Direct Printing

Indirect printing technology has opened up revolutionary new possibilities in surface design for laminate floor manufacturers.

The only thing conventional and Direct Printed Laminate have in common is their HDF support board. The standard method of gluing the décor paper and melamine resin pressing does not apply to Direct Printed Laminates. Instead the décor is printed directly onto the HDF support board. The resulting end product is called Direct Printed Laminate, complying with DIN EN 15468 (laminate standard).

The coating process of the DPL method is comparably complex. It is based on a combination of pigmented, water-based primers and sealers. These are applied using rollers. They are responsible for providing the adhesion to the HDF board and for basic colouration.

Hydro printing inks are used to print the décor directly onto the pre-sealed HDF support boards using a multicolour printing press. This means décor paper is no longer required.

To achieve the high abrasive strength typical for laminates, anti-abrasive UV sealers are then applied, again using rollers, and coated with a UV sanding sealer.

Coatings for décor paper
UV anti-scratch topcoats come into use as a finish. These may be optionally combined with what so-called Pore UV coatings, used to reproduce open-pore woods as authentically as possible. Floor coatings for plybond strong décor paper represent a further milestone of Klumpp Coatings R&D. The décor pattern is applied onto HDFboards using conventional laminating machines. A transparent multi-level wear UV coating is applied subsequently. Its amazing variability allows adapting to even AC5 specifications for instance. But that’s not all!

The full UV build-up is now available!
A DPL-flooring which claims to be manufactured according to cutting edge technology also implements the use of pigmented UV curable layers on the base coat level (printing sealer). In the past, long (jet-) air dryer tunnels have been absolutely necessary to dry the water content of the common hydro sealers. The use of UV based sealers is reducing the necessary line space as well as investment costs dramatically and brings along further benefits:
UV sealers establish a proper film throughout cross-linking thus they represent the smoothest surface yet possible for the subsequent digital print. Moreover, UV-sealers are much harder thus durable compared to water-based systems.
A consolidated view indicates a clearly added value of the full UV build-up which is able to convince with an even advanced scratch resistance.

We add value to your surface – featuring 3D Structure and Synchronized Pore Coatings
DPL-floorings, whether printed directly or digitally, offer the great opportunity to provide maximum product diversity. On top of that, optical and haptical appearance of the surface could be varied by a so called all-over synconized pore or even a 3D-structured surface.