Timber Based Materials
Design & Technology: AQA GCSE, topic 3.1.1
Functionality & Aesthetics
Timbers are a fundamental and popular choice of materials for many products, furniture and structures.
Functionality
- Functionality: (application of use, ease of working.)
- It is important to consider what the timber based material will be used for.
- Timbers and manufactured boards can be used for a wide range of applications.
- Timber and manufactured boards can be used for scaffolding, furniture, door frames and sheds.
Functionality cont.
- Timbers in most instances can be easy to work with when using a wide range of hand tools and machinery.
- Timbers because of their history, can be used for a variety of applications as it was and still is a material that can be sustained and is a cheap material.
Aesthetics: finishes
- It is important to understand what finishes, texture and colours you can have with timber based materials.
- Timbers have natural colours that can be improved or enhanced through different after treatment processes.
Aesthetics: textures
- Textures can be improved through a wide range of wasting processes and using additional materials.
Aesthetics: colours
- Colours can be completely changed through paints and stains which can make a dramatic difference to timber based materials.
Availability & Cost
Timbers are a fundamental and popular choice of materials for many products, furniture and structures.
Availability
- Availability is the ease of sourcing and purchase.
- Wood is easy to source as it comes in many different stock forms.
- It can be brought from large retail DIY stores or smaller independent timber merchants.
Availability (cont.)
- Timber can also be found online and can be delivered to and from around the world.
- Wood is very easy to source as long as the material is common to the country or is a native tree (a tree that grows in that country).
Cost
- The cost of timbers and timber based materials are relatively cheap as a resistant material.
- Unit cost is the price of one of the material.
- Total costs are the price of all the materials as a collective.
Cost: bulk buying
- Buying in bulk can reduce transportation costs overall.
- Companies have the capabilities of transporting large stock and in order to entice consumers, businesses and tradespeople wood merchants offer a buy in bulk pricing strategy.
Example
- E.g. one 2 x 4 length of stripwood may cost £1.10, but if you were to buy 10 pieces then the total should be £11.00.
- However, companies may give a discount because you are buying more 10 pieces.
- They usually reduce the unit cost to £1.00 if you are buying a minimum of 10 pieces.
- Therefore, the total cost is £10.00