Features of wooden doors and windows manufacture

Why wood? The use of wood as a material is beneficial in many ways. Firstly, this material is environmentally friendly and recyclable, because a tree is a plant. Regardless of use and processing, it returns to its original state as a soil element. Until it is reused, wood is stored safely without any harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Secondly, the wood itself provides a variety of size, shape and style. Easy to bend, easy to cut and glue again or paint. Another good thing about using wood to make doors is insulation because it is a natural insulator and does not conduct heat. This means that wood doors are more energy-efficient than many other types of doors. They are also very beautiful. Combined with a variety of patterns and warm colours, wood becomes a real visual decoration, because every piece is unique.

All of the above reasons make wood an ideal material for windows and doors. This means that business in this industry will flourish. And this is what we would like to discuss in more detail.

Successful manufacturing starts with quality material and product variety. Therefore, at first, a little about which doors exist. Wooden doors can be divided into different categories. Each category has very distinctive characteristics.

Solid hardwood mortise-and-tenon doors

A mortise-and-tenon joint is a protrusion at the end of a bar for insertion and tapping. In this case, the door consists of several pieces of wood with already made tenon joints, which are assembled together by grooves. These wood doors are mainly made from precious woods such as cherry, teak and walnut. These types of wood are considered the most beautiful and valuable. People prefer the natural and warm look of wood. But this is much more than just a beautiful view. Real wood is of fantastic quality and has a long service life. Natural wood makes the door durable and resistant to deformation because it is a single unit. This door has better water resistance than a composite wood door. Thanks to its thick solid wood construction, it also provides much better sound insulation than other doors.

While there are many advantages to solid hardwood doors, the disadvantage is how expensive they are. The price of such a door can be very high, even ten times the average price per door. Materials for such doors are always of the highest quality, as well as ultra-precise equipment for working with them. The last drawback of a natural wood door is that it is very heavy. Can be 2-3 times heavier than a composite door.

Composite doors

Composite wooden doors are the most widely used. They are made from several types of wood. Natural wood is used for handrails and supports, and natural wood or glued beams are used as the core of the door. First of all, the composite door provides the best price/quality ratio. It's a balance between cost and performance. Thanks to the use of different veneers, such a door can look like any kind of wood.

Compared to solid hardwood doors, composite doors are even more durable and less prone to deformation. Why? Wood is a material that bends and deforms easily when not properly dried. Artificial composite material is much more stable than natural wood and requires less effort to make. Doors can also be fireproofed and soundproofed with additional cladding.

Timber veneer doors

The design of a timber veneer door is actually very similar to a composite door. For both of them, multi-layer (usually 5-layer) hot pressing methods are used. The most significant advantage of such a door is that it is cheap to manufacture. With some special veneers like PVC, it doesn't even need painting. These doors are the cheapest in production.

Cheapness is not only the best thing about such doors, but also the worst. Low price in this case means a serious compromise on quality. The materials are so poor that production can even be hazardous to the workers, causing damage to the upper respiratory tract.

Door components

To understand the manufacturing process, the first step is to become familiar with the key components of the door.
The core is the innermost layer of a section in a door structure. The variety includes woodblock, chipboard, veneered woodblock, hollow, ladder and so on. Various materials allow the door to withstand all weather conditions.
A rail is a crosspiece or horizontal part of the frame. The top crosspiece is called the top rail and the bottom crosspiece is called the bottom rail.

Veneer is a decoration on the surface. This is usually the so-called “wooden leather” made from real wood. This coating provides a high-quality appearance of the door.

What can be produced?

The main product categories include wooden window blocks and internal and external wooden doors. In addition, the product line can be supplemented with products such as garage doors, bi-folding patios and cabinet doors. Among the window products, single, sliding, bay windows and skylights can be found. Doors account for about 45% of the industry's revenues; window products make up about 30%. The rest comes from related products, including mouldings and other joinery.

The main stages of wood processing

Briefly, the production process can be divided into 3 stages: machine processing of natural wood or manufactured panels, assembly of processed parts and surface treatment. The assembly process usually involves the use of adhesives (synthetic or natural) in combination with other bonding methods such as nailing followed by veneers. Purchased plywood is trimmed to the desired size and pattern and glued to the purchased chipboard. After assembly, the furniture piece is inspected for the smoothness of the surface to be finished.

After the initial sanding, the surface is made even smoother by spraying, sponging or immersing a piece of furniture in water so that the wood fibres swell and begin to “bulge”. After the surface has dried, a solution of glue or resin is applied to allow it to dry as well. The raised fibres are then sanded to obtain a smooth surface. If the wood contains rosin, which may affect the performance of some finishes, it is removed using a mixture of acetone and ammonia. The wood is then bleached by spraying, sponging, or immersing the wood in a bleaching agent such as hydrogen peroxide.

Surface treatments can include the use of a wide variety of coatings. These coatings are applied after the product is assembled and may include fillers, stains, glazes, sealants, varnishes, paints, and other finishing materials. The coatings can be applied by spray, brush, pad, dipping, roller or special machine. Coatings can be solvent or water-based. Paints contain a wide variety of pigments depending on the desired colour.

Work safety

Woodworking involves the use of extremely hazardous equipment and operations than most other industries. Therefore, attentiveness on the part of employees and the constant maintenance of a safe working environment on the part of employers are required. Although in many cases woodworking machines and equipment can be purchased without problems, it is the management's responsibility to ensure that proper safety measures are taken before using such machines and equipment.

This is briefly about the features of the manufacture of wooden doors, but there are too many nuances to be described in one article. As with any production, it all depends on the quality of materials and equipment. The demand for wooden windows and doors is closely related to residential construction, both new developments and renovations. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficient production and aggressive marketing. Large companies have advantages in terms of production and distribution methods. Smaller companies can compete by offering custom designs and other value-added services to customers in local or regional markets.