Today’s consumer demands more from their furniture than ever before.  From kitchens and bathrooms to offices and commercial furnishings, manufacturers often find themselves walking a tightrope between form and function, design and affordability, or even between aesthetics and compliance.

Adhesive innovation has an important role in helping woodworkers to bridge these gaps, achieving ever-more-technical performance from the most natural of all construction materials.  In doing so, they can save valuable time and money, while helping their products to stand out in the marketplace, gaining an advantage over the competition.

Here's a look at five ways adhesive can help furniture manufacturers achieve complex design and construction with less cost and less hassle.

1. Heat & water resistance

Consumers today expect kitchen and bathroom furniture to be able to withstand the pace of modern living.   Demand for very sleek, modern design means that laminates are often used to achieve the desired durability and aesthetic – and that means selecting adhesives with a high degree of heat and moisture resistance.  Hot melt adhesives used to be the go-to product, but next-gen spray adhesives like our L19 are cutting out much of the associated time, mess and effort while allowing joiners to produce laminated wood surfaces that can easily withstand years of use in the kitchen or bathroom.

tensorglobal.com/uk/products/tensorgrip-l19-high-performance-laminate-edging-adhesive

2. Composite surfaces

Marble, granite and stone are some of the finest surface materials known to man, but they are also expensive, with a hefty carbon footprint.  Synthetic, laminated and composite work surfaces offer a more sustainable and affordable alternative, but require flawless workmanship and durability in order to compete with their solid counterparts.  Many composite worktops – such as Corian – are created using a mixture of real stone and an acrylic-based polymer which can be damaged or discoloured by the solvents in some adhesives.  We’ve worked closely with many leading manufacturers including Corian, Westag and Formica to develop adhesives, like the L42, that are fully compatible with these and many other products in the marketplace.

tensorglobal.com/uk/products/tensorgrip-l42-solid-surface-flexible-contact-adhesive

3. Wood buildups & reinforcing

Attaching multiple layers of timber together to achieve a thicker board may be required for aesthetic reasons, or to make the finished piece stronger.  Either way, joiners often shy away from using adhesive due to the mess and the need for clamping to ensure the layers don’t slide around while curing.  As a result, they have to deal with nail or screw holes that take longer to install and can affect the ultimate finish. With adhesives like the TensorGrip L16N, there’s no need to worry – it delivers immediate, high strength bonds even on thick substrate bonds with no need for additional fixings and no need to clamp.

tensorglobal.com/uk/products/tensorgrip-l16n-gp-board-build-adhesive

4. Curves

Getting timber to create curves used to be a mind-boggling feat of steaming, bending and clamping that went on for days – until flexi-ply came along and made curved surfaces a possibility even in commercial furniture manufacturing!  But even flexi-ply can be a pain, because you need to clamp the curve as you go – or do you?  Our L12 adhesive has to be seen to be believed – think immediate, tight curves created without the need for clamps or machinery, allowing you to create innovative designs with ease.

tensorglobal.com/uk/products/tensorgrip-l12-the-ultimate-web-spray-contact-adhesive

5. Vinyls and fabrics

Commercial furniture design often includes the use of vinyl, rubber or fabrics in the finishing phase, and choosing the wrong adhesive at this stage can cost you big in terms of time – not to mention reputation if your bonds fail after the product has left the workshop.  The plasticisers that make vinyls and other rubbery fabrics flexible can migrate into the adhesive, turning it into a gooey, tacky mess – so it’s vital to select a plasticiser resistant formulation, such as our L71, if you want your bonds to last.

tensorglobal.com/uk/products/tensorgrip-l71-plasticiser-resistant-vinyl-spray-adhesive

TensorGrip offers a complete range of adhesives for a wide array of joinery and commercial furniture manufacturing tasks.  To find out more, or to locate your nearest stockist, get in touch!