Material Difference

The invention of the tube or pipe was initially meant as a duct or conduit to channel liquid and then later town gas. Without tubes of brass, copper and glass, alcohol could not have been distilled and the steam engines of the industrial revolution would not have been possible. The tube as an engineering device or principle is as important as the wheel. However, it is the structural efficiency of hollow tubes that has been used to create the modern world.

Although it replaced wrought iron for bicycle frames some time in the mid-1800’s it was not until 1927 that Mart Stam’s experiments with gas pipe created the first cantilever chair frame, inventing a new way to make furniture. Followed by Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Eileen Grey, chrome plated steel tube was used to create an exuberant and completely modern form, reflecting the utopian ideas of the early 20th Century.

Since then steel-tube has become readily available in many sizes and grades to suit different applications. It has come in and out of fashion and after its popularity in the 1920’s, the colourful vibrance of the 1960’s,  steel tube replaced wood used in Utility Furniture to serve a new design led market.

Steel tubes are now an essential material for the furniture industry. Bending tubes to form structural frames is a highly efficient use of material although in recent years, sections of tubes have been used in conjunction with cast or moulded parts to form frames. This was partly to avoid the inevitable aesthetic bent tube created, and justified for a host of other design reasons. However, with a greater need for efficiency and ease of manufacture, plus the use of laser cutting, steel tubes are reasserting their importance as a material. With good strength to cost ratios, a variety of suppliers and sizes and the ability to recycle easily, it was our first choice when developing Venue Tables.