The office furniture industry is continually asking the architecture and design community, “How can we better meet your needs?” The answers they receive reflect the demands of today’s office furnishings market. Some of the requests seem on the surface to be contradictory. Customers want both versatility and consistency. They want high quality furniture that makes an impact as well as functional pieces that stay within budget. It is increasingly important to the market that furnishings are created in a way that does not destroy the outdoor environment or pollute the indoor environment. And clients want exceptional customer solutions combined with immediate access to world-class design and manufacturing. The evolution of office furnishings has been spurred by the materials used to build the pieces. Advances in composite panel technology not only meet the needs of the market, but also facilitate a broader range of design possibilities. This allows for more freedom of design in terms of product performance, functionality, visual appeal, environmental considerations and cost effectiveness. Large office furnishing manufacturers know the wisdom of giving consumers what they want. For 50 years Kimball Office has been producing office furnishings. Sandy Horton, Director of Product Line Management for Kimball Office, acknowledges Kimball Office’s heritage in traditional wood but points out that the ability to better serve the varied needs of the client stems from offering choices. “Integration of different materials, including laminates, particleboard, medium density fiberboard (MDF) and thermally fused melamine (TFM), is becoming a much bigger part of our offering for applications and integration,” says Horton. “We are constantly looking for new options and new materials that can better serve the market needs. I think the marketplace has seen the evolution of Kimball Office over the past.”

Performance

The foundation of office furniture design is the material used for the pieces. Increasingly, furniture designers and manufacturers are using particleboard and medium density fiberboard (MDF) for the structural support of a design. Particleboard is made from a layer of uniform woodchips sandwiched between two layers of specially screened fine wood particles held together with adhesive, making an excellent substrate. The production of MDF involves refining wood chips into individual fibers that are then mixed with adhesive and pressed into a homogeneous panel. MDF is visually pleasing and can be used as an alternative to solid wood. Both of these products are extremely consistent, so furniture designers and manufacturers know exactly what they are getting and how it will perform in production. In addition, homogeneous materials such as MDF are easy to work with, which expands the design possibilities exponentially. This allows for fully customizable office solutions. The multitude of companies producing composite panels benefits the customer in two ways. First, many resources have been put into the development of high quality composite products. Particleboard and MDF are very sophisticated in their conception and are engineered for performance. Rigorous testing for weight capacity, flexibility, screw holding, workability and durability are done to ensure superior performance in highly demanding office applications. Second, the materials are readily available to manufacturers, providing a logistical advantage to office designers. It does not matter how great a company’s design or marketing is if they are not able to procure materials fast enough to complete orders.

Functionality

A wide range of composite panel sizes and thicknesses is available for use in office furnishings. Depending on the design, core materials can be easily machined to meet the needs of almost any office project. Consider the vast differences in specifying materials for credenzas, files, tabletops, hanging millwork and workstations. In office furniture applications a large degree of “material strategy” in design can be accomplished by using different dimensions of the same composite materials. Along with the desirable characteristics inherent in the materials themselves, composites are easily machined with grooved fits reflecting the cutting edge of joining technology. For all these reasons, the use of particleboard and MDF simplifies design logistics as well as the actual construction of the furniture piece.

Visual Appeal

But it has to look nice too. Visual appeal is a huge factor in any purchasing decision. For all their amazing versatility and performance attributes, particleboard and MDF typically form the substrate in office furniture and are usually covered with some type of decorative surface. Those decorative surfaces are what the consumer sees, and they are what adds the beauty, fashion and excitement to the finished product design. It is here that composite panels can offer the options, both in style and cost, that the office furniture market demands.

Both particleboard and MDF have great surface quality for decorative surfaces and give the office furniture industry the ability to greatly expand the choices they offer their clients. A wide variety of decorative surfaces, including high-end hardwood veneers, thermally fused melamine (TFM), thick or semi-rigid vinyl, liquid or powder coating, metal, laminate veneer and pressed paper can be easily applied to particleboard and MDF. Some designers are even beginning to utilize raw, unsurfaced MDF in their office furniture designs, especially in applications that call for dimensional decoration such as carving. Because of their ability to take treatment well, composite materials are an excellent choice for specialized office environments such as laboratories and medical facilities where it is imperative to have workspaces that are easy to clean and resistant to absorption of chemicals and germs.

Eco-Friendliness

Savvy designers and architects know that by specifying composite panels in their office projects, they are making a choice that is friendly to both the natural environment and the inside office space. Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of the production of particleboard and MDF is the environmentally responsible practice of making very useful materials out of what was once considered waste material. Many producers of particleboard and MDF use 100% recycled materials in their products. Sometimes the choices designers make have a positive environmental impact because of what is not used. This is true in many ways when it comes to specifying composite panels for office furniture. By choosing to use a hardwood veneer over a particleboard core, a designer extends the use of our valuable hardwood resource while achieving the desired look and functionality at a fraction of the cost.

Particleboard and MDF manufacturers are known for creative problem solving and innovative product development. So it should come as no surprise that this industry led the way in addressing office furnishing’s contribution to indoor air quality. In response to increasing knowledge and interest from customers, composite panel manufacturers now offer products with extremely low or no formaldehyde emissions that meet a variety of green or sustainable building requirements. These include the US Green Building Council’s LEED™ standard, Green Globes and the NAHB Model Green Building guidelines. In fact, most manufacturers are certified under the industry Environmentally Preferable Product (EPP) specification for low emissions and 100% recycled content.

The Win-Win-Win-Win

All of the above advances in office furniture production are fundamental to the concept of “value engineering.” Think of it as a win-win-win-win situation for designers, composite panel producers, office furniture manufacturers and customers. Composite panel producers have developed technology that literally turns waste materials into highly desirable and versatile products. These products in turn simplify design by providing designers and architects a consistent, durable, easily machined and readily available medium. In fact, the workability of composite panels has increased design potential dramatically, allowing for new customer solutions that would be logistically difficult and cost prohibitive with alternate materials. This has enabled office furniture manufacturers to offer an enormous range of products to their clients. Within that offering, customers can specify the substrate and surface materials to create an office solution with the visual impact and product performance they need within the budget they can afford. And, because of the versatility of composite panel materials, furniture manufacturers are able to seamlessly match surfaces across product lines to create a consistent style throughout a project.

When architects and designers talk, the furniture manufacturing industry listens. Cutting edge composite panel technologies such as particleboard and MDF are increasingly becoming the backbone of office furniture manufacturing because they allow for the freedom of design and quality of materials demanded by the industry. The result is the ability of the office furnishing industry to provide creative custom furniture solutions to customers in a timely and cost effective manner. That is both good business and good for businesses.