by HICKORY, N.C. — Home furnishings industry suppliers from around the country gathered here this week to showcase their latest products, materials and services aimed at improving quality, efficiency and speed to market.
Held at the Hickory Metro Convention Center, it featured some 100 companies from in and outside the U.S. looking to reconnect with furniture manufacturers in and outside Hickory and other areas in and around North Carolina. They offered a range of products from large and smaller-scale cutting-and-sewing equipment to decorative hardware, seating mechanisms and springs, woven and nonwoven fabrics, and packaging materials, to name several. There also were professional associations and logistics providers showcasing their services to the industry.
Below is a look at some of the companies exhibiting at the event. Home News Now will offer further in-depth coverage of the show early next week.
Longtime FME exhibitor Zund showcased its latest fabric- and leather-cutting machinery. Here customers are seen speaking with company execs about the equipment.
SouthernCarlson Industrial Supply serves the manufacturing, distribution and facilities maintenance sectors. It shared a space with Bostitch Industrial, a division of Stanley Black & Decker, which specializes in the design and manufacture of fastening tools and fasteners.
NuTex Concepts, of Lenoir, North Carolina, is a converter and distributor of industrial fabrics, wovens and nonwovens. Here customers are seen speaking with company execs about the line.
Longtime exhibitor Hickory Springs always draws a big crowd at the show, including manufacturers looking at its latest developments in seating and mattress components.
Here Mark Miller, a product specialist and service technician at Atlanta Attachment, is shown demonstrating a boxing machine that produces welts on the edge of strips of fabric.
Execs with Barber Manufacturing of Anderson, Indiana, show the company’s line of springs used in seating. This included a variety of components including rigid bar seat strips, encased coils and upholstery springs that can be eight-way hand-tied, to name a few.
Heico was also one of the more popular booths at the show. It offered a wide mix of products used in furniture including brackets, connectors, wood screws, decorative nail heads, wood dowels, tack strip, webbing, wood glue, spray adhesives and more.
Keystone Bros. provides fabric, leather and other upholstery supplies for the automotive, marine and outdoor awning segments. The show was a good way for it to meet new and existing customers and prospects in the furniture industry.
Sewing machine supplier Consew of Carlstadt, New Jersey, was showing examples of its equipment that are used in the furniture industry. In business since 1898, the company says it has one of the largest varieties of sewing, cutting and pressing equipment, as well as an extensive line of supplies related to the sewn products industry. The machines are particularly suitable for sewing leather and fabric, including fabrics for the bedding industry.
