Friday, January 1, 2016
Not long ago, vinyl flooring was often associated with a plastic look and susceptibility to wear and tear. But the latest UNILIN LVT — or luxury vinyl flooring — now more than ever combine high-performance features with an unmatched, natural look. The secret is the Broader and larger planks, and two leading-edge innovations in production technology: new embossing methods and the ‘cut in register’ technique.
UNILIN – the producer of luxury vinyl flooring UNILIN with its consumer brand Quick-Step and its property development brand Pergo differentiate themselves by combining the natural look of wood with the unique advantages of vinyl. The latest collection of luxury vinyl tiles and planks is testament to this: through cutting-edge production technologies, UNILIN has achieved a level of realism and naturalness that is unprecedented in vinyl flooring.
As a pioneer in laminate flooring UNILIN has gained significant expertise in natural structures and how they can be applied to floors. Now, the time has come to transfer this knowledge to the LVT business as well.
“This new production method and revolutionary structure types were developed to create the most realistic floor possible,” explains R&D Director Laurent Meersseman. “Furthermore, UNILIN is always looking for the structure that best fits a plank’s specific character. Every plank is one of a kind: there are no repetitions in either the plank’s décor or structure. And that’s what makes UNILIN luxury vinyl flooring so appealing.” Lauren added further.
To recreate a genuine wooden floor effect, UNILIN applies a design technique called ‘plank effect’. Here, subtle nuances, high contrasts and variations are added between the individual planks. This prevents floors from looking plain and unvaried. Meersseman: “The plank effect can only be achieved by using a very precise cutting technique called ‘cut in register’. Every separate plank is punched out of the slabs on the exact right spot with millimetre precision.” UNILIN is currently the leading industry player using this approach to further accentuate the natural look of its LVT floorings. The industry standard, on the other hand, uses run-through designs. Here, you can punch out the planks wherever without noticing any colour difference. This makes a plank effect impossible, resulting in a plain and unnatural-looking floor.
On top of these innovative embossing and ‘cut in register’ technologies, UNILIN also improved its 4-colour printing technique to enable a broad range of colours and contrast.
Using these techniques, UNILIN has developed no less than 20 perfectly natural-looking plank decors for its brand-new, trend-setting Quick-Step Pulse collection. In line with the current flooring trends, the planks have been made longer and wider as well. Pergo, UNILIN’s property development brand, gets 16 new plank décors as well, with an added focus on improved performance.
Tags: domotex, luxury vinyl tiles and planks, production technologies, Unilin
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