{"id":32660,"date":"2026-09-08T07:09:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T22:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/archives\/32660"},"modified":"2026-09-09T16:50:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T07:50:40","slug":"product-dev-smtcxit7613-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/archives\/32660","title":{"rendered":"When wood is unavailable, consider alternative materials that maintain weight and a sense of luxury."},"content":{"rendered":"<style>\n.mc-article{max-width:680px;margin:0 auto;padding:56px 20px 80px;\n  font-size:17px;line-height:2.0;color:#1a1a1a;\n  font-family:-apple-system,\"Hiragino Sans\",\"Noto Sans JP\",sans-serif;}\n.mc-article p{margin:0 0 1.9em;line-height:2.0;}\n.mc-article h2{font-size:23px;font-weight:700;line-height:1.6;\n  margin:3.2em 0 1.1em;padding-bottom:.5em;border-bottom:1px solid #e6e6e6;}\n.mc-article h2:first-child{margin-top:0;}\n.mc-article h3{font-size:19px;font-weight:700;line-height:1.7;margin:2.6em 0 .9em;}\n.mc-article ul,.mc-article ol{margin:0 0 1.9em;padding-left:1.6em;}\n.mc-article li{margin-bottom:.8em;line-height:1.95;}\n.mc-article a{color:#1B6FA8;}\n.mc-article strong{font-weight:700;}\n@media(max-width:600px){\n  .mc-article{font-size:16px;padding:36px 18px 64px;}\n  .mc-article h2{font-size:20px;margin-top:2.6em;}\n}\n<\/style><div class=\"mc-article\"><h2>&quot;We need weight, but we can&#039;t get our hands on any wood.&quot;<\/h2>\n<p>During a consultation about product development, I learned that the supplier of the wood they had been using for many years was no longer available, and production had come to a halt.<\/p>\n<p>They wanted to replace the material with an alternative while maintaining the sense of weight and luxury, but were hesitant because they were worried it would just look like they were padding the material.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Hiding the weights inside increases the number of seams, making it difficult to achieve a consistent texture.<\/h2>\n<p>If you try to compensate for the weight by replacing wood, the structure often ends up being one that incorporates metal or other weights inside.<\/p>\n<p>To conceal the weights, it becomes necessary to divide the components and assemble them separately. The more joints there are, the more likely unevenness and gaps will appear on the surface.<\/p>\n<p>The texture can be interrupted at the boundary between the wood and metal parts, often resulting in an impression that is the opposite of the desired sense of luxury.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Wood has a low density, making it easy to rely on volume to increase weight.<\/h2>\n<p>Wood is a material with a lower density than metal. To achieve the same weight for the same size, using only wood would require increasing its volume.<\/p>\n<p>If the design prevents it from becoming excessively large, the idea is to insert a weight made of a different material inside. This is a natural progression.<\/p>\n<p>If you treat weights as something to &quot;hide,&quot; you&#039;ll need to push them into a position where they won&#039;t affect the appearance. This reduces the freedom of placement and tends to make the assembly structure more complex.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Compare the textures of woodworking and metalworking side by side.<\/h2>\n<p>This time, I considered the matter from the perspective of someone who can interact with both metalworking and woodworking technicians. If you only consider woodworking, weights tend to be something you don&#039;t want to show.<\/p>\n<p>From a metalworking perspective, brass and stainless steel not only provide weight, but their color and texture also give them a sense of luxury.<\/p>\n<p>Should the weight be hidden behind the structure, or exposed as part of the design? This was a point where I could consider the textures of both woodworking and metalworking side by side.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Place brass and stainless steel in positions where they are visible as design elements.<\/h2>\n<p>The idea we considered was to abandon the structure that hides the weights inside and instead place brass or stainless steel in visible parts such as the handles and legs.<\/p>\n<p>This approach involves using metal parts to bear weight while simultaneously showcasing them as part of the design.<\/p>\n<p>The joints with the wood are not seen as &quot;flaws to be hidden,&quot; but rather as &quot;transitions between different materials,&quot; and are incorporated into the design from the outset.<\/p>\n<p>The number of joints themselves doesn&#039;t change significantly. When designing with the intention of making the joints visible, it becomes easier to decide on the position and finishing method of the joints in advance, and it becomes easier to maintain a sense of consistency in texture.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Differences in material density should be a design element, not a constraint to hide.<\/h2>\n<p>Combining materials with different specific gravities, such as wood, resin and metal, or resin and stone, is a common practice in other product development projects as well.<\/p>\n<p>Should you conceal a different material as a substitute to make it closer to the original material, or should you make it clear that it&#039;s a different material? This decision is a common perspective that can be applied when you want to balance weight adjustment with design aesthetics.<\/p>\n<p>When you consider the product from a visual perspective, it becomes easier to incorporate differences in processing precision and finish for each material into the design from the outset.<\/p>\n\n<h2>We will work with you to consider everything from the design direction to the selection of the manufacturing facility.<\/h2>\n<p>MACHICOCO collaborates with engineers in Higashi-Osaka to manage product development projects. We do not own any large-scale facilities in-house.<\/p>\n<p>In projects like this, we collaborate with woodworkers and metalworkers to consider how to achieve the desired weight and texture.<\/p>\n<p>We handle everything from determining the design direction to prototyping and selecting processing partners for mass production.<\/p>\n\n<h2>You can start a consultation even with just a hand-drawn picture or a photograph.<\/h2>\n<p>Having the following information will help the consultation proceed more quickly.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Current product photos or hand-drawn images<\/li>\n<li>Approximate weight and size, desired weight<\/li>\n<li>Information that shows the type of wood used and the procurement status.<\/li>\n<li>Desired quantity and image of future production scale<\/li>\n<li>If you have a physical sample, that would be great too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You don&#039;t need drawings. We can work with you from the idea stage, through design, prototyping, and manufacturing methods. You can even consult with us based on hand-drawn sketches or photographs.<\/p>\n\n<!-- \u56f3\u89e3\u6848:\u6728\u6750\u306e\u307f\u3067\u91cd\u91cf\u3092\u51fa\u3059\u69cb\u9020(\u5185\u90e8\u306b\u91cd\u308a\u3092\u96a0\u3057\u3001\u7d99\u304e\u76ee\u304c\u8907\u6570\u3067\u304d\u308b\u65ad\u9762\u56f3)\u3068\u3001\u771f\u936e\u30fb\u30b9\u30c6\u30f3\u30ec\u30b9\u3092\u5916\u5074\u30d1\u30fc\u30c4\u3068\u3057\u3066\u610f\u5320\u306b\u7d44\u307f\u8fbc\u3093\u3060\u69cb\u9020(\u7d99\u304e\u76ee\u306e\u4f4d\u7f6e\u304c\u3042\u3089\u304b\u3058\u3081\u30c7\u30b6\u30a4\u30f3\u3055\u308c\u3066\u3044\u308b\u65ad\u9762\u56f3)\u3092\u4e26\u3079\u305f\u6bd4\u8f03\u56f3 -->\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/product-development\/\">Even at the idea stage, we can work together to consider design, prototyping, and manufacturing methods. You can even consult with us based on hand-drawn sketches or photographs.<\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u300c\u91cd\u3055\u306f\u6b32\u3057\u3044\u3051\u308c\u3069\u3001\u6728\u6750\u304c\u624b\u306b\u5165\u3089\u306a\u3044\u300d\u3068\u3044\u3046\u76f8\u8ac7 \u3042\u308b\u5546\u54c1\u958b\u767a\u306e\u76f8\u8ac7\u3067\u3001\u9577\u5e74\u4f7f\u3063\u3066\u3044\u305f\u6728\u6750\u306e\u4ed5\u5165\u308c\u5148\u304c\u624b\u914d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32666,"href":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32660\/revisions\/32666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.machicoco.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}