Jens Fandrey : There are a couple of them – one of them is the process itself, the Hot-Coating Technology is a very simple, easy to handle process. In a one step you can apply different coat-raise and the other advantage is of course hot coating itself, the material, which offers you a perfect surface for protection of high wear resistance flooring, impact resistance and this combination of a more simple process compared to other lacquering or flooring system and characteristics of the surface itself- this is the advantage of the technology.

Jens Fandrey : This is very interesting. So, even before the digital printing was entering the wood working, we were promoting this because we were convinced that digital printing and the hot coating have a kind of common philosophy. It is a flexible technology which gives the customers or the industrial production a lot of possibilities. In digital printing, you can vary the design and in hot coating you can vary the performance very easily. And another case is that there are so many substrates like linoleum, cork, papers where digital printing has a hype, but all these surfaces has to be protected – all these digital nice prints have to be protected and the hot coating by its transparency and it’s perfect protection is the perfect solution for that.

Jens Fandrey : If you look at the demands of the flooring – I mean there are some things like vary system, this is known since the laminate flooring entered the market. In vary system, the hot coating is unbeatable, we have some substrate and result is 11,000 tons or something like that, so extremely good. But, if you look at today’s market there are very much interesting and natural surface with a warm haptic which looks almost similar to wood and for example with deep textures so that you get also a haptic, the feeling of the real wood or cork and by its characteristics and process technology with the hot coating you are able to have very deep textures and a warm haptic and this is exactly what the market today is requiring.

Jens Fandrey : In Flooring, we are still very proud that all the cork industry is using the hot coating – Lico in Switzerland was the first one and they are promoting this as a high end surface and it fits perfect, this natural cork material with a very nice image and the perfect protection of the hot coating. But of course, we are also in the Linoleum industry and in other projects like solidwood of course, and all the paper laminate floor – all of them are looking for solutions processed to LBT that offers exactly of what I just mentioned-flexible warm surfaces, natural appearances and these are the projects we are in.

Jens Fandrey : Every floor has to have a resistance because we are walking on it and the resistance is a combination of various systems which means aberration but also impact. This sometimes is underestimated. If you are walking on a floor with high heels or if you have stone or something like then the coating has to be flexible enough to keep the protection for the underneath. Underneath could be a digital print or linoleum or whatever but the coating has to be flexible enough to protect. Besides, the protection, there are thing like the design, like haptics, you know, like three dimensional texture and this is not possible with every coating system. But by the technology of hot coating, this PUR hot coating, which can be embossed – you have so many possibilities to create design, to make textures which are very natural and durable.