniture designers need to consider?
Material properties are important to consider when selecting material for furniture.
Characteristics of material to be considered
1. Absorptive quality
2. Cellular structure
3. Compressive & Tensile strength
4. Density
5. Dimensional change
6. Ductility
7. Elasticity
8. Expandability
9. Stability
10. Surface quality
11. VOC content
12. Workability influence
Materials for Mass production of furnitures in India.

Indian plywood firms are switching to eco-friendly, cheaper variants like particle boards and fibre boards,
anticipating rising demand for mass-produced furniture.

Modern mass-produced bedroom and sofa sets use particle board and medium density fibre boards (MDF)
while local carpenters almost exclusively use plywood boarding.

Particle board is a constructional panel made from low-grade waste wood

or from plants and shrubs with woody stems.

MDF is made from refined wood or vegetable fibre.

Demand for mass produced furniture is growing in India as disposable incomes rise and a booming service
sector necessitates setting up and up gradation of offices.

In plywood, wood recovery is 60 percent.

In MDF and particle board, it is 90 percent.

Wood recovery is the amount of wood that comes out from the raw material.

The manufacturing cost for a sheet of MDF is also 40 percent lesser than that of plywood, while particle
boards costs about 55-60 percent less.

Material
Medium-density fiberboard (MDF) is an engineered wood product formed by breaking down softwood into wood
fibers.
Combining it with wax and a resin binder, and forming panels by applying high temperature and pressure.
It is made up of separated fibers.
But can be used as a building material similar in application to plywood.
It is much denser than normal particle board.

There are different kinds of MDF, which are sometimes labeled by colour:

Moisture resistant is typically green

Fire retardant MDF is typically red or pink

Another addition to the MDF range is a product named FX-Platform, produced by Norbord. It is a softwood plywood
core, laminated on both sides with MDF, giving it working properties containing the advantages of both plywood and
MDF.
Plywood is a type of engineered board made from thin sheets of wood, called plies or wood veneers.
The layers are glued together, each with its grain at right angles to adjacent layers for greater strength.
There are usually an odd number of plies, as the symmetry makes the board less prone to warping, and the grain on
the outside surfaces runs in the same direction.
The plies are bonded under heat and pressure with strong adhesives, usually phenol formaldehyde resin, making
plywood a type of composite material. Plywood is sometimes called the original engineered wood.
Types of plywood.
Softwood plywood is usually made either of Douglas fir or spruce, pine, and fir (collectively known as Spruce-pine-fir),
and is typically used for construction and industrial purposes.
Hardwood plywood is used for some demanding end use. Birch plywood is characterised by its excellent strength,
stiffness and resistance to creep. It has a high planar shear strength and impact resistance, which make it especially
suitable for heavy-duty floor and wall structures. Oriented plywood construction has a high wheel carrying capacity.
Birch plywood has excellent surface hardness, damage and wears resistance.

Decorative plywood is usually faced with hardwood, including red oak, birch, maple, lauan (Philippine mahogany) and
a large number of other hardwoods.
High-strength plywood, known as aircraft plywood, is made from mahogany and/or birch, and uses adhesives with
increased resistance to heat and humidity.
Marine plywood is specially treated to resist rotting in a high-moisture environment. Marine plywood is frequently used
in the construction of docks and boats. It is much more expensive than standard plywood.
Other types of plywoods are fire retardant, moisture resistant, sign grade, pressure treated, and of course the
hardwood and softwood plywoods. Each of these products is designed to fill a need in industry.
Veneer refers to thin slices of wood, usually thinner than 3 mm (1/8 inch) that are typically glued onto core
panels
Fabric
Fabric is a generic name given to natural and synthetic textiles.
Fabric refers to any material made through weaving, knitting, crocheting, or bonding.
These materials come from four main sources: animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic.
Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides and skins of animals, primarily cattle hide.
The leather manufacturing process is divided into three fundamental sub-processes: preparatory stages, tanning and
crusting. All true leathers will undergo these sub-processes. A further sub-process, surface coating can be added into
the leather process sequence but not all leathers receive surface treatment.
Glass
Stained Glasses
The stained glass is widely used as window panes and in doors for commercial as well as residential applications.
Glass Furniture
Glass is one of the oldest man-made materials. Modern glass is approximately 75 percent silica with lime, sodium,
lead, boron or iron added to achieve different properties.
Glass is available in many different qualities and types.
Annealed glass is formed by pouring molten glass into an iron plate covered with sand.
Float glass is produced by pouring molten tin surface.
Glass can be blown, cast, rolled, pressed, slumped and tempered. Glass is joined by glaze bonding, clamping, or by
using silicones, adhesives and epoxies.
Stained glass is used in case goods and casework for its color, texture and ambient quality.
Enamel is finely powdered silica, colored with metallic oxide and suspended in an oil medium for ease of application
with a brush.
Tempered glass is float glass that is heated above 600c and then rapidly cooled with forced drafts of air. This process
cools the glass surface below its annealing point, causing it to harden and contract, while the inner portion of the glass
remains free to flow for a short time. The final contraction of the inner layer induces compressive stresses in the
surface of the glass balanced by tensile stresses in the body of the glass. Observing the glass with polarized light can
reveal the pattern of cooling. The tempering process places tension in the glass, making it six times as strong as
annealed glass. Tempered glass is sometimes incorrectly referred as safety glass, which is glass laminated with
plastic, as in automobile wind shields.
A recently developed technique to strengthen glass uses a heat bonded transparent plastic film between two identical
plates of glass. This chemical tempering process produces glass that is three times stronger than that produced by
traditional tempering.

Metal
Aluminum is a relatively soft, lightweight metal that can be cast in sand, rolled, extruded, forged and drawn. Difficult to
weld.
EXCEPTIONAL material for outdoor use because its outermost layer converts to aluminum oxide when exposed to air
giving aluminum a nearly transparent layer that resist further corrosion.
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc that produces a soft yellow metal. Brass is two-thirds copper and one-third zinc. It
can be filled, sawn, drilled, bent and braised.
Excellent material for locks, hinges and decorative elements because it is resistant to corrosion.
Steel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content.
Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as
manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten.
Steel furniture comprises chairs, tables, cabinets, racks, sofa sets, etc. They are required for domestic purposes,
offices, factories and in almost all places. Due to growth of population and living conditions, the requirement of steel
furniture is also increasing.
Steel is galvanized with thin coat of zinc to minimize oxidation but makes the working process very difficult. The
manufacturing process of steel furnitures involves mainly cutting of sheets, tubes,
flats to desired size, folding, bending, drilling, punching, riveting and assembling as per the drawings. Finally, the items
are to be spray painted.
Plastics
Plastics include a vast assortment of polymers used to mass-produce an enormous number of furnishings.
Plastics are unique in the number of ways they can be shaped, formed, textured and colored.
Plastics have been made possible by their unique forming characteristics and offer excellent electrical, thermal, tensile
and insulation properties.
Plastics are made from polymers, which are chemical compounds composed of long molecules made up of chains of
small, repeated units .polymers are rarely used.
Additives are used to enhance the appearance, improve the strength, and change the characteristics of various
plastics.
Glass fibers can be used to strengthen plastic.
Polymeric products can be molded into shape, are considered aesthetically pleasing and have some low density and a
low coefficient of friction.
Some plastic have excellent corrosion and impact resistance.
Thermosetting plastics
The first category has relatively short chains of molecules that are produced in the polymerization process.
This irreversible condition is usually induced by mixing a resin with an activator, which coincides with the molding or
forming of the component into its final shape.
Thermo sets cannot be reformed after they have cured.
Shaping is carried out using traditional wood-or metalworking tools.
Thermo set materials are generally stronger than thermoplastic materials.
are also better suited to high-temperature applications up to the decomposition temperature of the material.

Thermoplastics
Long molecular structure called polymerization.
Thermoplastics soften when heated and regain their rigidity when cooled.
Various thermoforming processes have been developed.
Line bending

Line bending involves heating a thermoplastic sheet material over a strip heater until it becomes soft and then bending
it to the desired angle. The desired angle may be achieved by using a jig or former, or if the angle is not critical, simply
by bending the thermoplastic sheet by hand and holding it until it cools.
Vacuum forming
Vacuum forming- is a simplified version of thermoforming, whereby a sheet of plastic is heated to a forming
temperature, stretched onto or into a single-surface mold, and held against the mold by applying vacuum
between the mold surface and the sheet.
The vacuum forming process can be used to make most product packaging, speaker casings and even car
dashboards. Vacuum forming is used when an unusual shape like a dish or a box-like shape is needed.

Dip coating
Plastic coating is the process of applying a thermoplastic to the surface of metal items to provide long-term corrosion,
impact and chemical resistance whilst offering an attractive decorative finish.
Thermoplastic powders can be coated using either the fluidized bed dip coating process.
Blow molding
Blow molding, also known as blow forming, is a manufacturing process by which hollow plastic parts are formed. It is a
process used to produce hollow objects from thermoplastic.
In general, there are three main types of blow molding: extrusion blow molding, injection blow molding, and stretch
blow molding.
Injection molding

Injection molding is a widely used process in manufacturing. It is a quick way of producing large numbers of identical
components such as plastic trays and safety helmets. The injection mounding machine consists of a heated barrel with
a screw feed mechanism that forces molten polymer into a split mould. The screw melts the polymer as it the turns and
rams it into the mould under very great pressure.
After the plastic component in the mould has cooled and solidified sufficiently, the mould is opened and the
component is ejected.
Types of thermoplastics.
Polyvinyl chloride (pvc)
Polyethylene (pe)
Polypropylene
Polystyrene
Polyurethane
Polycarbonate
Lexan PC
Production technique used for mass production- Machine production.

Helps in significant advances in blending ergonomics, sustainable design concepts, new materials and
complex systems engineering.
Machine production has the ability to repeat the process without deviation in any regards is key to the
economic success of mass-produced design.
Precision tools and CAD machines are used to minimize variances between individual pieces.
The idea that machines can cut punch and assemble with speed and accuracy gives designers the
opportunity to design specifically for these industrial and digital production processes.
The engineering system behind mass produced furnishing employ extensive testing.
Automation & machine fabrication minimize the need for large employees pool trained in craft techniques.