The International Woodworking Fair (or IWF) is a biennial woodworking show held in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center. This year’s show was held Wednesday, August 20th – Saturday, August 23rd. It is the largest woodworking show in the Western Hemisphere and the place to see and be seen in the woodworking industry. JB Cutting has proudly attended every year since 1988! This year’s show started early for us; we caught a 6:30am flight from Detroit to Atlanta on Wednesday and headed straight to the show. Walking in, we were in awe of all the exhibitors – over 900 spanning two large halls. Even though the show had just opened, there were many attendees milling about checking out all that the exhibitors had to offer.
Our first stop was the Uniboard booth, as it was located close to the entrance. They manufacture TFL (board). Uniboard is offering a new finish “Aura,” available in October 2014. From their website:
“This five colour collection focuses on linear wood grains with natural appeal. A bustle abstract wood pattern that is a beautiful colour carrier and a walnut that will steal the show. Both patterns chosen specially to enhance the natural effects of the Aura finish.”
Located across the aisle from Uniboard was the Omnova booth. Omnova produces 3DL (thermofoil). Their latest offering is the “Matte” collection: six new colors in a soft finish.
- Matte White
- Matte Khaki
- Matte Stone
- Matte Steele
- Matte Black
- Matte Sulfur
Because these colors are so subtle, they ground your designs and bring focus to the color and quality of the 3DL.
Next on our tour was another 3DL company, SSI (Surface Source International). We created some pieces for their booth and think it came together very well!
In addition to their 3DL product line, SSI supplies StyleLite and Zenolite. StyleLite is an extruded lamination-specific polymer sheet with an ultra-high gloss acrylic top layer. Zenolite is made from two layers of acrylic, co-extruded into a single sheet. A vibrant color layer is fused with a stunningly clear top layer to create a panel of incredible depth, gloss and clarity. A great big thanks to SSI for their hospitality during IWF; JB is proud to partner with SSI!
Another 3DL vendor on our list located close to the SSI booth was American Renolit. They’ve got some spectacular high gloss products and decorative surfaces for exterior applications, in addition to matches to some of the new Uniboard colors. At Renolit, the sky is the limit!
We also stopped by the Riken USA booth. If you missed our previous blog post, we partnered with Riken to bring their booth to life with colors and textures. We produced three, five-sided cubes featuring Riken’s 3DL colors – check out our blog post: jbcutting.com/3dl-comes-life-iwf-2014/.
After lunch with Daubert Chemical (a leader in the adhesives market), we headed over to Hall B – the noisy hall – where all of the machinery was located. We made our way over to the Stiles booth for some shopping and dreaming. Our team watched demos of edgebanders, CNC processing centers and sanding machines. Almost all of our machinery is purchased through Stiles and we enjoy their high level of service and variety of machinery.
After a fun-filled night of networking we awoke eager to see what we missed on Wednesday. Our list mostly consisted of TFL (board) manufacturers. We had an early meeting with Flakeboard/Arauco.
They have some terrific new product additions to their line with the GROOVZ series being predominant. It’s a cost-effective linear wood grain (teak). Also new to their lineup are Weathered Vane, Haystack and Ranch Gate, three colors inspired by life down on the farm. On Thursday we also visited other TFL providers – Panolam, Roseburg, Stevens and Funder to get the scoop on their new products.
We headed back over to the “noisy hall” for lunch at the Smartech booth. Smartech specializes in parts and equipment to optimize production. We saw this cool 3DL rack and a drying rack that piqued our interest.
After a quick stop back at the Stiles booth to chat with one of our techs, we headed over to the Tafisa Cocktail reception to network some more!
Friday morning came all too quickly – our last day. After a quick meeting with Woodworking Network, we were off to the Tafisa booth to hear all about the newest trends. Tafisa is another TFL (board) manufacturer.
We were floored by their 16 new colors and two new textures (Isola and Origen). The Origen and Isola textures are available in their recently released complex solids and bring an almost iridescent shimmer to the product. In addition, the Origen texture is available in 8 new colors (the Isola is available in the complex solids only):
- Smith Street
- Karoo Ash
- Chalbi Clay
- Tanners Lane
- Fogo Harbour
- Meadows Cove
- Ungava Bay
- Palomino High
Tafisa has also added 6 new colors to the already popular Alto texture:
- Breakwater
- Southwester
- Chinook
- River Rock
- Barnwood
- Northwester
We had just enough time to stop by the Ambtra booth (another 3DL supplier) – they had some beautiful high gloss products on display – before we left at midday to catch our flight back to Detroit. It was a whirlwind, almost overwhelming, 2-1/2 days, but a great chance to see all the new technology and products. We’re already looking forward to IWF 2016!