Effect of Some Factors on the Strength of Furniture Corner Joints Constructed with Wood Biscuits*

Authors: ALİ NACİ TANKUT, NURGÜL TANKUT

Abstract: This study was carried out to evaluate the bending moment resistance and stiffness of case-type furniture corner joints constructed with wood biscuits, and to determine the effects on these joints of some factors including the spacing between wood biscuit hole centers, the distance from the center of the biscuit hole to the corresponding outside edge of the board material, the method of loading, the type of composite board, and the gluing technique. The results indicated that corner joint strength comes mainly from the edge gluing of the face and butt member and not from the glued biscuits. Particleboard (PB) glued and unglued edge corner joints were stronger than similar joints constructed with MDF (medium density fiberboard). Glued edge MDF corner joints were stiffer than similar joints constructed with PB. Spacing between biscuits of 10, 12.5 and 15 cm on-center in multiple-biscuit corner joints made only small differences in total strength in both tension and compression tests. Therefore, in case-type furniture manufacturing, using 15 cm on-center biscuit spacing instead of 10 cm seems much better in terms of saving time and biscuit joints. Unglued and glued edge joints had greater strength when the distance was 5 cm between the biscuit hole and the corresponding outside edge of the specimen than when it was 6.5 or 7.5 cm with 12.5 cm on-center biscuit spacing. However, in industry most case-type furniture designs have a fixed end instead of a free end joints, and so using a 6.5 or 7.5 cm end distance instead of 5 cm may not make any difference.

Keywords: Wood biscuits, furniture, corner joints

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