Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards which include medium-density fibreboard (MDF), oriented strand board (OSB) and particle board (chipboard).
Kelvinator was an American home appliance manufacturer and a line of domestic refrigerators that was the namesake of the company. Although as a company it is now defunct, the name still exists as a brand name owned by Electrolux AB. It takes its name from William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, who developed the concept of absolute zero and for whom the Kelvin temperature scale is named. The name was thought appropriate for a company that manufactured ice-boxes and refrigerators.
Particle board, also known as chipboard or low-density fiberboard, is an engineered wood product manufactured from wood chips and a synthetic resin or other suitable binder, which is pressed and extruded. Particle board is often confused with oriented strand board, a different type of fiberboard that uses machined wood flakes and offers more strength.
Laminated veneer lumber (LVL) is an engineered wood product that uses multiple layers of thin wood assembled with adhesives. It is typically used for headers, beams, rimboard, and edge-forming material. LVL offers several advantages over typical milled lumber: Made in a factory under controlled specifications, it is stronger, straighter, and more uniform. Due to its composite nature, it is much less likely than conventional lumber to warp, twist, bow, or shrink. LVL is a type of structural composite lumber, comparable to glued laminated timber (glulam) but with a higher allowable stress.
The Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman are furnishings made of molded plywood and leather, designed by Charles and Ray Eames for the Herman Miller furniture company. They are officially titled Eames Lounge (670) and Ottoman (671) and were released in 1956 after years of development by designers. It was the first chair that the Eameses designed for a high-end market. Examples of these furnishings are part of the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Waferboard belongs to the subset of reconstituted wood panel products called flakeboards. It is a structural material made from rectangular wood flakes of controlled length and thickness bonded together with waterproof phenolic resin under extreme heat and pressure. The layers of flakes are not oriented, which makes it easier to manufacture. Waferboard is used as a material to build cheap furniture. This type of furniture is usually laminated.
The Curtiss-Wright C-76 Caravan was an American all-wood military transport aircraft. The C-76 was intended as a substitute standard aircraft in the event of expected wartime shortages of light alloys. However, both prototype and production aircraft failed several critical flight and static tests, and after U.S. aluminum production proved sufficient for wartime defense requirements, orders for the C-76 were cancelled and production terminated.
Columbia Forest Products is the largest manufacturer of hardwood veneer and hardwood plywood in the United States. Founded in 1957, it is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina. It specializes in decorative, interior veneers and plywood panels that are used in high-end cabinetry, fine furniture, architectural millwork and commercial fixtures. The company distributes its products primarily through a network of wholesale distributors, mass merchandisers and OEMs. Since 1976, the company has been completely employee-owned and currently has 10 manufacturing facilities throughout the U.S. and Canada. At the end of 2006, Columbia converted all of its standard hardwood plywood production to produce formaldehyde-free panels called PureBond. In 2007 Columbia added PureBond formaldehyde-free particleboard to its product range.
A Hoosier cabinet is a type of cupboard or free-standing kitchen cabinet that also serves as a workstation. It was popular in the first few decades of the 20th century in the United States, since most houses did not have built-in kitchen cabinetry. The Hoosier Manufacturing Co. of New Castle, Indiana, was one of the earliest and largest manufacturers of this product, causing the term "Hoosier cabinet" to become a generic term for that type of furniture. By 1920, the Hoosier Manufacturing Company had sold two million cabinets.
Haskell is a purely functional programming language.
Manistee Watch Company was a watch manufacturing company that produced pocket watch mechanisms from 1909 to 1912 in Manistee, Michigan. The dust-free factory facilities were state of the art built with reinforced concrete — a new technology at the time. The factory produced its own electrical power to run the production machines for manufacture; state of the art at the time.
Charles Frederick Conrad was the founder of the LMC Lake Michigan Car Ferry service. He is also known as an industrialist who made environmental test chambers for the aircraft industry, aerospace industry, commercial industry, rocket industry, NASA, and the United States Armed Forces. The headquarters for his companies were in Holland, Michigan, with sales and service branches throughout the world. His formal schooling was as a high school graduate and a correspondence course in refrigeration.
Molded plywood is the term for two- or three-dimensionally shaped products from multiple veneer layers that are glued together through heat and pressure in a pressing tool. The veneer layers are arranged crosswise at an angle of 90 degrees. Molded wood is used for flat furniture components such as seats, backrests and seat shells. When the veneer layers are arranged in the same direction, it is called laminated wood. It is used for armrests and chair frames. After pressing, the blanks are processed mechanically. A particular feature is the ability to produce different variations of shapes from the blanks. Due to its immense strength and low weight, molded wood is particularly suitable for interior decoration, seating furniture, bed slats, skateboards and vehicle construction.
Haskelite is the brand name of a plywood, once made by the Michigan-based Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation. It was made from waterproof glue developed by Henry L. Haskell. The moldable plywood was originally called Ser-O-Ply. It was used in the construction of various vehicles including military tanks, boats, airplanes, buses, trucks, and automobiles. The plywood was manufactured with different characteristics depending on particular needs and then given a brand name.
Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation (1917–1956) was a conglomerate of Michigan–based companies. It was located on Broadway Avenue in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They manufactured haskelite plywood for a wide variety of applications and vehicles. Their office headquarters were located in Chicago, Illinois. The Grand Rapids corporation was a spin-off from the Haskell Manufacturing Company in Ludington, Michigan. It was a factory twice the capacity at over 100,000 square feet and designed to make up to ten times as much plywood per day as the Ludington facilities. The plywood at the beginning was needed for World War I military airplane body parts. The plywood later was used in houses, buildings, automobiles and ship construction. Different styles and types of plywood were made for particular niches including for the construction of the Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindberg's plane.
Carrom Company was a manufacturer of games and furniture, headquartered in Ludington, Michigan. It started as Ludington Novelty Company in the 19th century. Its main product was the game of carroms. The company first started as the Ludington Novelty company at the end of the nineteenth century making novelty items. One of these was the game of carroms as a family game. The first carrom game boards were made by hand one by one and sold first before another was made. The game was sold in the US by the tens-of-thousands starting at the end of the 19th century. The parlor game became popular worldwide. Various local businessmen were involved with the company in its financing and management. Additional products were added to the original game of carroms as time went on, usually as associated furniture. The original company sold out to a larger firm in 1951 and the Ludington branch, which continued making the carroms game, became a small part of the larger firm.
Waterfall is a style of furniture design from the 1930s and 1940s. It was the most prevalent variation on Art Deco furniture during this time, primarily created for the mass market and for bedroom suites.
Raute Corporation is a Finnish company. It is the parent company of the globally operating Raute Group, which manufactures machines for the production of veneer, plywood and LVL panels and beams.
The 1911 Grand Rapids furniture workers' strike was a general strike performed by furniture workers in Grand Rapids, which was then a national leader of furniture production.
The Haskelite Building, also known as the Haskell Manufacturing Company Building, is a former factory building located at 801 N. Rowe Street, Ludington, Mason County, Michigan. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 10, 2022. In 2022, the building was refurbished into residential apartments, known as the Lofts on Rowe.
