A Look At . . . the Strength Design of Furniture

Furniture may be regarded as a type of structure and designed accordingly. A three-step procedure leading to the strength design of furniture is proposed: 1) the static and dynamic loads acting on the structure are determined, 2) the forces in the members arising under the action of these loads are analyzed, and 3) the amount and distribution of material needed in the structure are computed so that no member or joint is overstressed. A generalized computer program that facilitated computation of stresses showed that a most any change in chair geometry could be treated as long as the design retained a basic configuration and that stresses could be computed under a variety of loads. Such a theoretical analysis reduces the amount and expense of comparative destructive testing, determines the adequacy of a proposed design before it is produced and put into service, and enables the manufacturer tc predict the service life of furniture.

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