The reason why melamine impregnated paper surface UV coated board is popular in the market
As the saying goes, ‘Respect the Luo shirt first, then respect the people’. An excellent appearance can make people pleasing to the eye. There are many people in life who judge people based on their appearance, and this is also true in the furniture industry. The appearance of solid wood furniture is affected by a single factor, which mainly depends on the wood texture and painting effect. Its price is greatly affected by the scarcity of wood species and the stability of wood.
Compared to solid wood furniture, panel furniture has a larger volume in the market, and its surface decoration techniques are also diverse. Common ones include wood veneer (natural wood veneer, technological wood veneer, dyed wood veneer, smoked wood veneer), melamine paper, PET film (high gloss, sub high), PVC film (covering, blistering), acrylic, glass, baking paint, UV coating, and so on.
Today we are going to introduce a surface treatment technology that combines melamine veneer with UV coating, that is, coating the surface of melamine veneer with UV coating.
Why do we need to do this? What are the advantages of such a board?
- Development History
The combination of two surface treatment technologies is not a brilliant creation, but a result of gradual exploration in the long-term development of decorative technology.
1.1 Appearance of UV board
Around 2006, a type of UV board made of medium fiber board with beautiful colors appeared in the market.
The surface of the board is protected by UV coating, which is wear-resistant, has strong chemical resistance, long service life, does not change color, is easy to clean, and the bright treated board has a bright and dazzling color. Therefore, once launched, it has been sought after by the market.
1.2 Defects in UV technology
At the beginning, most cabinet factories used UV panels as door panels. At that time, considering that UV panels needed to be wear-resistant and scratch resistant, the hardness of UV coatings was relatively high, but this also led to the phenomenon of edge collapse during the factory’s cutting process.
In order to cover this defect, the factory uses aluminum alloy edge sealing to wrap the collapsed part of the board. The surface flatness of the first generation UV board is not high enough, and the orange peel phenomenon is severe when viewed from the side light, which affects the appearance. At the same time, the UV coating board has a single color, so its application range is relatively limited.
1.3 Technological Innovation
For many years, technicians have continuously improved the composition of UV coatings. Nowadays, UV coating surfaces can combine hardness and flexibility, and edge sealing is not limited to aluminum alloy edge sealing. PVC edge sealing and high-end acrylic edge sealing can be applied. The mature modern edge sealing technology has significantly increased the market share of UV panels.
UV panels have become standardized products. After entering the factory mass production mode, the number of UV panel factories has surged, and a large number of UV panels have flooded the market, with uneven quality. UV panels have gradually been pulled down from the altar of high-end products and become synonymous with low-end products. Therefore, UV coated panels must undergo further reform and innovation.
Melamine surface UV technology is a brand new surface treatment technology for artificial boards that solves the adhesion problem of UV coatings on melamine.
- New products
The new generation of coated panels using the “melamine veneer+UV coating” technology can compensate for the problem of single color in UV panels, and the flatness has also been greatly improved. The emergence of this technology has once again made UV coated panels shine brightly. In addition to being used as a simple coating board, the diverse texture of melamine impregnated paper has also expanded new application areas for melamine UV boards.
2.1 Melamine replaces dyed wood veneer
With the rise of high-end customization of dyed wood veneer, some brands stand out with high-quality products, such as “Mulin Mulin Wai” and “M77”, and their products have received unanimous praise from the market. However, there are still many technical difficulties that have not been solved in dyeing wood veneer, such as easy discoloration and color difference, which have led to many after-sales problems, which have also become a pain point in the industry and a problem for many factories.
Thanks to the development of domestic printing technology, there have been many melamine based printing papers that imitate dyed wood veneer, natural wood veneer, and technological wood veneer. These printed impregnated papers can largely restore the color and texture of natural wood veneer, and are much cheaper than natural wood veneer.
For customers who do not have very strict requirements for wood texture, melamine impregnated paper with imitation wood veneer texture is a good substitute for natural wood veneer. On the basis of melamine impregnated paper, a high gloss or matte UV coating was made to solve the color difference and discoloration problems of wood veneer, which sparked a warm response in the market as soon as it was launched.
2.2 Melamine replacing rock slabs
Rock board is also a popular decorative material in recent years. With its super large specifications, high-quality internal performance, and diverse applications, it has broken through the traditional application scope of traditional ceramic tiles and quickly became popular in the field of home building materials.
Rock panels mostly exhibit a simple, fashionable, and simple decoration style in home decoration, but in terms of price, they are not so “simple” anymore. The market price of rock plate is too high, reaching more than 1000 yuan per square meter. The acceptance of ordinary people is low, and the market audience is small.
Based on this market situation, melamine UV board has launched a series of rock boards. Melamine impregnated paper imitates the patterns of stone and marble, and UV coating is applied to the surface of the impregnated paper for high gloss treatment. This not only creates a simple and elegant home environment, but also has practical performance of wear and corrosion resistance. More importantly, the affordable price allows rock boards to enter ordinary people’s homes from the cloud.
- Future development
Melamine UV coated panels have been sought after by the market due to technological advancements and price advantages, but this technology has not yet reached perfection and there is still room for improvement. The edge banding problem of melamine UV coated panels is a future direction for further improvement. Currently, PVC and acrylic edge banding are mainly used, but these edge banding strips cannot reflect the value of the product. UV color edge banding is a detailed issue that needs to be explored in the future development of melamine UV panels.
