This year we’ve been supporting a growing school furniture manufacturer looking to increase production capacity quickly as they continue taking on larger orders with shorter lead-times. In addition, quality is a top priority so they need a manufacturing partner with the skills, machines and excess capacity to deliver a product they're proud to put their name on.
After evaluating the project, our team set to work on a material stocking program which included several colorful edgeband colors, and a high-gloss laminate they would be using on a number of different tops that function as a markerboard for students to draw on. The high-gloss HPL surface can potentially show every scratch, pimple or dimple—so manufacturing quality must be nearly perfect. Fortunately, our team is well versed in working with this type of material and the finished product looks and feels great.

Several of their parts required tricky contour edge banded shapes so before we started we ran test parts to optimize our machines and provide accurate estimates. In addition, we needed to determine the optimal location for the edgeband joints, which as you can see from the photo below, is almost invisible in the final product. You really have to look for it to find it on these parts.

In addition to our ongoing program with this customer, we are providing prototype support as they continue to grow and try new shapes and materials. We look forward to helping them expand as we add new capabilities in 2020. Our PUR laminate line and laser edgebander will serve to make their product look and perform even better, and open up new materials for them to work with.