To keep furniture prices acceptable while maintaining a satisfactory level of quality, the most common solution is the use of particle board. But is particle board good enough to produce kitchen furniture that will last a long time? Is low price the only advantage of particle board?
Since particle board is by far the most popular material for making all types of furniture, let’s say a few words about it first. As many already know, particle board is actually wood shavings mixed with binding materials and pressed into boards of specific dimensions and thickness.
Usually, particle board panels are covered with melamine foil, which gives the particle board a pleasant smooth surface that is highly resistant to damage and moisture. Today, these foils are made in a large number of colors and patterns, giving particle board panels a wide range of applications.
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When components of furniture are made from particle board, specifically parts of kitchen elements, the inner structure of this material, which is coarse, is clearly visible at every cut. This does not meet aesthetic requirements and lacks the necessary mechanical characteristics.
Therefore, the edges of the cut particle board panels are covered with so-called edge bands. The design of the edge band is usually chosen to match the color of the melamine foil, unless one wants to create a contrast in colors. The quality of the edge band and its application significantly affect the quality of the final particle board product.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Particle Board
A disadvantage of particle board is that with cheaper edging, the cut edges of the particle board remain relatively sharp, which is not a good solution for visible and touch-exposed parts of furniture. Craftsmen then resort to a solution that minimally increases production costs – high-quality edge bands are used for visible and exposed edges, while cheaper edge bands are used for all other edges.
The advantages of particle board are numerous. It provides quite satisfactory mechanical characteristics, is lightweight, easy to work with, and thus the prices of particle board products are even more affordable. The downsides of particle board are that it is a coarse material only superficially covered with foil that gives it its final appearance, making further modifications, cuts, shaping, or sanding impossible.
In principle, a piece of particle board furniture is not expensive but is used as long as it lasts; repairs are not cost-effective. For example, kitchen elements made of particle board can last for decades if assembled with quality. However, if the final workmanship is not at the required level, and a hinge happens to break because the screws are not properly “screwed in,” subsequent repairs are usually impossible.
Also, although melamine foil is completely resistant to moisture, particle board is not resistant to prolonged exposure to moisture. At the edges where the edge band and foil meet, moisture can always penetrate, which the wood shavings absorb like a sponge, causing the board to swell and deteriorate. This is most often noticeable in the lower parts of older kitchen elements that have absorbed moisture from the floors.