Shopfitting is not furniture making: the same part is built fifty times, in stores with different installers, and has to look the same everywhere. That is exactly where routed solutions fail — and what archived bent wood tooling is made for.
Parts we make for shopfitting
Arches and free forms
Quarter arches, segment arches and free contours for counters, shelf ends and room dividers. Bent wood arch components
Panels and fascias
Curved fascias in front of counters and niches, 18 to 30 mm thick, with chamfered or rounded edges. Bent wood panels and aprons
Slats and battens
Straight or bent slats for shelf frames, wall panelling and benches, 4 to 18 cm section. Bent wood slats
Edge bands
Thin bent lipping for curved panel edges on tables and counters. Bent wood edge bands
Consistency across stores
A rollout rarely fails on shape, it fails on colour. We therefore record species, origin, moisture at forming and finish per batch, and keep the tool archived. A store added two years later gets the same part from the same tool.
For visible joints we hold ±0.5 mm on machined dimensions and 0.3 mm/m on seating surfaces. That decides whether joints run evenly or get reworked on site — and site rework is the most expensive millimetre in a project.
On request we ship store-specific, numbered packs so installation starts without sorting. The additional handling costs little and saves more on site than it costs.
Tooling, MOQ and lead time
Tooling is built in-house in 7 to 15 days from drawing and archived for the life of the programme. MOQ follows tooling effort, not a flat figure. Production runs 15 to 30 days; FOB Foshan or Shenzhen, CIF or DDP on request — see MOQ, lead time and shipping.
Packing is organised by store and installation section: interleaving at the curves, part numbers on every pack. A 40 ft container takes roughly 1,200 to 2,000 panels depending on section.
Before bending starts we check the site dimensions. In refurbishments the radius and the connection rarely match the drawing, so we take the contour on site and produce to the measured value. That costs one visit and saves the rework that otherwise lands on site — where nobody has budgeted for it.
Frequent questions
How does a run stay identical across stores?
Through three things: archived tooling, documented batches and a consistent timber source. A store added later is produced from the same tool as the first.
What tolerance applies to visible joints?
±0.5 mm on machined dimensions, 0.3 mm/m on seating surfaces. Tighter values are possible but add inspection effort and should be limited to joints actually seen.
How fast can single parts be re-supplied?
The tool stays archived, so re-supply typically runs 15 to 30 days without a new sample phase. For critical parts we can hold safety stock.
Terms: bend radius, springback and case-hardening are explained in the bent wood glossary. Send a drawing with radius and section and we confirm feasibility, tooling and lead time within 24 hours via the contact page.
Application examples: six parts with their production parameters — see the examples.