Matching stair covers, baseboards, and profiles to a floor is often complex, time-consuming and expensive. When a new flooring design or colour is introduced, traditional accessory production typically relies on a costly and extensive colour-matching process – which still doesn’t fully match the original floor.
With these patented, and market-proven, technologies, accessories can be produced directly from the original flooring plank. This eliminates the ineffective and expensive color matching process and results in a perfectly coordinated finish – with identical texture, scratch resistance, pattern and color across every element of the installation.
“Stairnoses that truly match your floor? It doesn’t need to be this complicated. Today it often means a costly and time-consuming color matching process where the result still doesn’t fully match the floor.” – Unilin Technologies.
Offering a matching stairnose to each flooring décor has become an essential element in selling flooring products. As this requirement continues to grow in importance, Unilin introduced a manufacturing technology that enables the transformation of actual flooring planks – made from any type of core material – into perfectly matching stairnoses.
Both square and round stairnose shapes can be produced, creating greater design flexibility and offering a solution that is unique in the market.
Since the original flooring plank is re-shaped into a stairnose, the accessory carries the exact same design, texture and wear layer as the rest of the flooring installation.
The insert
This technology enables the production of stairnoses in a wide range of shapes. The final shape of the stairnose is created by pressing the original flooring plank around an HDF- or PVC-based insert. In addition to defining the shape, the insert plays a key role in obtaining a high-quality product.
The use of an insert provides:
Durability
First and foremost, the insert provides the necessary support for high-traffic areas such as staircases. It reinforces the most vulnerable part of the stairnose, the bended section, by eliminating any hollow space in between the stair tread and the stairnose. By filling the space with an insert instead of glue, the product’s lifespan is significantly improved and the overall safety for the end-consumer is enhanced.
Flexibility in shapes
The insert defines the final shape of the stairnose. By selecting different insert geometries, a variety of stairnose styles can be produced. This makes it possible to switch easily between a modern square-edged profile and a traditional roundnose design. The interchangeable insert also provides maximum production flexibility. Adjustments to the stairnose radius can be implemented quickly and efficiently, allowing fast product variations without disrupting the overall manufacturing process.
Cost-effectiveness
To produce a stairnose from its original flooring plank, the plank is first milled and then bent over the insert. Instead of filling the milled sections with glue, an insert is applied. This approach significantly improves cost-efficiency in the production process, as glue is typically up to ten times more expensive than the HDF- or PVC-based insert.
How does it work?
This innovative technology transforms the original flooring panel into perfectly matching accessories, in this case stairnoses. Through the following steps, the original flooring panel is re-shaped into a stairnose of the desired shape.
Step 1: Milling
First, a portion of the back of the flooring panel is milled to create a groove. This groove will allow the panel to be bent during later production steps without breaking.
Step 2: Applying glue
A thin layer of glue is applied inside the milled groove to prepare the panel for the shaping process.
Step 3: Position insert
An insert is accurately positioned in the production line, serving as the base around which the stairnose will be formed.
Step 4: Heat the panel
The flooring panel is heated to allow for bending and to activate the glue.
Step 5: Press
Immediately after heating, the panel is bent and pressed around the insert, forming the desired stairnose shape.
Now, you can get the final result
Optional
After these main steps, two additional optional processes can be applied.- A miter cut can be added to the end of each stair tread to enable a seamless connection with an end-cap.
- In addition, a patented end-cap can be produced for finishing open or half-open stairs.
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