When youre choosing your residence hall furniture and deciding on the specs, youll inevitably choose what materials you want.
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Should it be totally solid wood, including the top? Or should you get solid wood or plywood substrates with laminate tops, or all laminate?
Whatever the selection, your furniture is probably going to include edge banding. Why?
Because its an important part of the construction. And depending on where we use it in the cabinet, it improves the longevity of your furniture.
In this short guidepart of our Nuts & Bolts Series for operational and facilities leadersyoull learn some of the basics of edge banding.
So lets start at the beginning. What is edge banding?
Its actually kind of simple, and the video below will help you understand it even better, but this is a simple overview to get you started.
Heres the basic non-technical idea.
Plywood, particle board, and other manufactured wood cores like MDF have rough, unfinished, unprotected, and generally unsightly edges.
To account for that, some clever folks developed technologies that allow you to glue different bands of glossy finished material to those rough edges to match the tops and sides.
Those narrow bands or strips are called edging tape, and they range in thickness from 0.018-inch to 5mm thick and come in 250 ft rolls.
The thicker edging is used in high traffic and commercial environments because it provides greater resilience and impact resistance. For example, the military requires a thicker solid wood edge banding for maximum impact resistance.
And edge banders are the industrial grade machines that apply the edging tape to the raw edges of the wood panels with a hot-melt adhesive or glue.
Edge banding serves both functional and aesthetic purposes.
Functionally, edge bands perform some key duties for your furniture. First, they keeps moisture out serving as de facto seals on the edge of the core material. Second, edge banding improves durability and resilience by providing impact resistance. If youre using solid wood edging, it can also add to the overall strength of the furniture.
Aesthetically, edge banding covers up unsightly rough edges and creates a glossy finish to match your tops and sides. You can also create radial edges to soften sharp angles.
Where can you expect to find edge banding in your furniture? That depends on your overall material specification.
A solid wood product wont include any edge banding, except where we cant use solid wood. Wardrobe doors, for example, are made of veneer core plywood or MDF.
And even when we use solid wood for case sides and drawer fronts, many customers still use high pressure laminate tops. Those tops need edge banding.
If youre using plywood or laminate as your material specification, that needs edge banding too.
DCI uses edge banding in places you might not expect, like plywood bed decks. Why? Because a fully sealed deck prevents bed bugs. You can read more about bed bug mitigation here.
DCI doesnt use edge banding on cabinet backs or drawer bottoms because they are already embedded (sealed) in dato grooves. Likewise we dont edge band internal plywood drawer parts because it doesnt add value.
You should note that some manufactures dont use edge banding where they shouldlike on the bottom and back edges of plywood cabinets. Thats a problem because moisture, even small amounts, can destroy unsealed furniture.
What are the edging tapes made from? There are different materials, and well just focus on a few here.
1. PVC is the most popular material for edge banding on case good tops. Pros: Its inexpensive, durable, and boasts a long life. It doesnt require any finishing process. Its also easy, albeit tedious, to repair. Cons: You cant recycle it. It doesnt biodegrade. Once its blemished, you cant refinish it. (NB: ABSAcrylonitrile Butadiene Styreneis an eco-friendly alternative to PVC because its both recyclable and safe to incinerate.)
When it comes to PVC, we recommend 3mm edging in general because it goes on cleaner, quicker, and with better adhesion. Another advantage is that you get a graceful radius and a nice soft-looking finish. In general, we avoid .5mm edging because the corners tend to be too sharp.
2. Solid Wood is still a favorite for case good tops in many woodworking camps. Its durable, recyclable, easy to fix and refinish, strong, stiff, and economical.
Benefits: its more resistant to chipping than veneer edge tape. Solid wood glues are more reliable and less prone to peeling than veneer and PVC. It provides additional dimensional support to plywood and mdf. Climate neutral manufacturing. Cons: Difficult to use for curves.
We offer solid wood edge banding for tops in a range of thicknesses. And you can apply it internally or externally.
When it comes to solid wood we recommend 9.5mm on case good tops.
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As we explain below, at DCI, we believe the best way to apply wood edge banding is internally with a HPL top. Why? Because in our experience, its incredibly durable and never requires additional service.
3. Wood Veneer is the most common edge banding material for plywood cabinet sides, drawer fronts, and MDF wardrobe doors. Its made from thin slices of woodtypically oak, maple, ash, walnut, birch, and mahoganythat are joined together in a roll using finger jointing.
It usually features a heat-sensitive glue backing. And it comes in a range of thicknesses, so its important to use the right one depending on the application.
Pros: Its attractive, durable, and strong. It provides a clean solid-wood look, and its pre-sanded to absorb stains and finishes and seamlessly match your wood. Cons: Its not heat resistant. Avoid putting it near a heater. It doesnt do well in high-use environments.
According to RA Learning Center, there are at least four methods of applying edge banding. There are a lot of things to say about each of these but for now, heres a simple list of application methods and mediums.
Theres no doubt, edge banding is essential to most campus and dorm furniture. When applied improperly, or used incorrectly in critical components, its a huge maintenance issue.
One issue you might find in furniture that has edge banding is that it peels. Why?
Sometimes, for different reasons, the adhesive can fail. When that happens, the edge banding will start to peel away from the edge.
Peeling can also happen because of rough use. For example, .5mm edging doesnt provide much resistance to impact. Therefore you dont want to use it on the front end of a case side. If you do, your edging might start to peel.
If your furniture starts to peel, we can fix it. Just reach out to your local DCI account rep, and well take care of it for you.
Generally speaking, we recommend PVC edge banding for projects where budget is the first and driving priority. That is not to say there is anything wrong with this material. There are just fewer steps in the manufacturing process and the raw material is less expensive.
Solid wood edge banding is more expensive because its labor intensive and the material is higher quality. And with more steps involved in the manufacturing process, we consider this a premium solution. As we alluded to above, internal solid wood edge banding with HPL tops are probably our strongest and most durable solution.
We choose to use a hot melt glue for our adhesive solution because its user friendly and provides a great seal. We apply the glue to the edge while its still hot and then apply the banding, pressing it to the side.
Ambient temperature plays an important role in the edge banding process. We need to regulate the temperature of both the building and our materials. In essence, we need a warm environment for the optimal adhesion process. It cant be cold in the building.
And finally, you need a good clean glue edge for the process to work. At DCI, we have state of the art machinery that improves the glue edge and squares it up perfectly.
Its our responsibility to edge band correctly. But you should know, there are still choices youll need to make when evaluating edge banding options.
Those choices can feel daunting if you dont live and breathe this stuff like we do. Our experts will help you navigate your edge banding options to ensure you get the right product for your project.
Our goal is to help you understand the process and give you confidence that our products are designed based on years of manufacturing experience and time-tested performance in the field.
Here is a stripped down version of edge banding. Of course, when building furniture for Higher Education and Military customers, we do this on an industrial scale. But this video will help you visualize the process in its simplest form.
If you enjoyed this article, you can check out the full Nuts & Bolts Series here.
Professional & Detailed Introduction of Edge Banding Steps
Customer Feedback: Edge Banding Machine Working Video in Mexico
The edge banding quality is closely related to the quality of panel furniture such as cabinets, wardrobes, and bathroom cabinets. The edge banding quality not only affects the service life of the furniture, but also affects the furniture aesthetics. Therefore, the edge banding machine has been urgently needed by many advanced panel processing enterprises. Furniture manufacturers are flocking to upgrade their edge banding machines to improve the final quality of furniture. Today, I will share with you some useful knowledge of the edge banding machine from the following aspects! The edge bander can band the board to protect and beautify the furniture. It will prevent the volatilization of formaldehyde inside the board. So it plays an important role in protecting customers healthy life and furniture anti-corrosion. The edge banding machine can effectively prevent the board from getting damp. It reduces the glue and deformation of the board after it gets wet. It strengthen the board from the side to make it difficult to crack and increase the quality and stability of the furniture.The CNC edge banding machine replaces the traditional manual edge banding with a highly automated mechanical method. And it has main functions including pre-milling, gluing, end trimming, rough trimming, fine trimming, scraping, buffing, and slotting. It is mainly used in the production of panel furniture and solid wood products.Using the double milling cutters to re-modify the corrugated marks, burrs, or non-vertical phenomena caused by the nesting CNC router or panel saw to achieve a better edge banding effect. Thus it makes a closer bonding between the edge banding and the board. Moreover, the integrity and aesthetics are better.Through the special structure, the glue on both sides of the edge-banding material can be evenly applied to ensure stronger adhesion.Adopting the precise linear guide rail, the automatic profile tracking function, and the high-frequency motor, which can ensure a even and smooth cutting surface.The rough trimming cutter can deal with the excess parts when banding the veneer edges. Because you cannot use the R-shaped cutter (usually used in the fine trimming process) when banding the veneer. Otherwise, it is easy to cause breakage.And the veneer is generally 0.4mm thick. In addition, rough trimming can also be used for the first trimming process when banding edges of PVC and acrylic materials.The fine trimming cutter is R-shaped. It is mainly used for PVC and acrylic edge banding of panel furniture, preferably with a thickness of 0.8mm or more.This function can eliminate the ripple marks caused by the non-linear cutting. So that the upper and lower parts of the processed plate become much smoother and tidier.Clean the processed plate with a cotton polishing wheel. And then polish the end surface of the edge banding to make it smoother.It is used for direct slotting of wardrobe side panels and bottom panels, as well as the aluminum edge of door panels. And it is more convenient and quicker to reduce the process of panel sawing.The following is the whole edge banding process of Blue Elephant E-70JDRS automatic edge banding machine. You can watch the specific edge banding process for reference.The manual edge banding machine is suitable for edge banding of various non-metal materials, such as melamine-urea-formaldehyde impregnated bond paper, wood veneer, plastic (PVC or ABS), etc. It can be do well in straight line and arc irregular edge banding. The manual woodworking edge banding machine has the following advantages: streamlined, light, high quality, and economical price. The manual wood edge banding machine can change the workplace at will. Furthermore, it is suitable for special-shaped and curved edge banding in the decoration industry and large processing plants.The semi-automatic edge banding machine is fitful for linear edge banding of medium density fiberboard, block board, and particle board. And it can complete the automatic production line of conveying edge banding, belt feeding, upper and lower edge milling, and polishing at one time. Its main performance has reached or even surpassed the similar domestic edge banding machine. At the same time, the machine price is affordable. Therefore, the semi-auto edge banding machine is popular among the CNC manufacturers of panel furniture.The fully automatic edge banding machine can realize the linear edge banding of medium density fiberboard, block board, solid wood board, particle board, high-gloss door panel, plywood, etc. Moreover, it has multiple functions in one machine, such as rough trimming, fine trimming, scraping, buffing, etc. And it can make delicate, smooth, and straight edge banding. The automatic edge banding equipment is stable, reliable and durable, and the price is moderate. Thus it is especially suitable for manufacturers in large and medium-sized furniture industry.In addition, Blue Elephant automatic edge bander has 3 main series: E50 model, E60 model, and E70 model. Among them, the E50 edge bander is the most economical, while the E70 series is more multi-functional and high-end. To get a brief information of Blue Elephant auto edge bander for sale, please look at the attached table below.Notice: "J" means "premilling", "D" means "double gluepots", "S" means "double buffing", and "R" means "upper gluepot".When doing furniture edge banding by hand, the human improper operation often cause a lot of glue leakage. However, using a fully automatic edge banding machine for sale, there will be no glue leakage at all. It not only saves a lot of raw materials, but also improves the quality of edge banding of furniture.Manual edge banding often results in glue spilling everywhere, which is very unaesthetic and difficult to clean. However, the fully automatic edge banding machine can be cleaned while running, which not only saves time, facilitates cleaning, but also improves the efficiency and quality of edge banding. At the same time, it will not affect the production of the panel furniture production line.Using a fully automatic edge banding machine for furniture edge banding will not be affected by human. And there are very few machine failures, which greatly improves the efficiency of furniture edge banding.Fully auto edge banding machine doesn't require band edges and dissolve the glue at the same time. Therefore, you has no worry about the aging of the glue due to the untimely glue removal. And no bad edge banding quality will be produced for its fast sol speed.Blue Elephant CNC Machinery can provide customers with the edge bander with different glue pot, such as upper glue pot, bottom glue pot, and double glue pots. But whats the difference between the upper glue pot and the bottom glue pot? How can I choose the best suitable glue pot for my best edge banding machine?1. The bottom glue pot needs to be preheated for 30 minutes. While the upper glue pot can quickly sol the glue in five minutes, saving more time.2. Quantitative glue output from the up glue pot can ensure the very small sealed glue line.3. The glue in the upper glue pot flows from top to bottom without repeated heating. So the glue will not oxidize or turn yellow and black.4. Before replacing the glue, the upper glue pot does not need to be disassembled for cleaning, which is convenient for cleaning.5. The upper glue pot is equipped with a storage bin, which can melt glue as much as needed.6. The gluing shaft of the upper glue pot has a finer texture, which is more suitable for door edge banding.Many customized furniture customers found that the furniture were fine in the first few years. But after five or more years, the plastic edge banding of the cabinet board began to fall off, which was terrible. At the moment, many customers may think that it must be the profiteer who bought the poor board. Is it really caused by bad boards? Not really. Mostly because these boards are almost all edge-sealed with EVA hot melt adhesive. Because EVA hot melt adhesive is greatly affected by temperature, especially when the air conditioner is turned on in winter and summer. Thus, it will directly cause thermal expansion and contraction of the cabinet edge banding. Over time, the home panel furniture will be in contact with the water vapor in the air for a long time, which will eventually lead to the above bad situation. However, the updated PUR edge banding has avoided this terrible phenomenon.First, PUR adhesive is a solvent-free adhesive that does not require a drying process. At the same time, PUR is tasteless and will not cause environmental pollution or poisoning. Europe has started to use PUR many years ago, which is a kind of green environmental protection product. Second, PUR is easy to operate, no need to dry, improves work efficiency, and saves time. Third, PUR has excellent heat resistance, cold resistance, water vapor resistance, chemical resistance, and solvent resistance. Due to the irreversible characteristics of PUR glue once reacted (that is, it will not melt when heated again), the wire board covered by it can remain stable at -40°C to 150°C. And the product quality is more stable, which is more suitable for processing export products. From this point of view, the gap between PUR edge banding and EVA edge banding is clear at a glance. By the way, Blue Elephant usually provides PUR glue pot, unless the customer has other specific requests of the used glue.The edge banding machine price will be quite different affected by several factors, such as costs, brands, machine sizes, components, production difficulty, etc. In general, Blue Elephant will provide customers at home and aboard with the most affordable edge banding machine price. For example, the manual edge banding machine price has a low budget starting from $600. The semi-auto edge banding machine has the price range from $3,000 to $5,000. And the automatic edge banding machine priced from $6,000 to $18,000. Some high-end and custom automatic edge bander can reach the price up to more than $20,000.Exquisite edge banding technology is an important factor to ensure the quality of panel furniture. Excellent edge banding not only strictly controls the color difference, makes the edges and corners invisible, and keeps the furniture uniform and beautiful; but also ensure the environmental protection and health of the home environment. Therefore, how to improve the edge banding quality has become an urgent issue that many consumers pay close attention to. In fact, the quality of edge banding is affected by many factors. Paying attention to and making changes from the following aspects will greatly improve the effect of furniture edge banding.Temperature is an important factor in edge banding processing. When banding the edge, the indoor temperature should be kept above 15°C. Avoid placing edge banding equipment near vents or workshop doors. Because the temperature is too low, the hot melt adhesive cools too fast, and the edge sealing effect is poor. In addition, the environment around the edge banding machine should be kept as clean as possible, debris, oil and other dirt will reduce the quality of edge banding.Pay attention to the sawing process before edge banding to avoid problems such as chipping, tearing, rough sawing, and uneven sawing. At the same time, the substrate should be kept at room temperature for at least 24 hours before edge sealing. The shape of the special-shaped workpiece should be designed reasonably, and the edge banding material must be correctly matched with the bending radius of the special-shaped workpiece.Increase the functional configuration of the edge banding equipment, such as the fine milling device, to improve the visual effect of the edge banding seam; the cleaning scraper removes the adhesive layer bonded to the edge banding seam area; the cleaning device removes the residual adhesive and other dirt, so that The seam surface of edge banding is clean and beautiful.Control the amount of glue applied. According to different substrates, edge banding materials and different process conditions, it is ideal to control the amount of glue applied at 150~250g/. If it is too large, there will be a black line at the edge banding, which will affect the appearance; if it is too small, the bonding strength will not be enough. At the same time, the feed rate of the workpiece must be adapted to the speed required by the hot melt adhesive used.If a thick edge banding belt is used for edge sealing, the tension of the pressing roller of the edge banding machine should be adjusted to the best position. In addition, when the edge banding is thick, the flexibility will be insufficient, so it is necessary to ensure the normal operation of the preheating device. If there is no preheating device, the edge banding can also be softened by heating with a hair dryer. This method is especially suitable for curved edge banding.The type, viscosity, density, softening point, and use temperature of the edge banding glue will all affect the edge banding effect. Generally speaking, PUR edge banding is better than EVA edge banding.Blue Elephant CNC Machinery is one of the best brand of edge banding machines. We have cooperated with customers from more than 180+ countries and regions. And we received a lot of positive feedback from those kind customers, such as machine working video, machine processing samples, and machine packing pictures. Here, I will take the double glupot automatic edge banding machine in Mexico for example.As early as March this year, a Mexican customer purchased our latest automatic edge banding machine with double gluepots. Although this is the first time we have cooperated with each other, and it is also the first time for customers to purchase CNC automatic edge banding machines from abroad. But considering our company's R&D strength and after-sales service, as well as our professional sales advice, he still chose Blue Elephant edge banding machine.When the machine was successfully delivered to Mexico, the customer couldn't wait to share the joy with us. He sent us a message from , saying that the machine was very complete when it was sent to his factory. And there was no problem in machine packing and shipping. The first time they unpacked the machine and tested the operation of the machine, the machine worked fine. At the same time, he also sent us a machine processing video.He said that our edge banding machine gave them great support in their banding work and greatly improved their work efficiency. And he looks forward to working with us again. We are very pleased that our customer is satisfied with our edge banding machine. So we send congratulations to the customer and promise to reply online 24 hours a day if he has any questions. The Mexican customer appreciated us very much and told us that he would recommend us to more of his peers. We express our sincere thanks to him. At the same time, I also hope that the Blue Elephant edge banding machine can bring more users a perfect experience.In order to avoid problems with the edge banding equipment, we need to do a good job in the maintenance when using it. Doing a good job in the maintenance of the automatic edge banding machine can help us improve processing efficiency and reduce maintenance costs. So do you know how to maintain edge banding machines? Next, Blue Elephant CNC will give you a detailed summary.It is essential to clean up sawdust and various plastic debris during the production process of the edge banding machine! It can effectively prevent many problems caused by the accumulation of sawdust and dust, such as machine jamming and cylinder inflexible operating. In addition, some stains on the machine surface should be cleaned in time to prevent harmful acidic or alkaline oily substances from causing corrosion to the edge bander machine.The bearings of each part of the edge banding machine should be lubricated regularly. Especially in winter, when adding lubricating oil to the cylinder or bearing, do not use oil with high viscosity. Otherwise, it is easy to get dusty, and it will also affect the normal use of the edge banding machine.Regularly check the wear of the gears, chains, saw blades, bearings, scrapers, pressure rollers and other parts of the edge banding machine. Then replace severely damaged parts in time! In addition, check whether the oil quantity in the reducer is appropriate every half a month. And the guide rails should be cleaned every other week.Check whether there are impurities in the glue tank. Try not to mix different brands of glue. If you need to change another glue, please clean the glue tank first. By the way, pay attention that the glue brand is not equal to the glue color.Check whether the oil-water separator of the edge bander for sale is short of oil or has water inside. The oil-water separator should be filled with low-viscosity engine oil or gear oil. If conditions permit, please add special oil for pneumatic components. Just go to three-fifths of the oil cup!After reading this article, do you have deeper understanding and know more about the edge banding machines? If you want to know more about edge banding machines, you can pay more attention to our website. And next, we will write more different blogs about many other woodworking machines for sale. Hoping to help everyone.
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