Decorative Laminates – The Complete Manufacturing Process

1. Decorative Laminates – The Complete Manufacturing Process

2. Check out the manufacturing process of decorative laminates: The manufacturing process of decorative laminates imply numerous steps starting from impregnating the paper to thermosetting to finishing. For both solid color paper and Printed design layer, the manufacturing process is different.

3. Optimal heating technology The choice of heating technology directly affects the day-to-day use of your laminating line. There are mainly two technologies to consider: full convection and radiation with convection. When it comes to really optimal heating, full convection is a much better choice. This is mainly because full convection is totally indifferent to the glass type you use. It consistently heats the glass uniformly. Even Low-E coatings do not reflect convection heat. So, there is no need to adjust the furnace temperature as often, saving you lots of time.

4. The right pre-pressing technology The laminating line’s pre-pressing unit affects how easy it is to operate the press and how uniform the pressing result is for different glass sizes and shapes. Often, laminating lines are equipped with two pressing units. In this case, less is more! A good press design combined with accurate heating is more than sufficient with only one press. Plus, you avoid the sticky situation of having a long glass pane under two press units at the same time.

5. Mixed production capability More often than not, mixed production capability of the line is the most important factor to consider. This means that it is fast and easy to switch between different products – whether it’s changing the coating, glass size, shape or sandwich thickness. The most important factors affecting this are heating and pre-pressing design (discussed in points 1 & 2) and design of cleanroom operations.

6. Cleanroom design The cleanroom is an inherent part of the laminating line, ensuring smooth operation when loading foils and making the operators’ work as straightforward as possible. Things to consider for a well-designed cleanroom include ease of moving around the line, automated and offline methods of storage of the PVB rolls and sufficient lighting, especially in the assembly area. You should also know and maintain the temperature and humidity level recommended for your cleanroom as well as air filtration requirements. These are not standard but are very specific values based on the type of foils you store.

7. Optimized machine size Defining a suitable line size is crucial, especially if you are going for high-volume production. The line’s length has a direct effect on the capacity you can achieve, due to longer travel distances of the conveyors and glass lifters. The larger the line, the bigger its footprint – which is also a downside. If only a small part of your business comes from long glasses, consider purchasing those from somewhere else rather than investing in a larger machine. Source