Furniture

There is no question that wood can be used to make beautiful furniture - but when it comes to highly functional office furniture, engineering plastics can do a better, more cost-effective job. Armrests, for instance, can be molded from glass-reinforced polyester products such as Celanex® polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) or Vandar® thermoplastic polyester alloy and overmolded in a two-step process with Riteflex® thermoplastic polyester elastomer (TPE) to provide the desired custom look and feel. The more high-tech chairs that use a tension web for body support can benefit from the elastomer properties of Riteflex TPE. Not just a molding resin, this material can also be used to make heavy elastomer monofilament for the support web

Other standard materials from Ticona offering even higher stiffness combined with light weight are Celstran® long-fiber reinforced thermoplastics (LFRT) based on nylon or polypropylene. These materials are also useful for molding seat frames and for one-piece molded seating such as stadium seats. In the stadium seat application, the engineering resins offer much better durability than wood. For chairs that must be easily mobile, castors can draw on the excellent friction and wear properties of Hostaform® and Celcon® acetal copolymer resins. The acetal copolymers, either in high gloss, scratch resistant, or special low gloss formulations, can also be used in seating surface and armrest applications.

In drawer pulls and door handles, acetal copolymers can be color matched to designer requirements, and inside the cabinet, they can be found in rollers and bearings that provide smoothly operating drawers and doors – and because they do not require lubrication with any oil or grease, they do not become “dirt magnets” as happens with lubricated metal surfaces.