Veneer pressing enables furniture manufacturers, designers and architects to create surfaces with distinctive aesthetics or to use them in interior design projects. In this article, we take you on a journey through the world of veneer pressing and show how this precise and innovative technique continues to play an important role in the manufacture of furniture components and interior design products.
What is veneer?
The word “veneer” comes from the Old French “fournir”, meaning “to furnish”. Veneering involves gluing a thin layer of high-quality wood onto a base material that meets the physical requirements of the construction, typically in a veneer press. This enables furniture to be given an aesthetically pleasing, high-quality look without having to use solid wood. Of course, there are a number of wood-look laminates made of plastic. However, these are not veneers.
History and benefits of veneer
The veneer-pressing process, which is deeply rooted in the history of wood and engineered-wood machining, originated in ancient Egypt, a region where wood was a rare and precious resource. Despite this, the rulers wanted have furniture with the refined look of real wood. The solution they found was to glue thin, high-quality veneers onto less valuable wooden substructures. Veneered wood had its heyday in the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo periods, and became a symbol of prosperity. In Germany, the technique gained in popularity in the Middle Ages, but remained a luxury due to the complex manufacturing process involved. The industrial revolution finally gave rise to the veneer press, making veneered furniture panels affordable for the masses; they were widely used until the 1960s.
During the first two decades of the 21st century, however, veneer wood has once again become an exclusive product, especially as it has faced strong competition from the development of laminate surfaces such as CPL or HPL. Although laminate is both cheaper and more durable, real wood is considered more natural and special.
Veneer wood, which was once found everywhere, is now mainly used where it is important to have genuine precious woods. Veneered furniture panels weigh less than those made of solid wood and are perfect for use in high-quality interiors for vehicles, boats and aeroplanes. Veneered furniture comes in a variety of looks and, as a genuine natural product, is a long-lasting, durable companion that requires a certain amount of care, but has an impressive and timeless elegance.
Production of veneers
The production of wood veneers requires a great deal of care, precision and experience in order to preserve the natural beauty and unique properties of the wood. Veneers are processed into thin sheets by sawing, slicing or rotary cutting, depending on the desired appearance and usage.
The DIN 4079 standard specifies the thickness of veneer sheets, with standard veneers having thicknesses of 0.5 to 0.6 mm. There are also micro veneers with thicknesses of 0.1 to 0.3 mm and thick veneers, which are significantly more robust at 0.9 to 2.5 mm.
Traditionally, sawn veneers are cut from the trunk using a saw, which allows the wood to retain a particularly beautiful and unaltered colour. The sliced veneering method, on the other hand, uses a slicing machine to separate fine sheets from the trunk and is ideal for the production of high-quality face veneers, which are later affixed to the visible surfaces of furniture. The rotary veneering technique turns veneer woods on their own axes, processing them into even veneer strips in a continuous process. This process is particularly efficient and conserves resources, as it enables a maximum surface area of veneer to be obtained from a single trunk.
The veneer sheets obtained are then dried, cut and sorted to ensure consistently high quality. The finished veneers are used to produce veneered panels, which are used in the manufacture of furniture, furniture components and other interior design products.
We ourselves process ready-joined veneer sheets to produce furniture panels with real-wood veneer. These may be provided by our customers or ordered from us. We work with partner companies that produce highly precise veneer sheets using modern joint gluing. This ensures that processing is much more efficient than with conventional veneer sewing machines or veneer adhesive tapes, whose joints are sometimes visible even after many years despite surface treatment.
Production of veneered furniture panels
At Toms Gerber GmbH, we manufacture composite components based on a wide variety of substrate materials and, on request, press them with real-wood veneer, such as smoked oak. We use engineered-wood materials, such as birch multiplex, lightweight poplar chipboard or MDF, for the core layer. A major advantage for our customers is that we do not press fixed dimensions of veneer, but produce entire composite components up to a maximum format of 4200×1500 mm.
To prepare the substrate, we first ensure that the surface is smooth and clean. We then carefully and evenly apply the required specialist veneer glue to the surface to ensure optimum adhesion – applying too much glue can lead to bleed-through, while applying it too sparingly risks bonding failures. Our state-of-the-art machinery allows us to control the amount of glue precisely and guarantees high-quality results.
The veneer is then placed on the base material and immediately transported to the block press, where it is cold-pressed. This is the great advantage over the veneer presses used by many carpentry workshops: in contrast to warm or hot pressing, we are able to process several boards in the block, do not have to build in any cooling phases and can guarantee stress-free pressing because we are processing at ambient temperature. Processing in the block press creates a constant pressure that firmly bonds the veneer to the board.
After pressing, excess veneer is cut or sanded off. It is also important that the finished engineered-wood components dry evenly. In the final stage, the pressing of composite components such as furniture panels with real-wood veneer is followed by quality control in our production hall under raking light. We check every panel we press for defective gluing. In order to meet the highest quality standards, every 4th panel is given a quality sticker to provide proof for to our customers.
Veneer design
Using various techniques, veneers can be arranged on a substrate panel to create a customised pattern on the composite component. In bookmatching, two sheets of veneer that were located next to each other in the tree trunk are folded open so as to create a mirror-image pattern. The result is a look that resembles open book pages, hence the name of the technique. This technique is mainly used in the production of veneered furniture panels to create decorative wood-look surfaces.
Slip matching, on the other hand, is a process in which the veneer sheets are lined up in the order in which they were cut from the log, without turning them over. The result is a more even, less symmetrical pattern, which is often used for larger surfaces such as the veneered composite components of doors and wall panels.
These techniques are important in creating varied aesthetics for products with real-wood veneered surfaces.
Veneered wood: the art of combining nature and design
Veneered engineered-wood components have a wide range of applications and serve the diverse needs of woodworking professionals, designers and architects.
Veneer pressing plays a key role in wood processing. Using veneered panels allows carpenters and joiners to work cost-effectively while producing exquisite pieces of furniture such as ornately designed dining tables and detailed (built-in) cabinets. Toms Gerber GmbH is the best partner for professionals in the wood processing industry, especially when it comes to sourcing high-quality furniture components with real-wood veneer and getting them delivered to your construction site or workshops, complete with edging and CNC processing. We also undertake veneer sanding up to a width of 1350 mm. Our customers like to complete the final surface treatment themselves, using varnish, oil or wax.
Designers and architects find numerous applications for the wide variety of veneered engineered-wood components. Furniture designers can give free rein to their creativity, creating pieces that play with the natural beauty of wood and beautiful effects and patterns. Interior designers can utilise the warm and natural appeal of wood surfaces to create inviting spaces. Veneered wood components allow architects to promote construction methods that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also sustainable, as veneered wood makes efficient use of precious raw materials; it is possible, for example, to use substrate panels made of up to 70% residual wood, such as chipboard.
Veneer pressing can be used to create products that are both durable and aesthetically pleasing by combining the beauty of natural wood with modern technology. In furniture construction, contract fittings, vehicle interiors and beyond, veneered composite components offer endless design potential that combines functionality, design and sustainability.
High-quality veneer pressing from the region
Toms Gerber GmbH is the partner you can count on when it comes to veneer pressing. Our extensive experience, flexible production and reliable delivery times, means we stand ready to help your project succeed, providing veneered composite components and making it possible for you to create products that are in no way inferior to solid wood in terms of their appearance, but at the same time are lightweight and stable. Contact us to discover the technological potential of a veneered wood look and be inspired by the beauty and versatility of our composite components. We look forward to turning your ideas into products and working with you to enrich the world of design.