Taking advantage of tool-free hardware.

Tool-free assembly hinges, slides and connectors that first gained popularity with the growth of the RTA furniture industry are now proving their worth to the cabinet and store fixture markets as well.

Over the past few years, Europeans have been introducing Americans to yet another manufacturing efficiency innovation: tool-free assembly hardware. Hinges, slides and connectors that "clip on" have made the ready-to-assemble furniture industry flourish and now could potentially revolutionize the way some cabinet companies and other wood products companies operate.

Tool-free assembly hinges, slides or connectors are equipped with a spreading dowel that expands when the hardware is pushed into a pre-bored hole in the panel. This method of inserting hardware is designed to simplify the manufacturing, shipping and installation processes for a variety of manufacturing industries, including RTA, cabinet and store fixtures and displays.

User-Friendly Hardware

Hardware that can be inserted without the aid of power tools or screwdrivers has made assembly of RTA furniture less painful for the end user.

"I think tool-free assembly in our industry means customer-friendly hardware," said Gianni Cavassa, marketing/sales manager at Salice America. "More and more we are manufacturing for a consumer base that is not tool-skilled."

Cavassa said he thinks the RTA concept will continue to expand into high-quality furniture manufacturing.

"The RTA industry is making products of higher and higher quality and some of the RTA furniture will begin to be sold fully assembled," said Cavassa. "If you as a store receive a shipment of high-quality RTA (for example veneered RTA or RTA with expensive finishes), the shipment costs mandate that the pieces are shipped to the store unassembled. The retainer store has a warehouse where the furniture is stored in a box. They will assemble one or two pieces for the showroom, and once the piece is sold, it will be assembled at the warehouse right before being delivered to the customer. Shipping assembled furniture is like shipping empty boxes, and space is money."

The increase in the sophistication and quality of tool-free assembly hardware has also caused the cabinet manufacturing industry to look for ways to apply clip-on hinges, slides and connectors.

"Our whole focus is gearing toward totally tool-less installation of hardware," said Marte Yerkins, marketing manager at Julius Blum Inc. "There are a couple of advantages for the cabinet industry, one being that when using tool-free hardware, cabinet manufacturers can drill the door before staining or painting. Normally you would drill and insert the hinge on the same operation. Obviously, cabinetmakers would prefer not to take a finished door to a hinge-inserting machine, where the finish could potentially be damaged. If they are using tool-free hardware, they can pre-bore the door, sand and finish, then just push the hinge into the pre-bored door."

Protecting the finish of the cabinet door and the condition of the hinge itself is leading cabinet companies to see the advantages of shipping their high-quality doors to the job site unattached and protectively wrapped.

"Any kind of cabinet that has a door whose finish, if scratched, damaged or marked, would be difficult to replace, should be shipped in this way," said Cavassa. "You ship the cabinet without the doors, and the installers, whether they are professionals or they are the end user, will put together the cabinets. The installer will locate the box on the wall, level it and make sure it's where he wants it. Once the assembly location has taken part, the final thing that goes on the cabinet is the door, which is only installed when there is no more risk of damaging it."

The desire to ship cabinets flat-pack was what originally led European cabinetmakers to investigate ways to use the tool-free assembly hardware that was already available for RTA furniture.

"Europeans are constantly trying to improve the efficiencies of their own operations, including maximizing shipping loads," said Yerkins. "In Europe, very seldom do you see a cabinet that is shipped fully assembled to a job site. It is usually shipped in RTA form and assembled on site."

Tool-free connectors and slides

The range of tool-free assembly hardware available also includes an increasing number of connectors and slides.

"The applications for tool-free connectors include RTA furniture as well as office furniture and the kitchen cabinet industry," said Karl-Heinz Kraft, product and marketing manager at Hafele. "A real tool-less piece of hardware doesn't exist, though. Even with just a connector you still need a half-turn with a screwdriver or some tool to pull it all together, but it can be inserted without tools."

Kraft said that even more concealed connectors are currently being developed that will be increasingly tool-free.

"The trade-off, though, is that the fewer tools you want to use, the less strong the holding power of the connector might be. Consumer friendliness becomes a trade-off for the strength of the connection."

Undermount or concealed drawer slides are also available as clip-on hardware.

"Drawer systems are now being developed that are tool-free assembly," said Yerkins. "Box systems, with metal drawer sides, are evolving into a component system wherein you pre-bore holes into the drawer front and the drawer bottom and the whole drawer will go together on site without tools."

Clip-on slides are also self-locating, according to Kraft.

"With these systems, everything falls in place without any time spent adjusting the drawer or slide," said Kraft. "This is used in the kitchen industry, as well as in institutional applications and some in the office furniture area. The clip can also incorporate side and height adjustment, making installation that much easier."

The next industry segment that is expected to start really taking advantage of tool-free assembly hardware are the store fixtures and display manufacturers. By using tool-less hardware, store fixture manufacturers could flat-pack ship their products to the job site for assembly and installation.

"As the fittings become better engineered, they will also become. more widely used," Cavassa said. "As a larger range of tool-free assembly hardware products are made available, more and more manufacturers will be convinced by the savings in manufacturing, shipping and installation costs afforded by the use of this hardware."