OCCASION This publication has been made available to the public on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. DISCLAIMER This document has been produced without formal United Nations editing. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, or its economic system or degree of development. Designations such as “developed”, “industrialized” and “developing” are intended for statistical convenience and do not necessarily express a judgment about the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process. Mention of firm names or commercial products does not constitute an endorsement by UNIDO. FAIR USE POLICY Any part of this publication may be quoted and referenced for educational and research purposes without additional permission from UNIDO. However, those who make use of quoting and referencing this publication are requested to follow the Fair Use Policy of giving due credit to UNIDO. CONTACT Please contact [email protected] for further information concerning UNIDO publications. For more information about UNIDO, please visit us at www.unido.org UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION Vienna International Centre, P.O. Box 300, 1400 Vienna, Austria Tel: (+43-1) 26026-0 · www.unido.org · [email protected] I 1 jO / ) \}jxi5 UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION MANUAL ON UPHOLSTERY TECHNOLOGY J).P. UNITED NATIONS \ UNITfcD NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION V ICIllld MANUAL ON UPHOLSTERY TECHNOLOGY m UNITED NATIONS 1 Explanatory notes The following abbreviations nave been used in this manual BSI British Standards Institution FIRA Furniture Industry Research Association N newton PVC polyvinyl chloride swg standard wire gauge Mention of firm names and commercial products does not imply the endorsement of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). 1 Preface Upholstered furniture, in one form or another, is found at all levels of society, and its demand has generated the specialist upholstery factory within the furniture industry. However, in most developing countries, upholstery is still carried out by individual craftsmen employed in a multiplicity of tiny workshops similar to those in the tailoring trades. Because of the low level of investment required to convert such workshops into industrial enterprises and the high labour intensity of the work, the industrial production of upholstery could become export oriented for those countries that ha"e access to appropriate designs and raw materials. In recent years, many technical developments have taken place in the production of upholstery in developed countries. The aim of this manual is to familiarize producers of this type of furniture in developing countries with these new techniques. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author, Desmond P. Cody, a free-lance industrial consultant to the furniture industry. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the secretariat of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). v t $■ a- CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION .......................................................... 1 Chapter I. UPHOLSTERY WORK - TRADITIONAL AND MODERN ....................... 3 Upholstery frar.es . ............................................. 4 Moulded plastic shells .......................................... 5 Metal frames ................................................ ... 6 II. UPHOLSTERY MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES ............................ 7 Suspension systems .............................................. 7 Cushioning ...................................................... 12 III. UPHOLSTERY FABRICS .............................................. 19 Wb’'en fabrics ................................................... 19 Knitted fabrics .................................................. 20 Coated fabrics ............. >................................... 20 Polyurethane ................................................... 21 Leather ......................................................... 21 Decc-ative trimmings ............................................ 22 Underlays ....................................................... 22 Assessing the suitability of fabrics ........................... 23 IV. PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY - METHODS ANT EQUIPMENT ................... 24 Fabric inspection, handling andstorage ......................... 24 Fabric laying, marking, cutting and sorting ..................... 26 Sewing .......................................................... 32 Quilting and buttoning .......................................... 39 Upholstery assembly ............................................. 45 Upholstery of moulded chair shells ............................. 51 Materials handling .............................................. 51 V. FACTORY DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT .................................. 54 Factory planning and layout ..................................... 54 Production planning and control ................................ 60 The small upholstery production unit ............................ 60 VI. PROCESSING OF FLEXIBLE FOAMS ................................... 66 Slabstock flexible urethane foam ................................ 66 Moulded flexible urethane fcam ................................ 68 Moulded high resilient flexible urethane foam (cold cure) ..... 68 Properties of foam .............................................. 68 vii 1 Annexes Page I. Performance tests for furniture for seating: easy chairs and settees ........................................... 71 II. List of documents of British origin containing methods of test applicable to upholstered furniture and upholstery materials .......................................................... 83 Bibliography ............................................................. 85 Tables 1. Applications recommended for each class of urethane foam ........... 16 2. Seat, back and arm tests: number of applications and test loading - easy chairs andsettees ................................... 72 3. Drop and diagonal base load tests: number of applications and test loading - easy chairs and settees ....................... 73 Figures 1. Tradition'! upholstery .............................................. 3 2. Modern upholstery ................................................... 3 3. Wooden upholstery frame ............................................. 4 4. Sectional side elevation of frame with particle-board \ides ......... 4 5. Expanded polystyrene chair shells with hessian reinforcement ........ 5 6. Moulded ureti.ane chair shells ....................................... 5 7. Metal frame chair and stool ......................................... 6 8. Coil springs ........................................................ 7 9. Spring unit ...................................................... 7 10. Methods of fixing tension springs ................................. 8 11. Rubber webbing ............................... 9 12. Methods of fixing rubber webbing ................................... 10 13- Resilient webbing used in easy chairs ............................... 11 14. Serpentine or "no-sag" springing ................................... 11 15. Four-point resilient platform ...................................... 12 16. Example of platform support ........................................ 12 17. Modern upholstery construction .......................... 13 13. Nor.-reversible latex cushion ....................................... 13 19. Cavity sheet latex .. ............................................... 14 20. Pin core cavity latex ............................................... 14 21. Plain sheet .......................................................... 14 22. Hand-building a reversible cushion .................................. 1 h viii Page C. 3 . n u r C“ iu i iv xx ........ ............................................................. ': 24. Fibre-fill cushion wit!, urethane foam core ....................... 17 25- Fixed storage for rolls of covering fabric ....................... 25 26. Mobile storage and transport for fabric 'oils ..................... 26 27. Cutting table for upholstery fabrics ............................. 27 28. Mobile overhead cloth spreader ................................... 28 29- Machine for laying and cutting off cloth ......................... 29 30. Pattern perforator .......................................... .... 30 31. Rotary-blade cutting machine ...................................... 31 32. Straight-knife fabric cutter ...................................... 31 33. Mobile cable suspension system .. ................................ 32 34. Standard sewing machine for upholstery fabrics ................... 34 35. Standard sewing-machine station layout (sewing stati n) ......... 37 36. Schematic layout for cutting and sewing department .............. 38 37. Quilting uiachines ................................................. 40 38. Buttoning systems ................................................. 41 39- Button-covering machine ........................................... 42 40. Manual buttoning machine ............................ ............. 43 41. Semi-mechanized buttoning