POSTED BY

Joel Johnson

AT 10:36 AM
Wednesday December 17, 2008

Furniture and Lighting

carbon fiber • surface table

Surface Table is just 2mm thick (and not from Microsoft)

surfacetable.jpg

The "Surface Table" by John Barnard and Terence Woodgate is three-meters long — and just two-millimeters thick, due to its construction from carbon fiber.

There's one tiny discrepancy in the description that gives me pause: Stylepark describes the table as "just 2mm at the edge", which implies that it might be thicker elsewhere. But probably not!

I would love to play around with one of these. I suspect they're still relatively fragile — no sitting! — but you could probably pick them up and move them around without issue.

Price: unknown, but surely a heap of Euro.

Established & Sons Surface Table [Stylepark.com via Kottke]

9 Comments

Takuan

#1 – 11:08 AM December 17, 2008

no speaker transducer?

Marcel

#2 – 11:55 AM December 17, 2008

In case of accident, buyer should get the guilt trip.

The Lizardman

#3 – 12:06 PM December 17, 2008

A table of that size that could not support sitting would be of little to no use to me as I would likely approach that level of weight in terms of things I would put on it

Havanacus

#4 – 1:34 PM December 17, 2008

I bet this would be hell in a bar fight... How many stomachs will be sliced open for the sake of getting the bowl of gravy just out of reach...

Tenn

#5 – 1:36 PM December 17, 2008

My brother ran into a table when he was a toddler.

Had we owned this table, he would have been a fitting extra in Resident Evil.

Ronald Pottol

#6 – 3:44 PM December 17, 2008

Given that one of the 2 designers is an F1 race car designer, they at least understand what you can and cannot do with the material. If it were just 5mm in the middle, I would expect that to be no problem at all.

20 years ago, I saw the part of a Navy Trident missile that transitions from the second to the third stage. It is a tapered ring, 6-8 feet across, a foot or so high, supports thousands of pounds under 4+ G of acceleration and vibration, and weighs about 25 pounds, perhaps a 1/4" thick.

The table may well be a bit more than 2mm in the middle, but I would not be surprised if you can stand on it.

Drang

#7 – 12:59 PM December 18, 2008

2 mm seems way too thin to me. Not because of strength, but because of flexibility. Even though carbon fiber composites can be stiffer than steel, the length/thickness ratio of this table is just too high.

To avoid actually working this afternoon, I did a quick analysis and posted it here:

http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2008/12/super-thin-table/

toxonix

#8 – 2:07 PM December 19, 2008

A 2mm sheet of carbon fiber is extremely floppy. I doubt that this table exists. However, if I were to build it I would support the weight with flat carbon beams or a square section tube down the center.
I don't see the point of carbon fiber furniture unless it is intended for use on dirigibles, space elevator platforms or world cup racers for the grotesquely wealthy.

Anonymous Anonymous

#9 – 10:10 AM February 6, 2009

Carbon fiber composites are not flexible and would snap before you could see it bend.

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