Course title: FURNITURE

Semester / Year of study: semester I and II, IV-th yea

Objectives:
           Students will first take knowledge of the furniture structure, connections between anthropometry and furniture dimensioning and main rules in furniture design. In the next step, the discipline enriches the students' knowledge in terms of furniture engineering, starting with the cutting of wood and wood-based materials and continuing with processing them to the final shape and size.

Contents:
The information provided within the lecture hours is structured on two parts:
Part I.
        1. General characteristics of the furniture quality, classification of the products and elaboration of the furniture projects.
        2. Structure of the products - made of cut-up or bent solid wood, of moulded veneers and of panelled boards.
        3. Structure of the products - made of cut-up or bent solid wood, of moulded veneers and of panelled boards.
        4. Structure of the products - made of cut-up or bent solid wood, of moulded veneers and of panelled boards.
        5. Products shape elaboration and composition principles.
        6. Typification in furniture design.
        7. Unification, normalization and modulation of the products.
        8. Ergonomic principles applied in furniture design.
        9. Designing of storage furniture, sitting and upholstered furniture
Part II.
        1. Cutting of solid wood and of wood-based materials.
        2. Shape and size machining of the solid wood components by straightening, plning, marking and shape cutting, milling, tenoning and boring operations.
        3. Boards covering by veneering and laminating with decorative foil operations.
        4. Boards shape and size machining by sizing and trimming, milling operations etc.
        5. SOFTFORMING and POSTFORMING operations.
        6. Sanding of veneered and solid wood surfaces.
The course is completed with design and laboratory classes.

The design lessons comprise:
        1. Study of the furniture product (structure, shape, partitioning).
        2. Determination of the overall sizes of the designed furniture.
        3. Technical description of the product.
        4. Drawing up the list of components.
        5. Elaboration of assembly drawings and detailed drawings.
        6. Calculus of the necessary raw materials.
        7. Calculus of the glued, sanded and finished areas of the product.
        8. Drawing up the bill of raw materials, technical and technological materials and fittings for the product.
        9.Drawing up the operation sheet of the components from the structure of the furniture product.

The laboratory lessons approach the following topics:
        - Selection of the appropriate solution for packing the designed product.
        - Establishing the materials necessary for the packing operation.
        - Technical description of the package. " Bill of materials necessary for packing the furniture product.
        - Drawing of the package
        - Loading and consolidating the furniture packages into the means of transport.

History:
        Since 1959, the year of setting up the Faculty of Wood Industry, the discipline has been known as "Furniture Manufacturing Technology" and it was taught to the students in the V-th year of study by the Assist.Prof.Dr.eng. Ion FLORESCU. Starting with 1978 it was assumed by the Assist.Prof.Dr.eng. Valentin NASTASE.
        Afterwards, the name of the discipline was changed into "Furniture Designing, Manufacturing and its Reliability" and it was assumed like this by Assist.Prof.Dr.eng. Dumitru LICA in 2003. Starting with the universitary year 2008-2009 and the shift to the Bologna Program, the name of the discipline became "Furniture".

Present Head of Discipline:
        Prof.Dr.eng. Dumitru LICA, graduate of the Wood Industry Fasculty, class 1982. Title of Ph-D thesis: "Contribution to the study of the possibilities to use oak wood (Querqus robur ) with different grades of pathological drying in furniture industry", defended in December 2001 at "Transilvania" University in Brasov. Published books within the field of the discipline:
        - LICA Dumitru, NASTASE Valentin: Furniture Designing, Manufacturing and its Reliability. Furniture Packing. Publishing House of the "Transilvania" University of Brasov, 2003.
        - LICA Dumitru, BOIERIU Camelia: Furniture Designing, Manufacturing and its Reliability. Furniture Design. Publishing House of the "Transilvania" University of Brasov, 2005.
        - BOIERIU Camelia, LICA Dumitru, MIHAILESCU Teofil: Modulated Furniture Made of Composite Panels. Design and Technology. Publishing House of the "Transilvania" University of Brasov, 2008.

Perspectives and Opportunities:
        The future evolution of the discipline aims to solve the following issues:
        - Acquisition of appropriate tools for the modern equipment in the endowment of the Multifunctional Laboratory of Wood Processing for the practical training of the students.
        - Enlarging the reference material of the discipline by publishing a new book entitled Furniture Designing, Manufacturing and its Reliability. Designing the Framed Furniture. ISBN 973-635-845-3, Publishing House of the "Transilvania" University of Brasov, prepared for publishing.
        - Publishing a new edition of the book entitled Furniture Designing, Manufacturing and its Reliability. Furniture design, at the request of the students, published in a fisrt edition in 2005. This book will be reviewed and completed with new information in the furniture manufacturing field.