Design Nomenclature / Physical Model Making

Chipboard

Also called particle board, particleboard, greyboard, grey board, binder's board, davey board

Physical Model Making
2D & 3D

This entry has not been translated yet and is shown in English.

Two unrelated materials wearing one word. In a wood shop it is coarse resin-bonded particle board: cheap, heavy, it eats cutters and holds no edge. In a design studio it is grey laminated paperboard for model bases, mockups and book covers. Neither of them is MDF.

A two-column text comparison headed "Which trade is saying the word". Left, in accent: Chipboard, the joiner's — resin-bonded wood chips, 18 mm, structural and heavy; it eats cutters, holds no edge, and sags between supports. Sold by the sheet. Right: Chipboard, the studio's — grey laminated paperboard around 2 mm, for model bases, mockups and book covers. Cuts with a knife. Sold by the ply.

In practice

Ask which chipboard. A British joiner and an American design student mean materials that share nothing but the name and the price.

Not to be confused with

MDFWood fibre and resin pressed into a homogeneous panel with no grain and no voids, which is why it machines to a crisp edge in any direction. The default for patterns, jigs and vacuum-forming bucks. The cut edge drinks paint, the dust is genuinely hazardous, and it swells irreversibly the first time it gets wet.

How this term connects

Related Confused with

In practice

Not to be confused with

Related

How this term connects

Referenced by