How to select office furniture.

• The most popular material for office furniture production is wood chipboard, which has different thicknesses, classes, facing methods.

You can estimate the quality of chipboard personally. Thirst of all pay Your attention to wood plate thickness. The optimal thickness for the furniture production is about 18 mm. This value provides the necessary stiffness of construction. It doesn’t spring and holds great weight.

You should watch out if the thickness of chipboard is less than 18 mm: on one hand, the product will have a less cost, on other side – quality will also be less, and first of all - physical and mechanical characteristics. That is fully unacceptable for the office furniture. During exploitation office furniture is exposed to heavy duties. That’s why it should be more durable. And durability directly depends on endurance of chipboard used in production.

Some furniture manufacturers use thin chipboard when produce all parts of furniture. Finally the furniture face loses its attraction. And that is the half of the story. Such furniture will not survive after multiple reinstallations, it will be deformed soon under the weight of relatively light items. By the way, present-day european producers practically don’t use chipboard 16 mm thick. And that’s why all qualitative foreign furnishing is designed for board 18 mm thick. That is common european standard in office furniture producing, which the leader russian manufacturers are geared to. In case of back walls of cabinets are made from laminated chipboard with 18 mm thick, the end items have a high duty resistance and provide a multiple installation possibility.

• The second thing You should pay Your attention is the way of wood plate facing. Though chipboard is often faced by paper-tar coats for water resisting and additional durability, different technologies are used. The laminated plate is listed as the most reliable and as the most qualitative, because while processing the laminate is shrinked in the plate under pressure and high temperature, becoming inherent part of the plate. Qualitative laminated surface makes the furniture practically non-sensitive for external factors – high temperature, wetness and strong light.

Backed plate yields to laminated in quality, as far as coat is glued onto it and may exfoliate. It’s possible that in time blisters will appear near splices under moisture attack.  And the coat may lose the color under the sun rays and hot items, putted on. As result the satisfaction of cup of hot coffee, You have drunk at the backed table, will bring emotional stress concerning the face of the table.  Also defective plate may be under the backing – with irregular external layer and large flake. Furniture made from such plate will have corresponding face.

If You are at a loss to determine the type of plate You see – backed or laminated, just ask shop assistant. Producer, who respects himself and his clients, doesn’t conceal information about the materials of each part of product. But unfair companies “forget” to notice this theme speaking to client or in their promotional materials and dealer aids. If You are not successful in accessing to full material information, You should refuse purchasing furniture of this producer.

• At last, another one important characteristics of chipboard quality – ecological compatibility. As far as poor material may be a source of allergic reaction and poses potential hazard, only materials with low content of hazardous substance are acceptable for office furniture production. The “hazard” of material is defined by the quantity of formaldehyde allocating into atmosphere. The plate with class of emission E1 is listed as the safety. 100 g of such plate contain not above 10 mg of vacant formaldehyde. The substance evolved with this class of emission is absolutely harmless for health. Such plate is accepted for use even in child furniture production.

• Summary we can conclude that laminated chipboard with 18 mm thick with class of emission E1 is optimal for office furniture production.