Bathroom Fixtures as Furniture

High quality products contribute to better bathroom designs that meet current trends
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Sponsored by Duravit USA, Inc.
Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP
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Bathroom Furniture Production

A complete understanding of how to design with and specify bathroom furniture requires and understanding of how the furniture is made or produced. The first thing to take into account is that the manufacturing process typcially includes the use of fully mechanized computer controlled equipment to conduct steps that require precision and repetition. But equally important, is the fact that a great deal of the process of producing every piece is done by hand with a strong focus on craftsmanship. A manufacturer that offers a wide range of choices is actually best able to serve the market by using many hand production techniques. Further, since bathroom furniture is subjected to more wear and tear from a damp surrounding environment compared to elsewhere, every millimeter counts. Accordingly, successful bathroom furniture is necessarily characterized by high precision and careful craftsmanship. For example, a properly defined and executed miter joint significantly increases the stability of the furniture so using precision machinery and skilled craftsmen to produce it become paramount to its long term durability. Quality control and inspections all along the way help insure that the end product is produced as intended, but most manufacturers will follow a similar process to the one outlined below to try to assure quality in the first place.

Panel Preparation

A typical manufacturing facility will receive and store basic furniture materials such as uncut particle board, MDF or plywod panels, in an appropriate storage area. If the panels are already laminated, then they are stored by color, pattern, or other defining characteristics. Once a bathroom furniture order is received with the selection and specification details defined, the needed panels are identified and often tagged with a bar code. The selected panels are then moved and processed by computer controlled machinery passing from storage on rollers that keep them flat and align them for latitudinal and longitudinal panel cutting. This results in the pieces being cut to precise uniform sizes that will fit together to create tops, sides, or other parts of the selected furniture.

Since the edges of these panels are critically important to the long term performance of the furniture, the newly cut panels are next processed to receive edge trims that are shock resistant and long lasting, all in a color and profile consistent with the furniture style. If real wood veneer is being used, then the trim will likely be real wood as well. If a decor veneer is being used, then the trim could be acrylic or ABS platic in an appropriate color or pattern. In either case, the panel edges are trimmed by machine and prepared as appropriate to receive the trim material. The selected trim comes from a roll and is fed alongside the prepared edge of the panel. Then, with heat and oxygen the adhesive gets liquefied forming a full surface connection between the wooden panel and the trim. Once the adhesive is dry, then the panel edges are sealed completely around their perimeter.

Other machining actions take place as needed to completely prepare the panel for assembly. These include cutting, milling, and drilling the panels to accomodate various furniture and hardware needs. For example, slots could be milled for fixing hardware or handles. Openings could be cut out of a vanity top panel to receive a washbasin. Corners could be precision mitered or holes could be drilled where needed for specific attachment and assembly requirements.

After the machining processes are completed, the prepared panels are now components of furniture such as body, fronts and cover panels. However, before moving further, they are typically inspected and treated by hand. These hand processes might include finishing work such as smoothing or grinding edges, removing any residual glue, size checking, repair or plugging as needed, etc. Once everything is deemed to be finished properly, then they can get moved to an intermediate storage area to wait for assembly. Now the production flow gets separated. Depending on the product, it will either get assembled along a line production process or a cell process.

Although many tasks are mechanized in bathroom furniture production, the majority of the finishing and detail work requires attention by hand from craftsmen.

Photo courtesy of Duravit USA, Inc.

 

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Originally published in March 2013

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