Finishes

Wood Species

Sauder Courtroom Furniture offers nine standard wood species, including Beech, Cherry, European Beech, Mahogany, Maple, Northern Red Oak, Northern White Oak, Rift Northern Red Oak, Rift Northern White Oak, and Walnut. We also offer exotics. Responsible sourcing is a priority here, whether working with our standard woods or selecting exotic woods from around the world like Anigre, Makore, and Sapele. Plus, our custom finishes color-matching helps you coordinate with other wood accents in the environment.

Finishes

We supply our products with what we believe is an “industry exclusive” for wood furniture in courtroom seating. The new finish is a highly durable 2K Polyurethane wood finishing system applied with the latest in computer-controlled equipment. This 2-component or 2K polyurethane sealer and topcoat has all the advantages of traditional catalyzed varnish with the added benefits of increased durability and performance. These are extremely important when exposed to real-world applications where people are in daily contact with the furniture. To test this we, created a test environment where each of the following noted chemicals was applied, rubbed twice, and allowed to dry 36,400 times. We diluted each of the following chemicals to the manufacturer’s recommendation: Bleach/Clorox, Isopropyl Alcohol/Equate, Peroxide/Oxycide, Quaternary Ammonium/Virex II 256, Phenolic/Wexcide128. After this very rigorous test, the samples did not show a meaningful difference (Gloss Level, Film Thickness, and Cross Hatch Adhesion) from before testing.

Sauder Courtroom Furniture is a supporting member of the Architectural Woodworking Institute. They publish an extensive list of Architectural Woodwork Standards. Wood finishing systems are covered in section 5, “Finishing.” Individual results from exposure to a wide variety of liquid agents are numerically ranked based on ASTM criteria. Our 2K Polyurethane process is a “System 11” in this standard. It performs better where it counts when compared to Catalyzed Varnish, which is a “System 5”.

Consider this: System 11 Polyurethane is the finish of choice for wood floors, interior doors, staircase components, and more. Making it a real testament to the superior hard use resistance inherent with this finish chemistry. On your next furniture project, look for Sauder Manufacturing Co. and the AWS System 11 finish designations.