Houses & Construction
The housing and construction industries cover large groups of manufacturing disciplines and each of CMS' divisions, Wood, Stone, Glass and Advanced Materials, share in requests for solutions for new products and improvements for present manufacturing methods. With respect to advanced materials, the housing and construction industries have continued to expand their use of advanced high quality materials, which is showing up in new offerings and products for solid surface applications including displays, hospitals, airports, tables, reception areas, sanitary and bath fixtures or in acrylic FRP or ABS based bath tubs, hot tubs, shower trays and panel products.
As an advanced material, solid surface enjoys the following advantages for its application and desirability:
- its characteristics as a low maintenance, non porous, and renewable man-made product
- its ability to mimic other materials, which make it a good substitute for stone or wood
- its ability to be thermoformed into 3D shapes giving it a wider range of use
- it characteristic to create a tight seam, which don't permit water to collect or bacteria to grow, important for sinks or back splashes
- its repairabilty, if damaged it can be repaired to look like new
Present technology for one piece hot tubs or spas is based on an acrylic surface, a sheet of which is brought to final shape via the heating of the acrylic sheet and then pulled under vacuum to the mold surface, or a polyethylene powder which is converted into a final surface through a rotational molding process with heat. The substructure is usually an FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) or ABS type plastic.
To support these benefits CMS has developed unique solutions, in addition to its standard series of CNC machining centers, to permit machining of solid surfaces for countertops, countertops with fabricated sinks and sanitary fixtures or the entire range of 3D products required for bath or spa applications.
