Synthetic wood is a very popular product used to make commercial furniture for the restaurant and hospitality industries. Because of its durability and classy look, it can be used in many different variations. Furniture can be made completely of synthetic products or it can be used as a mixed material with stainless steel or aluminum framing, either way it’s flexibility is a great choice for many design applications.
Making wood-plastic composite (WPC) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products is a lot like cooking barbecue: The core ingredient for both WPCs and PVC products is plastic. Typically, it’s one of two things, first is virgin PVC, the second is polyethylene. It’s created by recycling just about any plastic product you can imagine: shrink wrap, plastic shopping bags, soda bottles, even the nearly invisible film that’s put on Styrofoam cups at your favorite fast-food place. This recycled plastic gets cleaned and processed into granules the size of short-grain rice. Companies also use plastic from factory rejects that were reground.
The plastic–which looks like soap flakes–is heated to a liquid state. (That’s why it’s typically called “resin.”) Those ingredients are mixed along with additives until the plastic is considered to have thoroughly covered (or “encapsulated”) the wood flour.
The heated mix is pushed through a die that typically contains a series of four to eight computer-cut metal plates. These progressively shape the product into the desired configuration. After the extruded product has the right shape, but is still so hot it’s barely stiffer than a licorice whip, the stiffness comes from the cooling process, as they spray water on the product as it’s pulled down the line, but it’s a fine art to assure correct curing takes place. By now, the product has cooled to the point where its surface can get imprinted with a faux-wood finish. Typically, this is applied with a big wheel that contains a grain pattern. It’s then cut into length pieces like lumber and distributed for manufacturing.
