Monitoring consumer buying behaviors in terms of their preferences and attitudes has been known as an important driver for the success and development of various industries, including a wood furniture manufacturing. The aim of this study was to identify and compare the purchasing behaviors of furniture consumers in the period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two surveys were conducted in Croatia, the first in April and May 2020 with the assumption that consumer purchasing behaviors will change during the COVID-19 pandemic in the following year and the second one during March 2021. Differences regarding consumer purchasing behaviors and preferences for wood furniture between respondents regarding demographic and economic factors before and during the pandemic were found. The coronavirus pandemic is teaching us all hard lessons about resilience and adaptability, and new opportunities and solutions are essential. Nowadays, it is becoming increasingly important to produce information. Research offers insights into future design and building communication to better meet the information needs of different types of consumers and to more broadly increase the acceptance and appeal of wood furniture in society in the spirit of sustainable and bio-based circular economy.

Monitoring Consumer Purchasing Behavior for Wood Furniture before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In order to explore the applicability of the waterborne coating with self-repairing microcapsules based on the surface of wood boards and specify the optimal range of microcapsule content in the coating, three different kinds of shellac microcapsules (transparent shellac, purple shellac, and yellow shellac) were embedded in a waterborne acrylic coating at 0, 1.5 wt.%, 3.0 wt.%, 4.5 wt.%, 6.0 wt.%, and 7.5 wt.%. The Beli wood (Paraberlinia bifoliolata) boards were then covered with self-repairing coatings to investigate the self-repairing coating’s physical and chemical properties, aging resistance, and scratch repair abilities. The findings demonstrated that the chromatic difference and gloss of surface coatings on Beli wood boards were significantly influenced by the content of microcapsules. The optical characteristics and cold liquid resistance performance of the coating on Beli wood were enhanced when the microcapsule content was 3.0 wt.%. Additionally, the mechanical qualities of the coating with 3.0 wt.% transparent shellac microcapsules on Beli wood surface were better, with an H hardness, grade 2 adhesion, and 8 kg·cm of impact strength. The studies on scratch repairing and aging resistance indicated that microcapsules helped to slow down the coating’s damage and retard aging. After a microcrack appeared, the waterborne coating with microcapsules on Beli wood’s surface had the capacity to repair itself. After aging, the coating with 3.0 wt.% transparent shellac microcapsule on Beli wood boards had a better performance on the comprehensive properties, with a 28.9% light loss rate and a 6 kg·cm impact resistance. It also had a 25.0% repairing rate in scratch width after being damaged for 5 d. This study advances the development of self-healing waterborne coatings on the wood board with shellac microcapsules by examining the effects of shellac in various colors and shellac microcapsule content in waterborne coatings.

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Effect of Transparent, Purple, and Yellow Shellac Microcapsules on Properties of the Coating on Paraberlinia bifoliolata Surface

This study was aimed to evaluate the position of lightweight panels and their application in furniture production in Iran by investigating consumers’ behavior and preferences. Here, consumers’ preferences toward effective criteria to choose furniture made of wood-based panels (WBPs) were evaluated on the basis of analytical network process method. Furthermore, respondents were asked about their attitudes and preferences regarding lightweight furniture. The results revealed that the main sub-criteria for buying furniture were product quality, design, price, environmentally-friendly, and guarantee features. Furthermore, the technological feature was the most important criterion affecting consumers buying decisions more than the visual/appearance and economical features of the furniture. Consumers believed that conventional WBPs were heavy for some applications in the furniture. Respondents emphasized that they would buy lightweight furniture, even with a bit more price (5–9%) in comparison to conventional furniture (furniture made of WBPs) if there would be a product guarantee, more varieties of the products available in the market, and environmentally-friendly certification. In general, the consumers showed a willingness to buy furniture made by panels with mid-range density (480 kg/m3 density), but they should have to be sure of the panels’ quality and the furniture made thereof before buying this product.

Consumer behavior assessment regarding lightweight furniture as an environmentally-friendly product

Eco-friendly face mask is necessity to reduce the aggravates the environment due to increased face masks waste during COVID-19 pandemic. The successful eco-friendly masks development influenced by understanding of user’s need and effectiveness of communications. The employed conjoint analysis obtained user mask preferences information to support effective communication strategies by business enterprises and policy makers on encouraging public to consume appropriate masks. The attribute importance followed from eco-friendly (32.1%), mask certification (26.5%), filtration efficiency (19.8%), price (13.9%), layers (5.6%), type of mask (1.5%), material (0.7%). The public expecting the mask with the ability to recycled and biodegradable, with certification, performance above 90% filtration efficiency, and affordable prices in the range of Rp.1.500-Rp.25.000. Also, 3-ply fabrics for the medical type and cotton material are generally preferred to polyester/polypropylene. The government needs to improve the effectiveness masks education, provide convenience process to masks certification by manufacturers, and provision of incentives to reduce masks production cost. Meanwhile, manufacturers ensure produce of the standard eco-friendly masks in affordable pricing. Furthermore, gender did not show significant effect on preferences, but varied with average expenditure. Effectively communication strategy based on user preferences to encourage eco-friendly masks consumption to reduce environmental impact caused by increasing mask during COVID-19 pandemic. • Increased the mask consumption during the pandemic burdening the environmental. • A strategy is needed to encourage the public to use eco-friendly mask. • The mask user preferences is an important information to developing the strategy. • The attribute and level preferences describing the behaviour on masks consumption. • The public communication strategies by decision maker can based on this study. 

Eco-friendly masks preferences during COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia

Nanosized S-Doped TiO2 with Effective Visible-Light Degradation of BTEX from Wood-Based Panels

Lightweight panels, as an eco-friendly element for furniture manufacturing, offer several potential market and production opportunities for many secondary woodworking companies. In this study, the perceptions of Iranian furniture manufacturers were evaluated by means of ANP-based multi-type questionnaires, regarding the conditions and requisite features of lightweight panels in furniture manufacturing. The ANP results revealed that product design, quality and price were effective sub-criteria for furniture manufacturers. The most important attributes for choosing panels during the manufacturing process were: lack of panel warping, product abundance in the market, and withdrawal resistance of connectors. Manufacturers indicated that they were aware of the advantages lightweight panels would bring them, but they were still in need of further persuasion concerning the quality and workability of lightweight panels. Combining lightweight and conventional panels for furniture manufacturing could lead to an increased interest in assuring furniture quality. In addition, further development of lightweight panels is necessary to increase the variation in the market.

Preferences of furniture manufacturers for using lightweight wood-based panels as eco-friendly products

Ultra-lightweight foam-core fibreboard with 19 mm thickness was produced with a novel one-step process using resinated wood fibres for the faces and expandable polystyrene (EPS) as core layer material. The aim of the current study was to investigate the panel properties produced with different EPS bead diameter (0.5, 1.5, and 2.5 mm) and surface layer thickness (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 mm). The EPS bead diameter showed a significant effect on the properties of foam-core fibreboard. The most uniform foam with the smallest cell size and highest cell density was observed in panels with smaller EPS beads, which also resulted in a remarkable increase in bending strength and edge screw withdrawal resistance (SWR) of the foam-core panels. Increasing the surface layer thickness from 1 to 5 mm significantly raised the foam-core panels’ density from 220 to 460 kg/m3, respectively. The higher the panel density, the higher the bending properties and the face SWR. The physical properties (thickness swelling and water absorption) of foam-core panels were negatively influenced by thickening of the surface layers. In general, foam-core fibreboards made with smaller EPS beads (0.5 mm) and 3 mm surface layers (density of 340 kg/m3) showed excellent potential for furniture manufacturing due to their acceptable properties according to EN622-5/P1 while still having nearly 55% lower density compared to conventional fibreboard density (750 kg/m3).

Saeed Khojasteh-Khosro

Papers

Preferences of furniture manufacturers for using lightweight wood-based panels as eco-friendly products

Consumer behavior assessment regarding lightweight furniture as an environmentally-friendly product

Development of ultra-light foam-core fibreboard for furniture application