The market for outdoor rattan-like furniture is heating up, and Yongte Plastic Machinery has launched a PE wood-plastic imitation rattan pipe production line.
With the increasing popularity of outdoor camping and garden leisure lifestyles, PE wood-plastic imitation rattan furniture, with its excellent moisture-proof, moth-resistant, and environmentally friendly properties, is gradually replacing traditional rattan furniture. Industry forecasts predict that the market size of China's outdoor rattan-like furniture will exceed 33 billion yuan by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 18%. In overseas markets, Europe's annual demand for this type of product is growing at a staggering 22%, but with higher requirements for appearance, texture, and long-term sun resistance.
Faced with this growth trend, many small and medium-sized furniture companies in China are facing a dilemma of "easy to receive orders but difficult to deliver" due to aging production equipment. Some manufacturers report that traditional equipment suffers from issues such as uneven mixing of wood and plastic, which makes the rattan easily breakable; insufficient UV protection, which shortens the product's outdoor life; and lengthy mold changes and machine adjustments, which hinder order delivery.
To address these pain points, Yongte Plastic Machinery recently launched an integrated PE wood-plastic imitation rattan production line designed specifically for small and medium-sized furniture companies. During the development process, this equipment abandoned overly flashy features and focused on the three core objectives of "stable production, cost control, and quality improvement," achieving technical improvements across multiple production stages.
In the raw material processing stage, the equipment uses automatic temperature-controlled drying to maintain a stable moisture content of wood powder below 3%. Silane coupling agent is added with a precision of 0.1%, effectively eliminating material delamination and chipping, ensuring the finished rattan maintains a consistent tensile strength of over 20 MPa. Furthermore, the production line's rapid mold change system reduces format changeover time from four hours to less than one hour. It supports production of eight common specifications, ranging from 3mm to 20mm, with dimensional tolerances within 0.05mm, meeting the needs of small-batch and multi-batch production.
To enhance the product's weather resistance, the production line uses plasma surface treatment technology to create a natural rattan texture with a roughness of 1.5μm, and then applies a 0.3mm-thick UV-resistant coating. Testing has shown that the product's outdoor service life can be extended to approximately eight years, meeting European market standards.
In terms of cost control, the new production line has reduced energy consumption by 15% through optimized power systems, saving nearly 1,000 yuan in electricity bills per month. Its efficient dust recovery system achieves a 98% recovery rate, and its compatibility with 30% recycled plastics reduces production costs by approximately 400 yuan per ton, bringing significant economic benefits to small and medium-sized manufacturers.
In addition, the line's integrated machine vision inspection system identifies product defects in real time with over 95% accuracy. Combined with a dual-station automatic winder, it enables 12-hour uninterrupted production, increasing single-shift output from 1 ton to 2 tons and boosting production efficiency by approximately 30%.
Market validation has shown that manufacturers using this equipment have seen their product qualification rate increase from 85% to 96%. One company, citing its product quality, has secured long-term orders from European customers worth 3 million yuan annually. Yongte Plastic Machinery has already received orders for five units, and three customers have completed on-site trials. Company representatives stated that they will introduce antibacterial and waterproof upgrade modules in the future to help small and medium-sized customers expand their market share.
Industry observers pointed out that in the field of plastic machinery equipment dominated by large enterprises, Yongte Plastic Machinery has opened up a differentiated development path by precisely focusing on the needs of small and medium-sized manufacturers and using cost-effective special equipment, and is expected to win more recognition in the continuously growing outdoor furniture market.
