Custom metal furniture craftsmanship
Publish Time:
2024-06-20
Today, we'll delve into the material science of metal furniture.
Metal furniture components are primarily made of metal; some also incorporate wood, upholstery, plastic, and other auxiliary materials. Metals are broadly classified into ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Given their abundance and superior properties, along with their excellent formability, metals are widely used in furniture manufacturing.
Metal surfaces exhibit excellent reflectivity, opacity, and metallic luster, showcasing the metal's inherent color—for example, silver and aluminum are silvery-white, iron is grayish-white, and copper is orange-yellow. They possess superior mechanical properties, including high melting points, strength, rigidity, and toughness. Metals also boast excellent processability, encompassing plastic forming, casting, machining, and welding. Surface treatments are readily applied, allowing for diverse decorative finishes and textures. For instance, precision machining creates various textures; mirror polishing achieves a luxurious look; sandblasting produces a fine-grained texture with a natural, subdued grayish-white appearance; and painting, electroplating, and metallization provide a wide range of colors.
Currently, common metals used in furniture manufacturing include steel, cast iron, copper alloys, and aluminum alloys.
Steel
Steel is an iron-carbon alloy with a carbon content of 0.02% to 2.11% It also contains elements such as silicon, manganese, sulfur, and phosphorus. Based on its chemical composition, it is classified into carbon steel and alloy steel.
Carbon Steel
Also known as carbon steel, its strength and hardness generally increase with carbon content, while ductility, toughness, and weldability decrease.
It is further classified into three types based on carbon content:
Low Carbon Steel With a carbon content of 0.25% or less, it features low strength, high ductility, high toughness, and excellent processability and weldability, making it suitable for manufacturing complex shapes and weldments.
Medium Carbon Steel With a carbon content of 0.25%~0.6% , it possesses moderate strength, ductility, and toughness. Heat treatment enhances its comprehensive mechanical properties, making it suitable for manufacturing high-strength parts like gears and bearings.
High Carbon Steel With a carbon content of With a carbon content above 0.6%
, it exhibits high strength and hardness, good wear resistance, but lower ductility and toughness. It is mainly used for manufacturing tools, cutting tools, springs, and wear-resistant parts.
Alloy Steel 5% Based on carbon steel, with the addition of one or more alloying elements, it possesses superior comprehensive mechanical properties and specific physical and chemical properties. Alloy steels are classified into low-alloy steel (total content 5%~10% ), and high-alloy steel (total content 10% or more). The main base materials for steel are strip steel ( 600mm referred to as narrow strip steel, and 600mm or more is referred to as wide strip steel) and steel plates. The former is processed into various pipes for bending; the latter is processed into bars and plates and stamped into shape according to structural requirements.
Metal furniture often uses high-frequency welded pipes, which are strong, elastic, and easy to bend, facilitating design and joining with other materials. After surface plating or coating, they offer diverse and attractive colors, commonly used as support frames. Common types include round pipes, and popular options include square pipes, rectangular pipes, semi-elliptical pipes, diamond pipes, spindle pipes, fan-shaped pipes, triangular pipes, and various other shaped pipes. The strip steel used for pipes must meet national standards. The thickness of high-frequency welded steel pipes is generally 1~1.5mm , with outer diameters of Φ 13、 Φ 14、 Φ 16、 Φ 18、 Φ 19、 Φ 20、 Φ 22、 Φ 25、 Φ 28、 Φ 32、 Φ 36 (unit: mm ), common ones include Φ 14、 Φ 19、 Φ 22、 Φ 25、 Φ 32、 Φ 36 (unit: mm ). The increasing diameter facilitates the nesting of pipe components in furniture structures. The commonly used thickness of sheet metal in metal furniture is 0.8 ~ 3mm . Sheet metal used for bending or stretching must meet national standards for ordinary carbon structural steel and low-alloy structural steel thin sheets and deep-drawing cold-rolled thin steel sheets.
In metal furniture production, wire mesh is used to make various beds and folding bed springs. The wire mesh used in furniture generally uses 45 steel or higher quality carbon steel, such as 45Mn、65Mn , and the wire diameter is generally Φ 0.8mm; galvanized steel wire on the surface, woven by a wire mesh machine, the wires are spirally intertwined to form a mesh with a certain degree of elasticity; finally, it is edged according to the required width and length. In addition, furniture components can use low-alloy high-strength steel, such as 16Mn , which is adding a small amount of alloying elements to low-carbon steel Mn , so that on the basis of good weldability and better toughness and plasticity, the strength is significantly higher than that of carbon steel with the same carbon content. While ensuring strength, it can reduce the weight of the furniture structure and save steel.
Cast Iron
Cast iron is an iron-carbon alloy with a carbon content of 2.11%~4.0% . It has a low melting point and good casting performance, machinability, wear resistance, and vibration damping. The production process is simple and the cost is low. It can be used to manufacture parts with complex structures and shapes. Commonly used cast iron materials include gray cast iron, malleable cast iron, and ductile cast iron. It is often used in the manufacture of certain furniture parts, such as table legs and bases, which require high pressure resistance and stability.
Copper Alloy
Brass is a copper alloy with zinc as the only or main alloying element. Brass can be divided into pressure-processed brass and cast brass. Brass has excellent deformability and ductility, a golden yellow color similar to gold, and is often used to make furniture decorations. Cast brass can be used to produce artistic furniture or furniture decorations through processes such as pressing. Sn The amount is generally 3% to 14% , containing Sn less than 7% tin bronze, good plasticity, suitable for pressure processing; containing Sn more than 10% tin bronze, low plasticity, high strength, can be used for casting. Tin bronze has a low casting shrinkage rate and is suitable for casting parts with complex shapes and high dimensional accuracy requirements; tin bronze also has good corrosion resistance. Through casting, a simple and elegant shape can be obtained, which can be used in the production of beds.
Aluminum Alloy
Aluminum has excellent properties. Pure aluminum has a low density, approximately 2.7g/cm3 , equivalent to one-third of copper, belonging to light alloy. Melting point 600C . After crystallization, aluminum has a face-centered cubic lattice and high plasticity, allowing for various plastic processing. Pure aluminum is silvery white. Aluminum has a strong affinity for oxygen and can form a dense layer of aluminum oxide film, isolating the air and preventing further oxidation. Therefore, it has good oxidation resistance in the atmosphere. Aluminum alloy is an ideal light metal material for making metal furniture. The furniture made is light, strong, easy to carry, and beautiful in color. Commonly used aluminum alloys include wrought aluminum, rust-proof aluminum, hard aluminum, super hard aluminum, and special aluminum. When selecting materials, it is necessary to select materials or alloys that can withstand heat treatment and have good corrosion resistance and machinability according to the furniture design requirements, to prevent cold cracks and hot cracks during production. Aluminum alloy furniture generally uses AI-Mg-Si series alloy materials, moderate strength, high corrosion resistance, no stress corrosion cracking tendency, and good weldability. Its forms include tubes, plates, profiles, strips, rods, and wires. The aluminum alloy tubes used in furniture manufacturing can be rolled into various shapes according to the requirements of use, structure, and connection, and can be designed and manufactured into ideal outline lines.
Joining Methods and Structure of Metal Furniture
Joining Methods of Metal Furniture
Welding
Can be divided into fusion welding, pressure welding, and brazing. Gas welding and arc welding in fusion welding are often used for joining furniture parts. It has good firmness and stability and is mainly used for parts with high shear force and load.
Riveting
Mainly used for parts that are not suitable for welding, such as light metal materials. This connection method can facilitate processing by first surface treating the parts before assembly. Its strength depends on the material and form of riveting. Since the riveted material undergoes physical deformation, it is difficult to reuse it, so the firmness of riveting is second only to welding, and it is also a fixed connection. Riveting has lower material requirements, and many materials can be used, including different materials, but strong external force is required for processing.
Bolt and Screw Connection
The bolt connection method can also be regarded as a variation of riveting. In addition to the characteristics of riveting, the biggest advantage of bolts is that they can be used multiple times, enabling the disassembly and assembly of components. In addition, it reduces the requirements for the connection process, and only general small or manual tools are needed for connection.
Plug-in
Plug-in is to connect two or more parts together through a plug-in connector. The plug-in connector and parts often use interference fit. Pins are also a common connector, mainly used for parts that are not stressed or under low stress, playing a positioning and assisting connection role. The diameter of the pin can be determined according to the used part and material.
Seaming
Often used for connecting metal thin plates.
Online Message
*We will contact you as soon as possible after receiving your message!
Friendly Links: