Apr. 14, 2025
If you’re looking for the perfect edging solution, one great, versatile thermoplastic choice is ABS edge banding (or Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene to be precise). ABS is one of the newer edge banding materials on the market. You may have come across it if you’ve been searching for an environmentally friendly edge banding. Often positioned as a ‘greener’ alternative to PVC, it shares many characteristics with this more traditional plastic, with the added benefit of being 100% recyclable, or safely incinerated.
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Think ABS is right for your project? Read on for everything you need to know about ABS edge banding…
ABS edging has been on the market for about 20 years, slowly taking the place of PVC in the furniture and woodworking industries. The rise in popularity was driven by companies and manufacturers becoming more aware of their environmental impact, and the need to find more ecologically friendly alternatives to products and processes.
ABS is a high grade thermoplastic that’s very resistant to everyday knocks and scrapes, so it’s great for furniture in high-traffic areas. It can withstand water, is highly heat resistant, and isn’t damaged by domestic cleaning products making it perfect for family kitchens.
It’s also a great material for use in offices, bathrooms, all interior furnishings, shop fitting and coffin manufacturing, even for exhibition stands . Its high level of heat resistance means it can be used on kitchen cabinets next to hot ovens or hobs without damage or distortion.
As an edging, ABS is very flexible, giving almost unlimited application options. Whether straight edge boards, curves, or custom shapes, you can mould this material to fit your design aesthetic. It’s also relatively easy to process on edge banding machines.
ABS is lighter in composition and density than PVC but still provides an incredibly durable surface to protect your board edges. It offers some of the same positives as PVC, with the added bonus of being fully recyclable and biodegradable.
As we’ve mentioned, the feature that sets ABS apart from the crowd is the fact that it’s far more environmentally friendly than other edge banding materials.
ABS is made without any chlorine or acids, which means it can be disposed of in a much safer, healthier way. Usually when plastics burn they produce particles that are harmful to the ozone layer and our health when breathed in. However, because of its chemical makeup, ABS doesn’t release harmful smoke or toxins and it doesn’t leave any hazardous by-products.
Any waste left after incineration is completely biodegradable. There’s no need to spend valuable time separating edges and boards before disposal, it can all be incinerated together in general waste. ABS also burns far more easily than other plastics, so less energy is used in its disposal overall – making it highly energy efficient.
ABS edge banding is also 100% recyclable – it can be melted down and used to create other plastic products.
It’s a good one to know about for companies and manufacturers fulfilling contracts or trying to win tenders that require a low level of environmental impact or for those looking to reduce their impact on the environment generally.
This is a material suitable for the environmentally conscious and for use in projects where both the health of the people involved in its manufacture and the end user is a priority…
ABS edge banding is very flexible, meaning it can be fairly easily applied to curves, and internal or external radii. This property allows greater freedom of design. Go for this edging if you’re working on bespoke furniture projects or unusual shapes.
It’s produced in solid colour and can be made in an almost unlimited range of designs, including wood effect, textured, block colour, concrete and metal effect, granite, marble, or high gloss – the list goes on. As digital printing technology continues to develop, you’ll soon be able to create any design you can imagine on your ABS edge banding.
We have hundreds of colours and patterns available, to match a huge range of boards. If you have your board reference, just type it into the search bar in our shop and see all the edges that match. Or if you’re looking for inspiration, take some time to browse and see the effects and colours available.
Here are just a few examples to give you some ideas…
Concrete is a very chic material for minimalist interiors. Emulate the look of polished concrete with some of our fantastically realistic edgings, including:
Fancy something a little bit special? Make an impact with this Brushed Gold Aluminium Effect ABS Edging. Or why not try block colours and a super glossy finish – go for ultra modern with a pop of wow! Try one of these gorgeous designs:
Real wood adds a cosy, natural feel to interiors. As well as all the variations on oak, beech, pine and ash wood you would expect, there are also some more unusual wood effects available. Create the look of real wood with these beautiful edgings:
When you’re choosing your residence hall furniture and deciding on the specs, you’ll inevitably choose what materials you want.
Should it be totally solid wood, including the top? Or should you get solid wood or plywood substrates with laminate tops, or all laminate?
Whatever the selection, your furniture is probably going to include edge banding. Why?
Because it’s an important part of the construction. And depending on where we use it in the cabinet, it improves the longevity of your furniture.
In this short guide—part of our Nuts & Bolts Series for operational and facilities leaders—you’ll learn some of the basics of edge banding.
So let’s start at the beginning. What is edge banding?
It’s actually kind of simple, and the video below will help you understand it even better, but this is a simple overview to get you started.
Here’s the basic non-technical idea.
Plywood, particle board, and other manufactured wood cores like MDF have rough, unfinished, unprotected, and generally unsightly edges.
To account for that, some clever folks developed technologies that allow you to glue different bands of glossy finished material to those rough edges to match the tops and sides.
Those narrow bands or strips are called edging tape, and they range in thickness from 0.018-inch to 5mm thick and come in 250 ft rolls.
The thicker edging is used in high traffic and commercial environments because it provides greater resilience and impact resistance. For example, the military requires a thicker ⅜” solid wood edge banding for maximum impact resistance.
And edge banders are the industrial grade machines that apply the edging tape to the raw edges of the wood panels with a hot-melt adhesive or glue.
Edge banding serves both functional and aesthetic purposes.
Functionally, edge bands perform some key duties for your furniture. First, they keeps moisture out serving as de facto seals on the edge of the core material. Second, edge banding improves durability and resilience by providing impact resistance. If you’re using solid wood edging, it can also add to the overall strength of the furniture.
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Aesthetically, edge banding covers up unsightly rough edges and creates a glossy finish to match your tops and sides. You can also create radial edges to soften sharp angles.
Where can you expect to find edge banding in your furniture? That depends on your overall material specification.
A solid wood product won’t include any edge banding, except where we can’t use solid wood. Wardrobe doors, for example, are made of veneer core plywood or MDF.
And even when we use solid wood for case sides and drawer fronts, many customers still use high pressure laminate tops. Those tops need edge banding.
If you’re using plywood or laminate as your material specification, that needs edge banding too.
DCI uses edge banding in places you might not expect, like plywood bed decks. Why? Because a fully sealed deck prevents bed bugs. You can read more about bed bug mitigation here.
DCI doesn’t use edge banding on cabinet backs or drawer bottoms because they are already embedded (sealed) in dato grooves. Likewise we don’t edge band internal plywood drawer parts because it doesn’t add value.
You should note that some manufactures don’t use edge banding where they should—like on the bottom and back edges of plywood cabinets. That’s a problem because moisture, even small amounts, can destroy unsealed furniture.
What are the edging tapes made from? There are different materials, and we’ll just focus on a few here.
1. PVC is the most popular material for edge banding on case good tops. Pros: It’s inexpensive, durable, and boasts a long life. It doesn’t require any finishing process. It’s also easy, albeit tedious, to repair. Cons: You can’t recycle it. It doesn’t biodegrade. Once it’s blemished, you can’t refinish it. (NB: ABS—Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene—is an eco-friendly alternative to PVC because it’s both recyclable and safe to incinerate.)
When it comes to PVC, we recommend 3mm edging in general because it goes on cleaner, quicker, and with better adhesion. Another advantage is that you get a graceful radius and a nice soft-looking finish. In general, we avoid .5mm edging because the corners tend to be too sharp.
2. Solid Wood is still a favorite for case good tops in many woodworking camps. It’s durable, recyclable, easy to fix and refinish, strong, stiff, and economical.
Benefits: it’s more resistant to chipping than veneer edge tape. Solid wood glues are more reliable and less prone to peeling than veneer and PVC. It provides additional dimensional support to plywood and mdf. Climate neutral manufacturing. Cons: Difficult to use for curves.
We offer solid wood edge banding for tops in a range of thicknesses. And you can apply it internally or externally.
When it comes to solid wood we recommend 9.5mm on case good tops.
As we explain below, at DCI, we believe the best way to apply wood edge banding is “internally” with a HPL top. Why? Because in our experience, it’s incredibly durable and never requires additional service.
3. Wood Veneer is the most common edge banding material for plywood cabinet sides, drawer fronts, and MDF wardrobe doors. It’s made from thin slices of wood—typically oak, maple, ash, walnut, birch, and mahogany—that are joined together in a roll using finger jointing.
It usually features a heat-sensitive glue backing. And it comes in a range of thicknesses, so it’s important to use the right one depending on the application.
Pros: It’s attractive, durable, and strong. It provides a clean solid-wood look, and it’s pre-sanded to absorb stains and finishes and seamlessly match your wood. Cons: It’s not heat resistant. Avoid putting it near a heater. It doesn’t do well in high-use environments.
According to RA Learning Center, there are at least four methods of applying edge banding. There are a lot of things to say about each of these but for now, here’s a simple list of application methods and mediums.
There’s no doubt, edge banding is essential to most campus and dorm furniture. When applied improperly, or used incorrectly in critical components, it’s a huge maintenance issue.
One issue you might find in furniture that has edge banding is that it peels. Why?
Sometimes, for different reasons, the adhesive can fail. When that happens, the edge banding will start to peel away from the edge.
Peeling can also happen because of rough use. For example, .5mm edging doesn’t provide much resistance to impact. Therefore you don’t want to use it on the front end of a case side. If you do, your edging might start to peel.
If your furniture starts to peel, we can fix it. Just reach out to your local DCI account rep, and we’ll take care of it for you.
Generally speaking, we recommend PVC edge banding for projects where budget is the first and driving priority. That is not to say there is anything wrong with this material. There are just fewer steps in the manufacturing process and the raw material is less expensive.
Solid wood edge banding is more expensive because it’s labor intensive and the material is higher quality. And with more steps involved in the manufacturing process, we consider this a premium solution. As we alluded to above, internal solid wood edge banding with HPL tops are probably our strongest and most durable solution.
We choose to use a hot melt glue for our adhesive solution because it’s user friendly and provides a great seal. We apply the glue to the edge while it’s still hot and then apply the banding, pressing it to the side.
Ambient temperature plays an important role in the edge banding process. We need to regulate the temperature of both the building and our materials. In essence, we need a warm environment for the optimal adhesion process. It can’t be cold in the building.
And finally, you need a good clean glue edge for the process to work. At DCI, we have state of the art machinery that improves the glue edge and squares it up perfectly.
It’s our responsibility to edge band correctly. But you should know, there are still choices you’ll need to make when evaluating edge banding options.
Those choices can feel daunting if you don’t live and breathe this stuff like we do. Our experts will help you navigate your edge banding options to ensure you get the right product for your project.
Our goal is to help you understand the process and give you confidence that our products are designed based on years of manufacturing experience and time-tested performance in the field.
Here is a stripped down version of edge banding. Of course, when building furniture for Higher Education and Military customers, we do this on an industrial scale. But this video will help you visualize the process in its simplest form.
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