Häfele LED Illuminates Everything at KBIS 2014
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Hafele Aluflex room - a meeting nook built with custom cut doors made to order.
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Hafele toe kick is illuminated with LED - for safer navigating, consistent with Universal Design principles.
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Hafele trash sortation with mini bin for mulch. LED lights up the interior space.
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Hafele blind corner pull out.
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Hafele wide island cutlery drawer organizer - illuminated with LED.
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Pegboard bottom arranges wide and deep storage.
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Hafele showed a sliding countertop - it pulls forward to make a serving ledge and clear operating room on the main counter. d
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Hafele's Rapid Pull Out Table uses heavy-duty Accuride slides and a tambour system to retract behind the cabinet below it.
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Hafele communications manager Jake Van Wyk at the Aluflex room - a meeting nook built with custom cut doors made to order.
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Hafele Aluflex room with door miter cut to meet at a 90 degree angle.
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Hafele Aluflex room - a meeting nook built with custom cut doors made to order. Aluflex runs on rails in the floor and the door opening.
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Sliding door hardware at Hafele forms shallow storage wall.
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Sliding door hardware at Hafele forms shallow storage wall.
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At Hafele, a motorized flap door opens up for above-appliance storage area.
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Hafele now offers Lavido, a pull-out storage system that is tailored to the space.
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Hafele offers Lavido, a pull-out storage system that is tailored to the space. It offers access from all sides, and orderly management of dry goods storage.

For KBIS 2014, the simplest summary of Häfele America's hardware and component exhibit was this: Everything Was Illuminated. From drawers, to cabinets, toe kicks to closet rods, it was all lit up with LED.

Also really cool - and generating some buzz among designers I ran into - was a tambour-style maple Rapid Pull-out Table. Hafele communication manager Jake Van Wyk said the table was built with heavy-duty Accuride slides, and that it installs as a single unit like a drawer, but rolls down deeply behind the cabinet above which it is installed. 

Häfele also brought along the work of its regular KBIS partners, Plain & Fancy Cabinetry, Showplace Cabinetry, and Grothouse Lumber Company.  

A major emphasis for Häfele has been its Loox line of LED lighting. Light controls allow the customer to adjust both intensity and color temperature after the lights are installed.

Plug & Play technology makes it easier for non-electricians to specify and install. Through this expansion, the 12 V system, 24 V system and 350-mA system have added 21 products and four new drivers. Some LED is as simple to install as two-sided tape. 

Häfele also offers a free lighting design service. Customers can send in their cabinet plans, and Häfele will send back a recommended cabinet lighting layout professional. 

Lavido is something I was eager to have a look at. This modular pantry and cabinet organizer (here's an installation video), when accompanied by LED, can make a cabinet look a bit like the inside of a refrigerator. Shelfs pull forward for full access. A except for storage of look l offers soft-close and soft-open to ensure it operates smoothly and quietly while fully extending to provide accessibility from three sides.

Sliding doors in rooms and cabinets are help conserve space and improve access--a principle of the Universal Design concept embodied in Häfele's designs (a brochure describes it). The slide hardware lines include Clipo, Slido and Frontino - which take varying approaches to how the doors affix and run in tracks.  

Häfele's Aluflex sliding door system was shown in a design that formed a partitioned room. Doors, which are cut to order by Hafele and shipped ready to install, were mitered to meet at a 90 degree angle. They run in tracks on the floor and above the door. 

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