Panels & Furniture March/April 2022

FURNITURE MANUFACTURING
Choosing the right
edgebanding technology
in a volatile furniture market
By Dun Deng, senior technical engineer manager, Henkel China
Photo: Henkel
In every manufacturing process, there is the
potential to improve and refine processes in
pursuit of greater efficiencies or better product
qualities. New technology will emerge that
promises to deliver these gains, but early
adopters often end up paying the premium for
investing before solutions are economically
available at scale. Often, the high costs of
being early to invest means that first movers
fail to profit from moving first. And this is
precisely the challenge facing furniture makers
when considering the rapid evolution of
edgebanding.
For an industry heavily reliant on conventional
hot melt adhesive edgebanding, technology
changes pose questions as to whether to adopt
new methods and where to invest. On one
hand, technology advances with polyurethane
reactive (PUR) hot melt adhesives are making
conventional approaches even better and
more cost-effective. On the other, the industry
has seen alternative methods emerge like laser
edgebanding, which uses specialist laser banding
machines to melt adhesives on special edging.
The advantage of laser edgebanding is its
ability to create fine joins, which in some cases
can provide a visual impression of higher
quality. While manufacturers may present
their customers with promises as to the quality
of their materials and the longevity and,
increasingly, the sustainability of their products,
these first impressions can have a major impact
on consumers. Does this perceived quality
advantage mean that manufacturers should
invest in laser edgebanding instead? Perhaps
not — especially as the costs of being an early
adopter can be prohibitive.
Today, the high capital expenditure required
to invest in laser banding machinery means
that for most manufacturers, there may be a
risk in investing in different technology. The
advantages of being first to market must be
weighed against the high cost and whether any
capex spend can be recovered through better
sales or premium product pricing. It is also a
risk to assume that any investment in expensive
plant machinery will not be superseded by
superior solutions that make a return on
investment less likely. In the highly competitive
and volatile market for furniture manufacturing,
these are tough decisions to ponder.
EVOLVING TRADITIONAL EDGEBANDING
These questions of cost and risk explain why
more conventional edgebanding with hot melt
adhesive still dominates the market. However,
a major reason is that there has been exciting
progress in this area too. Thanks to continuous
progress in edgebanding processes, equipment
precision, adhesives and edging materials,
50 Panels & Furniture Asia | March / April 2022