Why Choose Polyurethane as a Monomaterial for Your Seats?

Perché scegliere il poliuretano come monomateriale per le tue sedute

On our blog, we have often discussed the advantages of polyurethane in the production of seats. This material ensures the creation of a high-quality, durable, sustainable, and easily recyclable product.

However, there are other aspects to consider that make rigid polyurethane a truly interesting and innovative material. I’ll explain them in this article.

1. Consistency in Production

Rigid polyurethane molded pieces are always uniform, unlike wood or metal structures. In fact, with other materials, there can be qualitative differences depending on the batch of iron or wood.

Thus, with polyurethane, you minimize the risk of having inconsistent production in terms of quality.

2. Speed of Production

If hypothetically, you decide to create the same seat in both wood/metal and polyurethane, you would notice that in the polyurethane version, the seat is a single piece to assemble, whereas in the wood/metal version, there are many more pieces to put together.

What does this mean? A significant time saving!

Indeed, the production times for the seat are quite different: four weeks for a traditional seat versus two weeks for the same seat in polyurethane. Therefore, rigid polyurethane guarantees a certain speed of production.

3. Durability Over Time

This is an aspect we have already discussed but is worth revisiting since the management of product disposal at the end of life is an increasingly relevant topic in any market sector.

In the case of a seat made of rigid polyurethane combined with a flexible one, consider that 80% of the shell material is reusable. Thus, when your seat is worn out, you’ll only need to change the upholstery and the soft polyurethane parts to have a new seat.

This translates into significant savings in terms of materials, processing, and consequently, costs. This aspect, far from negligible, could revolutionize the entire industry.

4. Attention to Detail

If the seat you have in mind is a design product with attention to every detail, then this point will interest you. What are the details of a seat that make the difference?

One surely concerns the upholstery: the fabric must be well-stretched, without wrinkles, and must cover even the seat’s edges.

But for the upholsterer to do a good job, they need a rigid structure capable of supporting the fabric even at the edges. Polyurethane ensures well-defined and robust edges and corners for excellent upholstery.

Another aspect concerns the creation of shapes and thicknesses that are not achievable with traditional systems. Your designer will be able to explore new boundaries that were previously inaccessible.

5. Safety

Safety should not be underestimated. Indeed, to be marketed, seats must pass specific tests and obtain the relevant compliance certifications.

Seats made entirely of polyurethane (rigid + flexible), if correctly designed, can pass mechanical, chemical, environmental, fire resistance, and comfort compliance tests from the Italian institute CATAS.

Sititaly is your strategic partner for the design, production, and marketing of seating for furniture made from molded polyurethane.

Book a free consultation now through our “Sit with us” service to explore how we can transform the future of sustainable design together. Through a unique consultative approach, the Sititaly team works closely with companies to design the perfect seat, combining functionality, style, and sustainability.

Contact us to book “Sit with us.”

How to make your seats really comfortable

Tessa soft

When designing a seat, comfort is a fundamental aspect; this statement seems obvious and banal but it is not. In fact, until a few years ago customers used to look at product design first, giving less importance to comfort.

In recent years, the comfort of the seat has become more important: customers are looking for a functional, aesthetically pleasing and comfortable seat.

And that’s how the chair manufacturers have undertaken an intense research on the product to be able to meet the demands of the market.

But it isn’t a simple operation.

In fact, often to support the creation of a chair with a “more pushed” design it is necessary to resort to certain materials or construction systems that risk not ensuring the right comfort.

The seats made with the metal frame, for example, are not always comfortable because in the case of particularly essential shapes you risk feeling too much metal underneath.

And that is how convenience has become a widespread problem that greatly affects the process of creating the product.

Therefore, those who produce chairs know well how this aspect should never be underestimated.

The “comfort” of polyurethane flexible ultrasoft

Molded polyurethane is a material that can revolutionize the comfort of the seat; in fact, the structure in rigid polyurethane structural allows you to create comfortable seats without sacrificing a more advanced and modern design.

The surface of the polyurethane shell is uniform, and therefore more “welcoming”; in addition to this can be coupled parts in polyurethane flexible ultrasoft, which guarantee a remarkable comfort.

This particular construction system can include the insertion of flexible foams with different densities in the areas of greatest load, thus offering greater flexibility, as well as comfort.

In addition, this technical solution facilitates the work of upholstering and consequently the sealing of the shapes over time.

Knowing how important the comfort of the seat is nowadays, Sititaly prefers the use of rigid polyurethane and flexible foam to build its products. This technical solution also has the advantage of reducing the impact on the production environment since the flexible and rigid parts are easily separable during disposal or can be disposed of as a single material.

Sititaly is your strategic partner for the design, production and marketing of furniture chairs, made of printed polyurethane; request free SIT WITH US, our solution to help you design together the perfect seat for your business.

When technological innovation also affects the design of a chair

design

Those who work in the seating sector know well how fundamental the design of the product is; the chair, as indeed other furnishing objects, must not only respond to functional needs (comfort, strength, solidity) but also have shapes that are pleasing from the point of view of aesthetics.

The study of chair design is certainly not a novelty: we think of the masters of architecture and design that within the school of the Bauhaus have given birth to some of the most iconic models of chairs ever and that are still produced today.  Even within the famous school, product design was the subject of in-depth study with the aim of providing students with specific skills on these aspects.

And how much does the design of the seat count on the final product today?

Today the situation has not changed and those who produce seats know how the market is increasingly demanding even on aesthetics.

Unlike in the past, the technological innovation of materials and processing techniques offers new opportunities in terms of design.

It is, in fact, thanks to the use of certain materials, more performing than others, that it is possible to obtain thinner and sinuous shapes with an aesthetically pleasing final effect.

One of these is the moulded polyurethane that completely revolutionizes the way of building the seat; in fact, unlike the traditional wooden system or the metal frame, this material offers the opportunity to create seats with more complex shapes.

And if you want to go even further and build a seat with a less linear and square design and no limits of thickness of the various parts, you can do this by combining the rigid polyurethane structure of the parts made of flexible polyurethane.

And this is how it becomes much easier to produce pieces with a more extreme design that, however, don’t lose solidity, flexibility and comfort.

The combination of the two polyurethanes (rigid and flexible) allows maximum freedom in terms of shapes and thicknesses, as well as comfort, unlike what happens with polyurethane combined with metal elements that guarantees yes shapes from modern lines but the thickness remains high, and the foam can’t reach levels of softness as in the first case.

The production process of Sititaly involves the use of rigid structural polyurethane instead of the classic metal frame, using special bonding systems that make the flexible and rigid parts easily separable during disposal or disposed of as a single material. This is why Sititaly polyurethane seats have a reduced environmental impact and are designed with maximum respect for the environment.

In addition to the opportunities in terms of design and aesthetics of the seat, this particular construction system also guarantees many other advantages:

–  the shapes more accurately reproduce the drawing of the seat;

–  the construction is simplified and there are fewer pieces to be disposed of (just think that there are no wooden strips for the tissue dotting);

–  the targeted discharges on the flexible foam provide greater comfort;

– improved edge tightness and no shrinkage in curved areas;

–  no dent problem in the packaging.

Sititaly is your strategic partner for the design, production and marketing of furniture chairs, made of printed polyurethane; request free Sit with us, our solution to help you design together the perfect seat for your business.

Sititaly at Interzum presents a new way of designing seating

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Interzum, the world’s leading trade fair for furniture subcontracting, has just come to an end and we took part from 9 to 12 May.

The theme of this edition was “Shaping the change” and was developed by the participants following the common thread of Neo-Ecology.

Sustainability, technological innovation, attention to the environment and recycling are the aspects that must now be put first in the order of priorities of the furniture supply chain.

And Interzum was an opportunity for comparison to understand where we are.

We at Sititaly have welcomed this theme with pleasure, since our company has made sustainability one of its key points.

Sititaly, in fact, offers solutions with reduced environmental impact since each of our seats is designed with the utmost respect for the circular economy, starting from the use of mono-material and the choice of bio materials.

BIO polyurethane is made using renewable raw materials such as vegetable fibers (also NO FOOD) and does not contain solvents or chemical additives harmful to the environment.

The recyclability of polyurethane can be obtained in various ways, including waste-to-energy in special plants that convert polyurethane into thermal energy, or by grinding and reuse in by-products.

To this is added the fact that SITITALY has created a new seating construction system that contributes to a further step forward in eco-sustainability.

Our particular construction system involves the use of rigid structural polyurethane instead of the classic metal frame (difficult to separate from the flexible part during disposal).

This central structure is then coupled to the flexible part by light gluing or other systems that allow easy separation during disposal, in order to facilitate the recyclability of the different components.

In addition, at the end of the product life, the rigid part can be reused and only the flexible part can be replaced, thus contributing to a considerable reduction in the part to be disposed of or otherwise to be treated.

The result is a product that perfectly meets the demands of a sustainable economy and meets the needs of a market that today is increasingly sensitive to production methods and recycling.

The combination of rigid and flexible polyurethane that we have developed, in addition to promoting the recyclability of the product, also has advantages in terms of comfort, quality and greater freedom in the shapes and thicknesses of the various parts.

All this allows to create seats with lighter and stronger structures, as well as ensuring a longer life.

At Interzum we presented three new product lines that follow this eco-friendly philosophy, based on innovation: TESSA, MICOL and AGAR.

We are satisfied with the feedback received during the days of the fair, as well as the newspaper article published in Il Sole 24 Ore in which we talk about our way of working attentive to the sustainability of products.

Sititaly is a strategic partner that offers customizable solutions and third parties, taking into account the evolution of a market that looks to the future.

Today choosing Sititaly is an advantage for companies looking for a durable, versatile, comfortable and above all sustainably produced seat.

If you too want to be part of this change and create innovative chairs, ask for Sit with us, our solution to help you design together the perfect seat for your business.