Kitchen cabinets, countertops, and even closet designs are moving ever more rapidly to express fashion trends. To produce the colors, glosses, and textures, new technology, hardware and new materials will be required.
At the next big wood manufacturing-related event - the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show - a space has been set aside to explore these new ideas, called "
KBIS NeXT". The purpose, say show managers at the National Kitchen and Bath Association, is "for discovering the next ideas, trends and innovations in the industry. It’s the next big thing. The next set of ideas. The next in contemporary design."
We've seen cabinet manufacturers adapt to burgeoning demand for painted surfaces. Finishing and coating technologies that allow big factories to efficiently deliver multi-step finished doors - quick-change sprayers, new formulations of paints and coatings, curing tunnels that speed the set - are among the changes.
So too are super glossy surfaces, requiring new expertise in blemish-free laminating and no-knick sawing and processing after. Edgebanding, too, has had a complete makeover, as the co-extruded polymer edge bands - the adhesive layer is built right into the edge band - see rapid adoption courtesy of another technology update: hot air edgebanding. The technology also eliminates the glue pot.
At three technical events this year - one at
Stiles Machinery in January; another at Felder; and most recently an open house at
Biesse America earlier this month in Charlotte, NC - the road map for hot air edgebanding was laid out. The technology allows a seamless or near-seamless "zero joint" application of the edgeband material. The advantage is they are less prone to wear, and they don't collect dirt and germs.
Perhaps surprisingly,
the hot air edgeband technology is finding a welcome home in closets production, where a traditionally short list of colors means it is easy to find the specialized material used for hot air edgebanding. A spokesman for Rehau, which makes the edgeband material, says machines are either being delivered with hot air devices and the ability to skip the glue pot, or are being built to accept a hot air retrofit at a later date.