Why should the structure of solid wood furniture leave shrinkage joints

Expansion joints are a traditional processing technology of Chinese classical furniture, people who know about mahogany furniture know that a pure mahogany furniture will inevitably retain the excellent production process of traditional furniture in the Ming and Qing dynasties - mortise and tenon structure, without using an iron nail, through the ingenious combination of tenon and tenon and mortise to assemble the various parts of the furniture. The expansion joint is to prevent the frame or corner tenon of the furniture from being cracked when the wood shrinks or expands due to the external environment, resulting in the loosening of the parts of the furniture and the inability to use normally. Therefore, it is necessary to treat the expansion joints on the surface of the log plank.

Moreover, in order to reduce the deformation of the wood, there is a strict drying process before the wood is made into office furniture, and some of them may take more than a month. In order to control the quality, the water content of the products sold to different regions is also different. Even so, expansion joints must be reserved to prevent deformation of the furniture.

The longitudinal shrinkage of wood is not large, and there is generally no need to leave expansion joints at both ends, and some manufacturers leave joints on all sides, which looks relatively good. Because there are seams on the four sides, it is determined that the furniture has seams whether it is wet or dry (the wood basically does not shrink longitudinally, and the seams are left at both ends, which are less affected by air dryness and wetness, and expansion joints have always existed). There are also some manufacturers who do not leave expansion joints for furniture, and it does not mean that there must be none, because manufacturers do not have absolute certainty about wood drying, and the moisture content of wood is generally higher than that of air, so that even if there are no expansion joints when making, there will be seams after the furniture is made, and a considerable part of the furniture has seams regardless of the dry and wet seasons, but the size is different.

In those areas where the humidity and dryness of the environment vary greatly throughout the year, expansion joints are a must. Different seasons, the dryness and wetness of the wood are related to whether or not to leave shrinkage joints and how much shrinkage joints are left. The air humidity in the rainy season is high, although the wood is artificially dried, but the wood will still absorb water in the process of furniture making, and the volume will increase, and there is generally no need to leave expansion joints, even if they are not left, expansion joints will appear when the climate is dry in winter; Spring and winter are dry, and after manually drying wood to make furniture, it is generally necessary to leave expansion joints, otherwise, after the arrival of wet summer, the large side will be damaged.

Finally, as a reminder, expansion joints are the "self-protection system" of solid wood office furniture, and there is no need to worry about uneven size of the joints, and most of them will return to their original appearance after seasonal changes. Hope it helps

Expansion joints, also known as shrinkage joints, are not caused by mistakes in furniture design and production, and play a huge role in curbing the physical characteristics of wood "thermal expansion and cold contraction" and improving the service life of solid wood furniture.

The expansion joint is to prevent the frame or corner tenon of the furniture from being cracked when the wood shrinks or expands due to the external environment, resulting in the loosening of the parts of the furniture and the inability to use normally.

The size of the expansion joint is very important, and the width of the expansion joint is determined by the specific gravity of the wood and the climatic characteristics of the region where the furniture is finally used, and the width is generally within centimeters.