A comparison of the cyclic durability, ease of disassembly, repair, and reuse of parts of wooden chair frames

Simple, statically-determinate wooden chair frames constructed with seven types of joints were subjected to cyclic front to back load tests to determine joint durability, chair reparability, and parts' reuse. Knockdown joints, namely, screw, bed bolts (with dowel nuts), pinned round mortise and tenon, and pinned rectangular mortise and tenon joints; and glued joints, namely, dowel, round mortise and tenon, and rectangular mortise and tenon joints were included in the study. Glued round and rectangular mortise and tenon joints had the highest levels of cyclic load durability whereas bed bolts had the least. Chairs constructed with knockdown joints were easiest to repair, whereas chairs constructed with glued joints were the most difficult to repair. Parts' recovery with rectangular mortise and tenon joints was high when tenons were replaced with inserted tenons. Likewise, recovery was high with dowel joints since the failed dowels were replaced with larger dowels. Parts' recovery with metal knockdown fasteners was low because of side rail splitting; however, parts' recovery with pinned round and rectangular mortise and tenon joints was high.

This paper was originally published in Materials and Design 87 (2015) Pages 75-81

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