TFM and 3DL suppliers – Missing the Healthcare Casework Market?

I just got off the phone with the resource librarian for a $100 million architecture firm that specializes in high-tech hospitals and clinics about how they use engineered furniture surfaces. Highlights: TFM is for cabinet interiors, and she’d never heard of 3-D laminates.

“We use HPL on the cabinetry we spec because we’re 100% healthcare. Healthcare is such a high-abuse environment, with shared offices being used 18 to 24 hours a day, we don’t want to risk having our casework fail prematurely. There may be some value engineering happening in back-of-house applications with melamine panels, but we leave that up to our fabricators.

“Mostly, we use melamine for cabinet interiors.”

Where is this firm getting its information on TFM?

“We’ve never had a TFM supplier call on us. Actually, the only supplier who has ever talked to us about that material is a decor paper printer, who has been coming in a couple of times a year for several years now. We’re happy to weigh in on trends, design, and color, we aren’t in a position to directly buy decor paper.”

I asked her if her firm has ever used 3-D laminates.

“What’s that?” she responded.

Vinyls, RTF, for sealing five of the six surfaces of a panel, creating soft edges, unusual shapes…great for the medical industries. I told her about my recent feature on Midmark Corp., who have been successfully using 3-D laminates and TFM panels on medical casework for over a decade.

“I’ve never heard of 3-D laminates, and I’ve been running resource libraries for years. Can you send me something about that?”

And so I did.

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