DECREASING THE MASS OF A SOFA SIDE MADE OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS BASED ON VEGETABLE FIBERS

The paper presents numerical research on decreasing the consumption of the necessary material for the thermoforming of a couch side, while maintaining the rigidity parameters imposed by the standards. The authors redesigned the reinforcement structure of a sofa side, currently made of wood to be made of composite material based on vegetable fibers and polypropylene. To optimize material consumption, the authors studied the states of stress, deformation and safety factor for two different ribbing models: a) with "+" ribs arranged vertically and horizontally; b) with "X" ribs disposed at an angle of 45 degrees to the vertical. For all the analyzed cases, the thickness of the external wall was varied and the parameters of the rib were kept constant. In conclusion, there is a variation in wall stiffness relative to the type of rib and rib step, thus considering a given displacement a weight reduction of the sofa side can be achieved.