by HICKORY, N.C. This past week, Home News Now attended the annual Furniture Manufacturing Expo where it got to visit with a number of suppliers to the residential and commercial furniture industries. Held June 13-14 at the Hickory Metro Convention Center, it featured nearly 100 companies showcasing machinery, products and services geared toward helping the industry become more competitive from a manufacturing, design and cost perspective.
Machinery ranged from large-scale fabric and leather cutting machines to smaller sewing machines and embroidery equipment. Resources were also on hand with the latest components, ranging from hardware and hardwood samples to spring seating and sleeper mechanisms. Home News Now captured much of this with photos taken on the show floor. To catch a glimpse of the varied displays and people we saw at the event, scroll through the slideshow below.
Tom Inman, left, president of Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Inc., and Steve Walters, of Richelieu USA, at the Appalachian Hardwood booth during the show.
Atlanta Attachment Co., a sister company of Hickory Springs, showcased some of its sewing, cutting, material handling and custom equipment for the furniture and mattress industries.
Consew and Meistergram showcased some of their latest sewing and cutting equipment at the show.
A show attendee checks out some of the multiple products offered by Heico Fasteners, ranging from decorative hardware and nailheads to dowels, webbing, zippers and more.
Richelieu USA also showed a wide mix of products ranging from screws and decorative hardware to hinges, drawer slides, lighting, glues, finishing products and more. It has an estimated 145,000 items in stock across industry segments and also has access to another 200,000 SKUs for special orders, the company told Home News Now.
Pathfinder Cutting Technology brought one of its fabric-cutting machines to the show, where it provided live demonstrations of its latest technologies in the sector.
Andre MacDonough, a field technician at Zund, showed off equipment that determines how to nest patterns to be cut on a piece of leather. The goal is to minimize waste and improve yield and efficiency in the cutting of leather and fabric.
Zund occupied a space near the front entrance of the exhibit hall, providing visitors a view of some of its cutting equipment in action.
ABM International, a resource for industrial quilting machines, showed some of the patterns that its equipment can produce, offering customers a glimpse at its many custom capabilities in such processes.
The process of custom embroidery is shown on a machine that ABM International brought to the show.
More vendors are seen at the show on Friday. They said traffic was noticeably lighter on the second day of the event, but were still seeing existing customers and new prospects alike. The show allowed vendors to educate customers about their equipment, products and services in hopes of boosting their business in the second half and beyond.
