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United States Department of Meeting the Solid Wood Needs Agriculture Northeastern Forest of the Furniture and Cabinet Experiment Station Industries: Standard-size Forest Service Research Hardwood Blanks Paper NE-494 by Philip A. Araman 1982 Charles J. Gatchell Hugh W. Reynolds The Authors Abstract Philip A. Araman received a Standard-size, kiln-dried hard- B.S. degree in wood science and wood blanks (panels) of specified technology from North Carolina lengths, widths, thicknesses, and State University in 1968 and an M.S. qualities can be used instead of degree in forest products from Vir- lumber to produce rough dimension ginia Polytechnic Institute and State furniture parts. Standard sizes were University in 1975. A research forest determined by analyzing thousands products technologist at the North- of part requirements from 20 eastern Forest Experiment Station’s furniture and 12 kitchen cabinet Forestry Sciences Laboratory at companies. The International Wood- Princeton j West Virginia, he is cur- working Machinery and Furniture rently engaged in research on utili- Supply Fair-USA collected the data zation of low-grade hardwoods. and supported the analysis. Recom- mended blank sizes and examples Charles J. Gatchell received a of rough dimension parts for furni- B.S. degree in forestry from the Uni- ture and cabinets made from blanks versity of Massachusetts in 1955 are included. and an M.S. degree in wood- products engineering from the New Manuscript received for York State College of Forestry at publication 24 April 1981 Syracuse University in 1961. From 1961 to 1965 he was a project sci- entist in the product and process development project at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. He is now project leader of the Research Work Unit for Utili- zation of Low-Grade Hardwoods at the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station’s Forestry Sciences Labora- tory at Princeton, West Virginia. Hugh W. Reynolds received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1950. His engineering experience in- cludes work in mining, heavy equip- ment manufacturing, and design of specialized research equipment. He did research work in drying of soft- woods on the West Coast before joining the drying group at the For- est Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. For the past 16 years he has been working at the North- eastern Forest Experiment Station's Forestry Sciences Laboratory at Princeton, West Virginia Introduction kitchen cabinets. Because of the facturer’s Association (1961) with large number of different items in a one exception: Cl F and C2F (clear The actual needs for parts by furniture style grouping (beds, one face and clear two faces) were the furniture and kitchen cabinet in- dressers, tables, chairs, etc. made combined into a single clear grade. dustries have never been completely with the same primary species and The breakdown between Cl F and known. The multiplicity of products one basic style) and the large num- C2F can be made available upon re- within and among firms has made ber of different styles made by a quest. strict definition impossible. Each single company, data were collected firm believes it is unique, but dif- only on those styles that were in The sound frame grade of the ferent pieces of similar furniture greatest demand. The furniture com- upholstered furniture and recliner have about the same sizes and panies provided specific information manufacturers is the same as the shapes. Knowing the qualities and on rough parts requirements for the sound interior grade of the case quantities, sizes and shapes, of the most frequently produced pieces of goods and cabinet makers. For con- parts used to make these similar bedroom, dining room, and living venience, we have included both pieces would allow more efficient room furniture. Along with length terms. use of wood resources. and width data, the manufacturers provided information on lumber The grades and their definitions To determine the overall needs thickness, parts grade or quality, are as follows: of the industry, we worked with data and number of rough pieces per ar- compiled from a sample of major ticle. On the average, 37 pieces of C/ear–Cl F and C2F. furniture and kitchen cabinet com- furniture were reported on per group panies by the International Wood- (or suite) by 13 companies. Data CIF (clear one face) —This material working Machinery and Furniture were collected on 25 groups of shall be clear on one face, both Supply Fair-USA (The Louisville furniture. edges, and both ends, and shall Fair). Twenty furniture makers and otherwise comply with the clear- 12 kitchen cabinet makers provided In similar fashion, five manu- two-faces quality, except that the re- data for the analysis. Parts informa- facturers of upholstered furniture verse face may contain defects of tion was collected for (1) solid furni- supplied data on an average of 22 sound quality. ture, (2) veneered furniture, (3) up- different pieces each. Three manu- holstered furniture, (4) recliners, and facturers of recliners provided in- C2F (clear two faces) —This material (5) kitchen cabinets. formation on about 20 recliner shall be clear on both faces, the frames each. edges, and the ends, except that Thousands of individual part sapwood, slight streaks, and small sizes were analyzed and grouped by The 12 kitchen cabinet makers burls or swirls and light stain shall length, width, thickness, and quali- were able to provide almost total be permitted. ty. We used this information to de- information on their lines. informa- velop a new “standard blank” con- tion included the rough size and Core —This material shall be sound cept. Kiln-dried blanks of standard quality for each part as well as the on both faces admitting tight sound sizes can be manufactured from part type (such as parts for doors, knots, small worm holes, slight sur- low-grade lumber and small- drawers, or frames). face checks, or their equivalent. diameter low-grade logs. These standard blanks can then be pro- Sound interior— This material may cessed into the individual parts de- Method of analysis contain any defects that will not ma- sired by any manufacturer with only terially impair the strength of the in- small end-trim losses. There may be Because the sizes of the dif- dividual piece for the use intended. other uses for the data, but simple ferent segments of the furniture in- knowledge of what is needed will dustry are not precisely known, data Sound frame— Same as sound in- make processing more efficient all were separated by product type: terior. the way back to the tree. solid wood furniture, veneered furni- ture, upholstered furniture, re- A major question was how to cliners, and kitchen cabinets. Within sort the data into meaningful length Determining Product Part product type classifications,’ parts and width groups that reflected the Requirements were separated according to their actual needs of the industry. Com- quality and dimensions (length, puter analysis showed that there Parts requirements survey width, and thickness). was a greater demand for certain nominal lengths than for others. For data collection, we divided The names given grades of Grouping by arbitrary equal-length our cooperators along major prod- parts sometimes differ among dif- increments would not reflect this uct lines: (1) furniture or case goods ferent product types. We used the demand. Further, a great percentage (solid and veneered); (2) upholstered grade definitions developed by the of the needed parts were less than furniture and recliners; and (3) Hardwood Dimension Manu- 36 inches long. 1 Consequently, we decided to about 80 percent of the area of It is important to understand let the needs of the industries dic- parts in solid wood furniture (Table how these data can and cannot be tate the length groupings thus: if 1) are in thicknesses of 5/4 or used. They provide an accurate from within a length classification, thinner, and at least 80 percent of it picture of the demands for parts say 33.01 to 38 inches long, we were is in the clear grades. within a segment of the industry to manufacture all the needed (solid wood furniture, for example). lengths from stock that was 38 The veneered wood furniture However, determining the relative inches long, there would be a cer- summary (Table 8) shows a greater sizes of various segments (solid tain amount of end-trim loss. The variability in part quality than that wood furniture versus kitchen length categories in this report re- for solid wood furniture (Table 1). cabinets, for example) is beyond the flect an average end-trim loss of no Core grade makes up almost 30 scope of this study. Therefore, more than 10 percent. That is, all percent of the total; sound grade requirements cannot be summed parts for each thickness and quality another 10 percent. Most of the across segments. classification could be made from remaining 60 percent is in the clear stock of the maximum length in grades. Clear grades comprise at The information in Tables 1 each length grouping with no more least 80 percent of the needs in the through 36 can help suppliers than an average 10 percent end-trim solid wood product, and at least 57 decide whether their particular loss. To this 10 percent rule we percent of the veneer wood circumstances make supplying added the constraint that length furniture requirements. The clear more than one product type groups had to be at least 2 inches grade percentage for veneer wood manufacturer desirable. For apart. And we hoped each group furniture should increase as more example, a supplier whose raw would contain around 10 percent of and more composite panels are material mix contains a lot of low- the part needs.

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