For custom furniture, panels should be one of the most important parts. The quality of a board can be defined from four attributes: static zone strength, water expansion rate, formaldehyde emission, and screw holding force. Why are these four attributes important? Next, I will explain it in detail for you:
1. Static bending strength
What is static bending strength? To sum up in one sentence: static bending strength is an important attribute that determines whether your cabinet will bend or even break during future use.
The static bending strength of the board is related to the original material. Generally speaking, the physical properties of the wood grown in the alpine forest area are more stable. If the tree age and growth period are too short, the static bending strength value will be low, so the best tree age is about 15-30 years. In addition, the production process can also have an important impact on the static bending strength of the plate. A reasonable process can make the structure of the plate stable and not easy to warp and deform.
Of course, in fact, the deformation of the laminates of the cabinet is not only related to the static bending strength, but also related to the span of the laminates. In order to pursue the so-called effect, some consumers ask the designer to make the span of some cabinet laminates particularly large. What kind of board is likely to be bent in the future.
The span of the bookcase in this effect picture will definitely bend in actual use. The picture comes from the Internet, and it is invaded and deleted.
2. Water expansion rate
I believe everyone can also know from the literal meaning that this attribute means that your cabinet is "whether it is moisture-proof or not".
But here we must correct a point of view, no matter what type, brand, or craft, any plate is afraid of water! ! !
If you want a cabinet that is not afraid of blisters, there are two ways to do it, one is brick/cement, and the other is an integral stainless steel cabinet!
Therefore, for the board, moisture resistance is actually just to ensure that it will not swell and deform in the case of a relatively large air moisture content in the kitchen (there may be a small amount of water in the sink cabinet), which will affect the force balance of the countertop and the nail holding force of the hinge. This is not only related to the water expansion rate of the board, but also related to the edge banding process after the board is cut.
It is recommended that you pay attention to two points when buying cabinets:
Whether the plates used in the cabinets meet the national standard for water absorption expansion rate (less than 8%); roughly look at the edge banding process of the cabinet brand sample cabinet you bought: observe whether the edge banding is smooth, whether there is glue overflow, whether it falls off, etc.