Common office furniture panels are mainly divided into three categories: wood-based panels, solid wood, and solid wood veneer.
Compared with high price solid wood and wood veneer, the wood-based panels are more competitive which are usually made into the structure of staff desk, executive desk, and cabinet, etc. Wood-Based Panels can be divided into fiberboard, particleboard, blockboard, plywood, and melamine board.
Here are some introductions of Wood Based Panel.
What’s a Wood Based Panel?
Wood-based panels are made of wood or other non-wood plants as raw materials, which are separated into various unit materials by certain mechanical processing, and then glued with or without adhesives and other additives to form panels or molded products.
Advantages and disadvantages of wood-based panels:
Compared with sawn timber, the advantages of wood-based panels are large format, good structure, convenient construction; low expansion and contraction rate, stable dimensions, uniform material than sawn wood, not easy to deform and crack; veneers and various types of wood-based panels used as raw materials for wood-based panels Crushed material is easy to impregnate, so it can be used for various functional treatments (such as flame retardant, anti-corrosion, shrinkage resistance, abrasion resistance, etc.); a wide range of thickness and density levels are applicable; bending performance is better than sawn timber. The disadvantage of wood-based panels is that the adhesive layer will age, the long-term load-bearing capacity is poor, the service life is much shorter than that of sawn timber, and the bending and tensile strength are inferior to sawn timber. Due to the increasing shortage of wood, wood-based panels are used to replace many traditional uses of sawn timber, and their output is also increasing rapidly.
Classification of wood-based panels:
A. Particleboard
Particleboard is also called particleboard, particleboard, bagasse board. It is made of wood or other lignocellulosic materials. After applying adhesive, it is glued under heat and pressure. It is also called particleboard.
Advantage
1) The structure is relatively uniform and the processing performance is good. It can be processed into large-format plates according to the needs. It is a good raw material for making furniture of different specifications and styles.
(2) Because it does not need to be dried again, it has good sound absorption, sound insulation, and heat insulation properties.
(3) The inside is a granular cross-scattered structure, the performance of each direction is basically the same, and the lateral bearing capacity is good;
(4) The surface is flat, the texture is realistic, the bulk density is uniform, the thickness error is small, the pollution resistance, the aging resistance, and the beautiful, can be used for various veneers;
(5) In the production process of particleboard, the amount of glue used is small, and the environmental protection coefficient is relatively high.
Shortcoming
(1) The inside is a granular structure, which is not easy to mill;
(2) Particleboard has a large volume, and furniture made of it is also heavier than other boards.
(3) It is easy to cause tooth-breaking phenomenon when cutting boards, so some processes have higher requirements on processing equipment; it is not suitable for on-site production;
(4) The quality of particleboard on the market is uneven, and the environmental protection of inferior particleboard is very poor. The formaldehyde content exceeds the standard seriously, but with the country’s emphasis on environmental protection, the environmental protection of high-quality particleboard has been guaranteed.
B. Fiberboard
Fiberboard, also known as density board, is a man-made board made of wood fiber or other vegetable fiber as raw material and applied with urea-formaldehyde resin or other suitable adhesives. Adhesives or other additives can be applied during the manufacturing process.
According to its density, fiberboard can be divided into high-density fiberboard (density>0.8/per cubic centimeter), medium-density fiberboard (0.5g/per cubic centimeter≤density≤0.8g/per cubic centimeter), low-density fiberboard (density<0.5 Grams per cubic centimeter). High-density fiberboard is difficult to process due to its high density, and it is easy to burst when nailing and installing accessories; while low-density fiberboard has a low density and large gaps between wood fibers, which is easy to absorb water and expand, causing the surface covering to fall off and even the board to disintegrate. People use less in office furniture. The medium-density fiberboard (also called “medium-density board”, “medium-density fiberboard”, and “MDF” in the long term) has a smooth surface, fine internal structure, good processing effect, and strong resistance to deformation and bearing capacity. In addition, the board has a strong nail-holding ability and can be disassembled many times, making it the first choice for medium and high-end office furniture.
Advantage:
(1) Fiberboard is easy to be painted, and all kinds of paints and paints can be applied evenly. It is the first choice for the paint effect.
(2) All kinds of wood veneer, adhesive paper film, veneer, light metal sheet, melamine board, and other materials can be glued on the surface of the fiberboard.
(3) Hard density board can be made into sound-absorbing board after punching and drilling, which can be used in architectural decoration engineering.
(4) Excellent physical properties, smooth and flat surface, fine material, stable performance, firm edges, easy modeling, avoiding decay, moth-eaten and other problems.
Shortcoming:
(1) The biggest disadvantage of fiberboard is that it is not moisture-proof and swells when exposed to water.
(2) The long-term load-bearing deformation of the fiber is larger than that of the homogeneous solid wood particleboard.
(3) Density boards have poor nail-holding strength. Because the dense fibers are very broken, the nail-holding strength of density boards is much worse than that of solid wood boards and particle boards.
C. Plywood
Plywood is a three-layer or multi-layer board-like material made of wood pieces that are peeled into veneer or sliced into veneer from wooden squares and then glued with adhesive. Usually, odd-numbered veneers are used and adjacent layers of veneers are used. The fiber direction is perpendicular to each other and glued together.
advantage:
(1) Lightweight, clear lines, insulation, high strength, and not easy to deform.
(2) The construction is convenient, not suitable for warping, and the transverse grain has good tensile mechanical properties.
(3) Plywood can improve the utilization rate of wood and is the main way to save wood.
shortcoming:
(1) Generally, the cost is high.
(2) The plywood is not as smooth and clean as the MDF surface. When the plywood is used as the base layer, and the fireproof board, aluminum-plastic board and other decorative panels are glued on the surface, it is not as firm as the MDF as the base layer.
D. Melamine board
Melamine board, melamine board for short, prefers to be called ecological board in the industry, full name is melamine impregnated adhesive film paper veneer wood-based board. It is to soak the paper with different colors or textures in melamine resin adhesive, then dry to a certain degree of curing, and pave it on the surface of particleboard, moisture-proof board, medium-density fiberboard, plywood, blackboard, or other hard fiberboards, Decorative panels made by hot pressing.
advantage:
(1) The price is economical, which is an important reason why the melamine board is widely used.
(2) Compared with other wood boards, melamine boards can be drawn with any pattern, and the variety of colors adds a lot of vitality to the home or office.
(3) Because the double-sided expansion coefficient of the plate is the same, the hardness is large, it is not easy to be deformed, and the compression resistance is strong.
(4) It has good chemical resistance and can resist the abrasion of solvents such as acid, alkali, grease and alcohol.