What MDF panels can be bent. Manufacturing technology of curved facades

Often during the course of repair work there is a need to obtain curved surfaces of products made of wood. How to bend the board in such a way that the bend is strong and does not crack during the bending process? What if you decide to do overhaul with your own hands, then you should not retreat before such difficulties. In this article, we will talk in detail about how to give wood material curved shape.

How to bend a tree?

No, our task is not at all to bend an innocent plant. It's about wood. building materials. How to bend a tree so that it bends and does not break? Bending method wooden products It has been known since ancient times: to give wood a shape, only heat and moisture are needed, under the influence of which the plasticity of the material increases with all the ensuing consequences. How to bend a tree? Hold him in hot water (the higher the temperature, the faster the processes) or steam ( a steam generator can be built from a kettle or use an iron). The higher the temperature, the faster the wood gives up and you can start bending it. Moistened and heated wood can be bent under the action of the load (the ends of the board are placed on the supports), and the load is placed in the place of the future bend. Dried wood perfectly retains the minimum radius of curvature that was achieved during the bending process. Now we know how to bend a tree, we can dwell on this issue in more detail.

The reaction of wood to external influences

The fact is that wood reacts differently to bending. The convex part is under tension, the concave part is under compression. Moreover, the material also reacts differently to steaming. For example, the ability to compress increases by as much as a third, but to stretch - just a couple percent. That is why it is not worth thinking about how to bend a board more than two centimeters thick at home. It must also be taken into account that different types Woods react differently to bending. For example, such species as oak, larch, maple bend poorly, but beech, ash, walnut - well. So before you think about how to bend the board, decide on the type of wood from which it is made.

How to bend plywood, fiberboard, MDF

At home, plywood is bent by increasing its moisture content, then ironing (an iron is required), and fixing it in a template. Any frame element can serve as a template, and its shape does not have to be curvilinear at all. The product is attached to the template with adhesive tape. Can be clamped bent plywood between two spacers, give it a bent shape due to the ropes, tying the product with them in several places along the radius of curvature. Plywood can only be used after it has dried. It seems that we figured out how to bend plywood - we move on.

How to bend fiberboard? The technique is the same as in the previous case! How to bend MDF? In this case, you can go in two ways: either bend thin sheets (no more than 5 mm) and glue them together, or use flexible MDF, in which there are transverse slots on one side. The thickness of such sheets is usually 8 mm. When bent, they overlap each other with milled sides, after which they are glued together. That, in fact, is all!

How to make curved facades from MDF

For the manufacture of curved facades, we will use two sheets of MDF 9mm thick - one for inside facade, and the other - for the outside. The facade will turn out smooth both from the inside and from the outside.

Just bending an MDF slab under a small radius, and even so that it then remains in this state, will not work. You will have to make cuts on it across the fold.

First we make a template. In my case, the shelves of the future cabinet under the sink served as a template. MDF sheets need to be cut with a margin in length and width: then you can easily cut off the excess, but it’s unlikely that you can add the missing one. Do not forget that the outer radius of the curved facades is larger than the inner one, and therefore the outer blank must be longer.

Find the centers of both workpieces and mark with dashed lines in height on both sides of the workpieces: along these lines we will then combine the workpieces with each other before gluing.

Mark the cuts until your semicircle turns into a straight plane. Each line should recede from one another by 5 mm.

Customize circular saw so as not to cut the slab too deep, and the insufficient depth of cut will make it difficult to bend and the slab can even be broken. The gap should be about 1mm.

Advice: Before you start making cuts on blanks for curved facades, practice on unnecessary MDF trimmings of the required length. Apply markings on them, saw through every 5 millimeters, attach one strip to the template with cuts outward, and the other on top of it with cuts inward.

Now you will know exactly how many cuts to make on each of the blanks before moving from a semicircle to a plane. You will also see that somewhere, it may not be necessary to make cuts every 5mm, and you can cut less often.

When making cuts in blanks, do not throw away sawdust - they will still be needed.

We fill the cuts on both blanks with a paste made from a mixture of wood glue and sawdust. The paste should be of such a consistency that it can easily fill the incisions, but at the same time, not too liquid. We rub the paste into the cuts with a spatula, working along the cut from the center outward so that no air pockets remain.

We dilute the glue with a small amount of water and, wetting the brush with it, pass it over both blanks, smoothing the paste and removing the remnants of sawdust.

We lay the inner blank on the template.

We lay the outer workpiece on top, combining it with the lines drawn in advance in the center of the workpieces.

We nail the workpiece one to another with thin carnations - without fanaticism, so that the carnations can then be easily pulled out. Don't be embarrassed by the fact that holes will remain from the nails: bent facades will then be primed, puttied and painted anyway.

We tighten the entire household with clamps, and leave it to dry completely.

We cut the dried workpiece the way we need it, attach amplifiers to the door for installing fittings, and grind the edges.

That's all, curved MDF facades are ready for finishing.

As you can see, making curved facades is not the fastest and easiest task, but you will have unique furniture that no one else has.

I’ll make a reservation right away that I didn’t come up with the technology for manufacturing curved facades (and I’m not going to assign copyright, but I want to show how I did it based on the materials studied on the forums).

There are 2 main ways of manufacturing these facades.

By bending several layers of thin MDF.

With the help of special MDF (Master Form, Topan form, etc.), which is designed to obtain bent forms.

In the first variant in order to obtain a product of the desired radius, the manufacture of special template frames is required. The radius on the end templates repeats the radius that is needed.
In my case, everything looked like this.

Template frames were made from leftover and waste chipboard.

3.2 mm fiberboard is used as the material for the facade. For getting desired thickness facade, we need cut blanks that are slightly different from the original dimensions (should be a little larger for further processing). We decide how many of them are needed for one facade based on the thickness of the facades, in particular if the standard thickness is 16 mm. then you need 5 pcs. Where the back side of the facade will be located, it is desirable to use fiberboard with a tone-on-tone coating with frames ready cabinets(if you don't want to bother painting the back side).

After cutting, the blanks are cleaned of dust. Then glue is applied to the workpiece (I used KS and MasterKley) and evenly leveled over the entire area with a spatula. Then the next workpiece is laid on top and also smeared with glue. The front and back sides of the facade are not smeared with glue! The resulting “pie” is fixed on a template frame.

Since I did everything without assistants, at first I fixed one side with self-tapping screws to the frame (that's what the allowance was for, which is then cut off), then I folded the entire “pie” and also fixed the other side. Additionally, with an interference fit, everything is wrapped stationery tape(This procedure helps to get rid of the waves formed at the edges.

An even bar fixed at the top along the edges with clamps also helps against waves (not shown in the photographs - this is how the last facades were made).

After complete drying, the workpiece is freed from adhesive tape and self-tapping screws. Further, in order to exclude the process of self-extension, from the back side (if the fiberboard is not laminated. On the laminated one - from the front side. Although anyone likes it.) We fasten the facade with small self-tapping screws, avoiding places where there will be holes for handles, hinges, glass. Naturally, for them it is necessary to countersink a hole in order to drown the hats. Subsequently, these places are puttied. After all the edges are cut with a jigsaw or circular to the required size. The edges are leveled by grinding. In the absence of a belt sander, I sanded sandpaper fixed on a bar. If there are cracks on the edge, not glued voids, they are glued then puttied. We drill holes for handles and hinges. Everything, the product is ready for painting ...

In the second variant the use of template frames is not necessary, since the product can be made directly on site. A special MDF is used here, which has slots with an interval of approximately 5 mm. on the one hand, and a smooth structure on the other. The essence of the technology is as follows: the blanks are applied to the template or fixed in place with the milled sides inward and glued together. The thickness of such MDF, as a rule, is 8 mm. and when gluing two sheets, 16 mm is obtained. After drying, the product is cut to size; the ends (horizontal) are puttied if necessary. Further, the same as in the first method.

In the next article, we will reveal the secret of the "Painted facades" technology, i.e. coloring MDF facades glossy enamels.

Currently, curved MDF facades for kitchens, bedrooms and other furniture items have become increasingly popular. Rounded shapes allow you to get new design solutions and create a harmonious completeness of the interior furniture architecture.

How to bend mdf

Therefore, the manufacture of curved MDF facades is an integral part of progressive furniture production.

At the present level of development, the technology for manufacturing curved facades uses a special MDF board Master Form, Topan form and so on 8 mm thick. On one side, it has slots with an interval of about 5 mm, due to which it easily bends and retains its shape well. By gluing two blanks on the template, with the back side to each other, after appropriate refinement, you can get full-fledged bent furniture facades with a thickness of 16 mm.

Another, more cheap technology the production of curved facades consists in the formation of a stack thin sheets th elements smeared with glue and further bending them in special molds until the final drying of the glue.

The most important element of the technology of bent MDF facades is the manufacture of a template frame. The radius of the templates should be approximately 3% less than the required radius, since the finished bent MDF facade continues to unbend for two weeks. In width, an allowance for fasteners should be made. Chipboard residues can be used as template material.

Curved facades from MDF, as a rule, are made of sheets of smooth fiberboard or HDF 3-4 mm thick. For the first or bottom layer, laminated HDF can be used to give nice view future facade from the inside.

Blanks for bent facades are cut out on a panel saw with an allowance for fixing them on a template frame and further processing.

Sheets of fiberboard or HDF, with the help of a roller, are covered with glue and stacked, and then the entire foot is fixed with screws on the template. The resulting structure fits vacuum press and covered with a silicone membrane. The bonding process takes place in a vacuum and lasts at a temperature of working surface 40-60°C for at least 40-60 minutes.

The resulting bent blanks, after complete cooling, are sent to circular saw for cutting overhangs and bringing to the required size.

Edge milling in the absence of more complex equipment produced by hand milling machine with edge moulder. Drawing on front side performed on a milling and copying machine with a template.

For processing a concave surface, you will need milling machine for curved facades with a curved base, repeating the radius of the product and the corresponding template.

When wrapping curved MDF facades with PVC film on a membrane-vacuum press, special substrates should be used that preserve the resulting bending radius of the product.

The manufacturing technology of curved facades is quite easy to master for beginners. furniture facades from MDF. It is possible, however, to invest in optional equipment. However, as practice shows, own production bent facades costs the enterprise much cheaper than the purchase of finished products.

Hidden text

With the invention of ways industrial production veneer, that is, thin sheets of wood obtained by sawdust-free division directly from a log or a bar previously sawn from it, plywood also appeared, that is, material in the form of flat sheets glued from several sheets of veneer. Moreover, if during gluing, even before the glue is cured, the veneer sheets in the package can be easily bent at a rather large angle, then after the glue is cured, the mutual displacement of the individual sheets is excluded and the material takes the form specified during gluing, acquiring high bending strength. This principle is the basis for the manufacture of bent glued parts, that is, products formed from separate thin sheet elements, jointly bent when they are glued together and kept in a press until the glue is completely cured.

The production technology of bent glued furniture is constantly being modernized and improved. One of the most famous is the technology for the production of curved facades, developed by specialists from the All-Russian Design and Technological Institute of Furniture / VKTIM /, which specializes in providing technical assistance to enterprises in organizing furniture production. It allows you to make panels from a glued block of solid wood with a thickness of 4-6 mm, as well as from sawn veneer.

Constructions of the first type - based on a glued board made of solid wood with cut grooves or from several layers of glued board - the developers recommend using it without cladding, which will emphasize the beauty and originality of the texture natural wood. Finishing - transparent varnishes. Given the mentality of the Russian consumer, who, unlike the Scandinavians, is not accustomed to using gnarled pine and spruce wood in household furniture, the surface of the part can be veiled with a translucent dye that will slightly muffle the texture of the wood without covering it completely.

How to bend MDF.

The surface of aspen cannot be treated in this way, so as not to hide its beautiful silky overflows.
The second type - with a middle layer of low-grade wood and cladding with any natural or synthetic facing material. Of particular interest are facings made of stacked mosaic shields and sawn aspen veneer. This type of construction is based on the use of low-waste technologies.

As the main unified element in the development of structures of any type, it is accepted bent part with R bending from 400 to 600mm, thickness 16-20mm. Part shape and bending radius selected based on analysis current trends in the design of furniture presented at international exhibitions in Cologne, Milan and Moscow. On the basis of such a detail as in children's constructor, by combining its various options, you can get a wide variety of surface shapes: round, wavy, with a bend in the vertical or horizontal planes. When developing designs and technologies, much attention is paid to ensuring the necessary rigidity and dimensional stability of the bent parts to be glued together, as well as their environmental friendliness. Wherein great importance have physical and mechanical characteristics glue used. Dimensional stability measurements of parts various designs showed that the details multilayer structures after manufacturing, there may be slight changes in the bending radius in the direction of its increase. The distance between the extreme points of the radius part 10 days after manufacture can increase by an average of 3-4%, which is within the normal range for bent-glued parts. After this period, the form stabilizes and no further changes occur. For parts with special embedded elements, no changes in the bending radius occur. Parts can be produced using wooden or metal heated molds, special or conventional facing presses, cold or hot. For any medium or even small enterprise, an acceptable technology option can be found for it. The mechanical processing and finishing of parts following gluing is carried out according to traditional technologies using conventional equipment.
As an example of a complete technological cycle for the production of curved glued furniture, one can cite a line offered by one of the leading suppliers of furniture equipment - KAMI. A similar line was demonstrated at one of the recently held in Moscow furniture exhibitions and attracted the attention of visitors. By the way, in the accompanying documentation provided by the equipment supplier, this process is named no more, no less - "fascinating".

The equipment of a furniture production workshop with the use of load-bearing and decorative bent-glued parts depends not only on productivity and the adopted production technology, but also on future design furniture. Bent glued elements can be made of peeled veneer of birch, beech, larch, pine, and MDF. The edges of bent-glued elements are most often profiled. The faces of bent glued parts are faced with sliced veneer of hardwood or valuable species: beech, ash, oak, mahogany, walnut and others.

The production cycle consists of several operations. First, the veneer sheets are fed to a guillotine shear or a bench saw. Here they are cut into blanks corresponding to the size of the future veneer pack for gluing the block. The front sheets of the veneer "shirt" are cut from peeled or sliced veneer and sewn together on a ribbed gluing machine. If MDF is used as the material, the sheets are fed to the panel saw and cut into blanks corresponding to the size of the future package. After the guillotine shears or the panel saw, the prepared set of solid sheets enters the glue rollers, where the glue is applied and the package is formed. Formed veneer package with adhesive applied with hydraulic press placed in the mold. Each of the presses has its own mold for forming its own profile, where hot pressing is carried out. Finished blocks fit into the feet, where their shape stabilizes. In the case of the manufacture of non-bearing curved glued decorative elements(for example, facades), a hot membrane-vacuum press with a template is used. The resulting bent glued blocks are fed to a circular saw or band saw machine, the overhangs of the bent glued blocks are trimmed of a relatively simple shape, and on band saw- at the blocks complex shape.

Sawed blocks are moved to planer, where the base surface is created along their edge. After processing, the block can be fed to a vertical milling machine with a lower spindle location and cut into individual workpieces using a set of saws, the distance between which corresponds to the specified width of the parts. The cut and jointed workpieces are delivered to thicknesser machine for calibrating workpieces to the width of the part. Workpieces processed to width trimming machine cut to length. For parts prepared in this way, milling machine using a profile cutter and copy ring based on side surface, the edges are hemmed. Then the bent glued blanks are moved to the drilling and filler machine. Here comes the drilling of all required holes for installation of dowels, couplers and accessories. If the design of the product provides for connections that require the selection of grooves and the formation of tenons, the corresponding parts are transferred to the drilling-grooving and tenoning machines.

After machining on the grinding machine the processing of flat side surfaces of blanks and their ends, internal curved surfaces and external curved surfaces of parts, roundings on the ribs is carried out. Finishing grinding of workpieces is carried out using a hand-held mechanized tool.

The polished blanks are sent to pre-assembly, which is performed on workbenches-tables and in wims, where product frames are assembled. The application of a transparent or coloring primer to products is carried out in a spray booth using special guns. Then the frame is kept in the drying zone until the primer is completely cured, after which it is again transferred to the grinding department for intermediate grinding in order to remove lint and bubbles on the surface to be finished. And the whole process ends with the application of varnish in the spray booth.

These manufacturing methods have become quite widespread, especially in mass production. In the individual, especially with the growth of the welfare of the population, a slightly different technology is often used - for the manufacture of bent elements, as a rule, different kinds fibreboard, including special types MDF type "Topan" or "Neaform". But this is an expensive imported material, besides, parts made from it need either cladding or a opaque finish.

Even a cursory examination of furniture in stores shows that huge opportunities, incorporated in the technology of manufacturing bent glued elements, are still far from being fully used. Moreover, the manufacturing technologies and areas of application of bent glued elements are simply unlimited! In addition to the use of these elements in the production of living rooms and bedrooms, the use of curved glued elements in the production of children's and school furniture is considered promising. Absence of sharp corners, smooth lines, collapsibility make it possible to design furniture that is mobile and light, providing freedom of movement for the child, excluding the possibility of injury. Another direction in which recent times bent glued elements are successfully used - this is bedroom furniture. The most widespread in it today are flexible bed bases that support the actual mattress, which we call differently - "armor", "latoflexes". They have now become necessary element bed or sofa. Armor is a typical bent glued element in the form of a curved plate, which perceives a part total load from a lying person. But in bedroom furniture, other constructive and decorative bent glued elements are also very often used, which make up the bed frame itself - its sideboard and backrest, elements of mirror frames, bedside tables and cabinets. The spring effect created by the bent glued element is successfully used in many design solutions. Depending on the architectural design, they allow you to create both inexpensive furniture intended for the general consumer, and elite furniture used in the most prestigious interiors.

superduse

29.07.2008 12:57

We use (by the way we produce) special material Master Form, for the manufacture of products of complex shape, analogue of the German TOPAN FORM, МDF Flex. This material is made of MDF 8 mm, on the one hand its surface is smooth and even, and on the other - “cut”. This feature allows you to give the desired curved shape. If, by bending and aligning the cuts, glue two sheets, the structure will lose its flexibility and retain desired shape. Using the Master Form saves time for the manufacture of the product.
Using the Master Form allows you to make products of various radii, saving time due to a simple gluing technology.
The material is intended for the manufacture of facades and furniture frames.
dimensions:
2800x1019
2070x564

I'm uploading pictures of those. process, I'll lay it out!
and he looks like this

fill007, glue MDF 3 and mill

We open, we look, what is not clear we ask. There are no comments, everything is similar to the Vladus post - just live pictures !!

by the way, so that there is no question - a simple white paper (cardboard) is glued between the master form

Often in the process of carrying out repair work, it becomes necessary to obtain curved surfaces of products made of wood. How to bend the board in such a way that the bend is strong and does not crack during the bending process? Well, if you have already decided to do a major overhaul with your own hands, then you should not retreat from such difficulties. In this article, we will talk in detail about how to give a wood material a curved shape.

How to bend a tree?

No, our task is not at all to bend an innocent plant. We are talking about wood building materials. How to bend a tree so that it bends and does not break? The method of bending wooden products has been known since ancient times: to shape wood, you need only heat and moisture, under the influence of which the plasticity of the material increases with all the ensuing consequences. How to bend a tree? Hold it in hot water (the higher the temperature, the faster the processes occur) or steam it (the steam generator can be built from a kettle or an iron can be used). The higher the temperature, the faster the wood gives up and you can start bending it. Moistened and heated wood can be bent under the action of the load (the ends of the board are placed on the supports), and the load is placed in the place of the future bend. Dried wood perfectly retains the minimum radius of curvature that was achieved during the bending process. Now we know how to bend a tree, we can dwell on this issue in more detail.

The reaction of wood to external influences

The fact is that wood reacts differently to bending. The convex part is under tension, the concave part is under compression. Moreover, the material also reacts differently to steaming. For example, the ability to compress increases by as much as a third, but to stretch - only a couple of percent. That is why it is not worth thinking about how to bend a board more than two centimeters thick at home. It should also be taken into account that different types of wood react differently to bending. For example, such species as oak, larch, maple bend poorly, but beech, ash, walnut - well. So before you think about how to bend the board, decide on the type of wood from which it is made.

How to bend plywood, fiberboard, MDF

At home, plywood is bent by increasing its moisture content, then ironing (an iron is required), and fixing it in a template. Any frame element can serve as a template, and its shape does not have to be curvilinear at all. The product is attached to the template with adhesive tape. You can clamp bent plywood between two spacers, give it a bent shape due to ropes, tying them around the product in several places along the radius of curvature. Plywood can only be used after it has dried. It seems that we figured out how to bend plywood - we move on.

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