Jepara teak furniture production process is just like other furniture products, it must follow the rules in the good furniture manufacturing process. There are several important stages in making a furniture product and here is an outline of the stages of making it:
Teak Logs
Furniture production starts from here. Teak logs are distributed by Perhutani or community timber sellers to timber buyers and sawmills or sawmills using special transportation. Sometimes some parties peel the logs to dry out faster during storage. this, of course, affects the selling price of the log itself.
There are 2 main wood log sources here in Indonesia, the first source is from the government forest which is planted and managed by the Indonesia Forestry Bureau called Perum Perhutani.
The second source comes from people or community forests which are planted and managed by a civilian, which mostly un maintain and just let grow by themselves. Since logs from the government forest are well maintained, they usually have better quality and therefore, much more expensive price. We use these logs for grade-A furniture.
Sawmill
The second stage of Jepara teak furniture is slabbing on the sawmill. Logs are divided by the thickness of the board by what is needed for the manufacture of Jepara furniture. The process of executing these logs requires considerable accuracy and experience.
Jepara furniture manufacturers must be able to adjust the position of the log with a sawmill so that the log can be maximized in its use and not much into waste. Many Jepara furniture entrepreneurs suffer losses due to a lack of experience and knowledge in this process.
Kiln Dry / Drying
The next process is drying. After the wooden boards are sawn at the sawmilling company, the boards must be dried before they can be processed into finished products.
There are several ways to dry wood boards, for teak furniture companies with large production capacities, they usually use a water heater system or an electric heater with a large scale room. But small-scale furniture craftsmen, usually use a wood-fuelled kiln-dry/oven or coal kiln system. Each system has its advantages and disadvantages.
Before entering the kiln dry room the boards that have been split must be aired in a room that has good and dry air circulation. this is to reduce the risk of board damage due to drastic wood structure changes caused by heat.
This process takes approximately 1-2 weeks. After that, new wooden planks can be put into the kiln dry room, of course with its own board arrangement and room arrangement. it also requires separate techniques and observations about the arrangement and how long it will take to avoid damaging the boards that are too severe.
Production Process
The next process of making Jepara teak furniture after dry wood planks from the kiln process is production or carpentry. In production, several processes must be passed, including:
- Board Preparation
In this process, the boards are measured according to the needs and then cut according to the size and the template. Apart from the board splitting process above, this process is also at high risk in the use of waste boards. Once again a lot of Jepara furniture entrepreneurs lose money due to lack of experience in this process.
- Molding and Formation
In this process, the furniture components that are still raw from containment are processed to become components with the actual shape and size. this process also includes the wood carving process
- Assembling
In this process, the components of the molding process are assembled into desired products. Experienced carpenters are needed in this case to produce products by consumer demand.
- Finishing and Packing
After all the production processes are finished, then the final process is the coloring or finishing process. Experts in the field of coloring are necessary here so that products that have gone through the correct production procedures are not damaged and useless. After the finishing process is complete, the final quality control and packing for the shipping process can be done.
Several finishing materials are commonly used in making Jepara furniture, Polyurethane or often called PU (piyu) is the most expensive type of finishing material, and Nitrocellulose Gliscerine (NC) is a finishing material that is widely used for export class orders. Melamine is a material that is often used in the Jepara furniture industry for the local market.
The Jepara teak furniture manufacturing process may differ from one company to another, but our explanation above is what we usually do in our Indonesian furniture company. That is all our brief explanation of the furniture production that we do. Thank you for your visit and have a great day.
