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Young Furniture makers
Industry tour 2017
The Furniture Makers Industry Tour is a great experience that offers an interesting insight into design and manufacture within the companies, as well as offering a trip with like minded design students. Before going I was interested in the process of how a large company starts a brand new design and how they implement this into their production. I was also curious about machinery and
techniques used within the furniture industry.
Day 1 Festool: Tradition is good. Tradition plus Innovation is better.
Our first visit was to Festool. After a short introduction,we got a better understanding of how Festool has become one of the power tool leaders and how it brings quality and innovation to the market. We were guided by the knowledgeable technical trainer Phil Beckley. He showed us the difference between Festool’s own and another edge bander. While using the edge bander, the advantages of flexibility and easy control design of Festool are obvious. Compared to the traditional edge bender, Festool’s one looks neater and feels safer when using it.
The most impressive thing for me is how the Festool brand applied color. When I asked Phil how Festool arranges the green of the buttons, he pointed out that the designers actually arrange the green really carefully. With other products, green buttons are generally only for power switches, whereas Festool’s buttons are for adjusting/instruction, the green buttons not only represent the meaning of the brand but also as the tool’s instructions and bring the user efficiency and safety.
Day2 Harrison Spinks: Comfort from Nature
Harrison Spinks is a great factory to visit. When entering their storage house, the massive mountains of different wool were fascinating.
Unlike the other mattress manufacturers, Harrison Spinks’s mattress wool comes form their own farms, and yet, to ensure the quality of its’ products, the mattress company does not only produce its’ own wool but also provides most of the components for their beds, such as springs and the bed rests.
Most of the company’s ideas are innovative and interesting, such as folding mattresses into small boxes to save the transport space, and double use mattresses designed for babies according to their age.
It’s also interesting that when we walked passed a machine which puts springs into sheets, I saw some springs were not arranged properly and asked our guide how they would deal with this problem. She told us that if the machines just made some small mistakes, the workers will adjust them by hand, but if there is a big mistake, the wrong products will be recycled. From this, I got a better understanding of how this company care for both quality and sustainability.
Day2
CD (UK) Ltd: Make creative vision real
CDUK provided a great insight into the properties and applications of Corian. A very welcoming presentation at the start really got everyone thinking about the potential uses and projects we could create. We were shown the many potential applications of the material from interior design within retail, uses within the medical industry, kitchen design and more product design by various students such as lighting and tiling. We were then shown some of the properties Corian has to offer in person with a strip heated up and shaped, as well as the amazing repair jobs within a counter top. This really showed how seamless a join could be between two Corian pieces if done correctly. It was interesting to know that when a Corian countertop is fitted any offcuts/leftover pieces are saved and made into a chopping board for the owners. This is incase a repair is ever needed the exact material is available to use.
We were then shown a demonstration that involved heating and folding a large section around a former that will go into a bar/nightclub interior. This was great to see how a large piece of the material being worked. Corian were extremely generous with providing free samples for everyone to experiment within our own time, as well as offering a training program for those seriously interested in working with the material for a future project. CDUK explained how they keep their Corian material exclusive. They believe they only want their material used to a high standard. They also said they have a large range of 100 colours which I would like to see extended further. I was very interested in how they cast the material and make the colours/veins within it. They explained this was done in their other factories, I think it would have been great to see footage of this process perhaps in the presentation at the start. Overall, a welcoming and generous visit that I think has inspired a lot of us to work with the material in the future.
Day3
Knightsbridge:
The Knightsbridge furniture tour was very insightful, we were shown each stage of the process from the initial wood they used, through to the shaping of each component and final assembly. I found it particularly interesting to see how their CAD department is on site. When talking to the designers they informed us of their typical working day and how a project is started. It must be incredibly satisfying to go from a digital design to seeing the final finished product out on the factory floor. I was curious how much of their production would be by hand and what would be automated. It was very interesting to see how they achieved these complex shapes through the use of formers and jigs, that allowed for easy repeatability and also created a high quality component. The layout of the building works very well for each stage of production. It was clear to
see the shaping of each component, to assembly through the finishing processes that used large drying conveyor belts that carried each work piece to the next location. The tour through the large factory was very thorough and informative. I did not expect to see their prototyping department where they were developing the practical models of their furniture from various sketches and technical drawings. We saw a lot of handwork especially in the upholstery stage of production, they explained they have a very good apprenticeship scheme at the factory. Everyone was extremely kind and welcoming, the factory tour was amazing to see the initial piece of wood go through each stage and transform into a well designed finished piece of furniture. The manufacturing techniques have really made me think about batch manufacture and how my designs can be made to aid this step in efficiency.
We would like to thank everyone at the Young Furniture Makers Guild as well as the sponsors we were able to visit. The entire trip has been very inspiring for us all. -‐By LuYao Chen and Heath Townsend.