• Keep furniture out of direct sunlight.
• Avoid placing furniture in front of or under windows.
• Place furniture away from heating and air conditioning vents.
• Blot up spills immediately.
• Use coasters, place mats and tablecloths to protect furniture during use.
• Lift and place items instead of sliding across furniture surfaces.
• Rotate accessories on your furniture periodically.
• Avoid prolonged use of plastic and rubber items on your furniture.
• Dust your furniture regularly and polish every 4-6 months.

 
3. Outdoor Furniture Care  

Outdoor living and entertaining has always been a favorite during warm weather. The selection of materials and styles for your patio, deck, backyard or garden furniture is as varied as ever. The quality of these furnishings has improved greatly and is reflected in the cost.

Following some simple care suggestions will extend the life of your garden, patio or deck furniture and provide you with the service you expected.

The methods of care for your outdoor teak furniture will differ from the care and maintenance needed for your aluminum patio furniture.

Follow the manufacturers recommendations for cleaning and maintaining the finish at regular intervals. Some outdoor furniture finishes require reapplication at regular intervals. If you are unable to perform the regular maintenance, contact a professional re finisher in your area for assistance.

Store patio furniture indoors or cover well when not in use.
Remove wooden furniture from standing water.
Avoid direct contact with damp soil for extended periods.

4.  What is the common type of wood grain finishing available?

1. Melamine overlay
After printed with wood grain, base paper is impregnated with melamine resin to come melamine decor sheet. It is then heat pressed between steel press plates onto panel boards. The finished melamine overlay boards are scratch-resistant. Different facade effects can be achieved with the steel press plates. The downside is, melamine overlay board requires first grade cutting equipment, edge sealing equipment and edge bands to ensure crisp-looking edging. This is widely used in the production of Red Apple furniture.

2. Lacquer overlay
After printed with wood grain, base paper is impregnated with resin and coating treatment before being mechanically laminated onto panel boards. It is high production efficiency and low in production cost. However, the result is only satisfactory where design is simple with flat faces. The surface layer is not as rich and scratch-resistant as melamine overlay. (Some lacquer overlays are resin impregnated before printing is done; they are known as pre-treated lacquer overlay). This is not adopted in the production of Red Apple furniture.

3. Overlay with lacquer paint coating
Beginning with the basic lacquer overlay method, subsequent paint treatments add to the richness of the appearance. The look is enhanced by the neat veneer edge seal. Machine rendering ensures uniform quality which manual handling may lack. Howver, this finishing is more costly than other available overlays. This is widely use in the production of Red Apple furniture

4. Manually applied overlay
After printed with wood gran, base paper is directly laminated onto panel boards or wood surfaces by hand, before any coating is applied. The advantage is versatility as it is suitable for both conventional and unconventional designs. Only simple tools are required, and the effect of the lacquer could be very rich. However, the finishing depends largely on manual rendition, and product quality essential hinges on the skill of the workers. If manually applied over is used to substitute edge banding due to design or cost considerations, the edge may not be impact-resistant and professional-looking. This is seldom used in the production of Red Apple furniture. (It is only used if other methods cannot accommodate the speacial designs)

5. Why Red Apple does not use solely melamine faced boards?

The advantage of melamine is its high production efficiency, scratch-free surface and corrosion-resistance. Red Apple is the first furniture manufacturer in China that uses the largest quantity of melamine faced boards. However, we do not use melamine faced board to produce all our furniture because melamine has its limitations in accommodating special designs and edge banding. Red Apple is a pioneer in combining the use of melamine faced board and overlay with lacquer paint coating to complement each other and solve limitations. The products are, as such, a class above with better, more luxurious feel and diversified designs.

6. Is there any EO grade furniture in the market now?

As far as we know, there are no manufacturer producing furniture -- we have not come across any manufacturer who has stated that they are producing EO grade furniture, nor are we aware of anyone manufacturing EO grade furniture of regular quantity on a consistent basis.

7. How many types of free formaldehyde tests are there? Do the results of different tests product any meaningful comparison?

Perforator test: E1 grade <9 mg/100g
Desiccator text < 1.5mg/L

The above tests do not directly correlate; however, under general circumstances, for desiccator test performed on panel boards which have been tested by the perforator method (ie. E1 grade <9/100g, from Europe) and with overlay applied, the reading will be approximately 0.5 mg / L. It'll be erroneous to compare the test value of 1.5mg/L using the desiccator method and the test value of 9mg/100g using the perforator method, and deduce that the former has many times lower of formaldehyde content that the latter.)

8. Some European furniture manufacturers state that the free formaldehyde emission of their products is less than 8mg/100g, and some claim that it is even lower than 6.5mg/100g. Does this point to a standard even stricter than the E1 grade (<9mg/100g)?

"Less than 8mg/100g" is a formaldehyde emission requirement when the moisture content of the boards in 6.5%. Basically it is consistent with the revised "less than 9mg/100g" when the panel boards do no containt moisture.

"Less than 6.5mg/100g" is a 6-month moving average reading for formaldehyde emission. The content formaldehyde in the panel boards decreases with time. Therefore, a 6-month moving average reading of less than 6.5mg/100g is essentially the same as the ex-factory reading of 9.0mg/100g.

9. Can a single or multiple sampling inspection(s) of actual formaldehyde emission replace the free formaldehyde standards of the manufacturers?

It's common to have an actual inspection reading that is very much lower than the manufacturers' standard. A single sampling inspection cannot be used to replace the ex-factory board standards. Sometimes, E1 grade furniture boards may also reach 0 grade but this does not mean that all furniture boards supplied by the manufacturers are the E0 grade.