Project Overview

Polystyrene Furniture Cores

Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), has become an increasingly popular material for use in furniture components due to its unique properties and advantages over traditional materials like wood and metal. One of the key benefits of EPS is its remarkable lightness, making furniture much easier to transport and manoeuvre without sacrificing structural integrity. Available in a wide range of densities, EPS can be tailored to meet specific needs, whether for cushioning, support, or decorative elements. This versatility is complemented by the material’s compatibility with CNC machinery, which allows for precise and intricate cut-outs. The ease of hot wire cutting means that detailed designs and custom shapes can be effortlessly created, adding both functional and aesthetic value to furniture pieces. Additionally, EPS is often more cost-effective and offers better insulation properties, making it an attractive option for both manufacturers and consumers in the modern furniture industry.

Example Project – Polystyrene Furniture Cores

The “modern world” is ever-evolving, and also with this the desire for fully functioning yet simplistic furniture increasing. One North West company are specialist designers and manufacturers of high quality upholstered furniture. The furniture ranges all have simplistic designs therefore perfectly suiting them to any business or commercial environment. They came to Molgran looking for a new range of furniture cores to improve their manufacturing processes. Some of their main concerns were manufacturing running times and the impacts this was having on their production costs. The overall weight of the finished furniture pieces had also raised concerns. Not only did this affect production and the number of people needed to handle a single product, but it also raised transport costs.

With their range expanding, they were, therefore, looking to simplify the manufacturing process of their pieces of furniture, both to improve the overall finished product and the time and cost to manufacture them. Molygran developed a polystyrene piece to provide a core for the furniture pieces. The furniture core needed to provide the stability of the table along with internal hidden electronics.  This included an internal channel for the power supply and recess for the cable outlet. Over the years Molygran has spent a lot of time to ensure the 3D cutting was brought in line with the 2D  cutting capabilities. Molygran are always ready for a challenge that new projects bring.

Expanded polystyrene is the perfect solution for furniture inserts due to its properties. It can be cut to fit specific furniture ranges and it is lightweight yet durable enough to withstand the pressures of use. Molygran only used flame retardant EPS which also ensured it met any safety regulations within the commercial environments.

For more information on expanded polystyrene furniture cores please Contact Us

eps table former polystyrene furniture
polystyrene coffee table furniture

Benefits

  • EPS can be cut to fit specific sizes to fit the range of furniture products
  • Heavy density polystyrene is durable and can retain its shape when put under high amounts of stress
  • Polystyrene provided a significantly quicker and lower cost solution than wood or steel
  • Material costs are comparable to wood but there are big savings on installation time due to the lighter weight
  • Molygran have no tooling costs, short lead times and small production runs
  • Molygran were able to provide the EPS expertise required

The brief The brief

Their range of coffee tables incorporates power modules and wireless charging through an offset grommet hole. They can also be finished with a steel cap which would then enable them to feed through cables for lamps and other accessories. The new furniture cores, therefore, needed to be able to seamlessly incorporate all these features whilst also providing a quick and easy solution for during production.

They were initially looking to create polystyrene elements that would sit within a frame to create the shape of the base. However, Molygran were keen to pursue an alternative idea which would not only reduce their material parts, but also the costs and time to manufacture. Through careful design work and consultations, a whole new design was developed for the table which eliminated the need for a timber frame.

The solution The solution

Here at Molygran we turn your problem into our solution. We thrive on a challenge, especially when it is something completely new to us.
We have spent a lot of time over the last few years working on our 3D capabilities and felt we could really make a difference with the coffee table in question.
Working alongside our customer we came up with the solution to manufacture the entire base of the table using expanded polystyrene rather than a combination of MDF and EPS.
Our customer was dubious whether EPS would provide the strength and stability required for the coffee table. We were confident that our heavy duty EPS would provide the durability required. The initial hollow cylindrical MDF base not only made the overall weight of the table extremely heavy, we felt that a solid EPS base would provide additional strength and stability with a much lower overall weight. The EPS alternative came in at a much lower cost than building the MDF frame, and with Molygran’s extremely quick lead times, could be on site within the week.

We are really pleased with the outcome of incorporating expanded polystyrene within our designs. It has reduced the weight of the final product and made manufacturing simpler and more efficient.

C.B - Product Design