Bright coloured surface layer

Abstract

A building panel including a carrier, and a surface layer arranged on the carrier, wherein the surface layer includes a mix of refined fibres and a resin, wherein the weight ratio of resin to refined fibres is higher than about 120%, wherein the surface layer is applied as a dry powder layer.

Claims

1. A building panel comprising: a carrier; and a colorful or white, non-transparent surface layer arranged on the carrier, wherein the surface layer is formed from a mix comprising refined fibres, pigments and a resin, wherein the weight ratio of resin to refined fibres is higher than about 120%, wherein the surface layer is a cured layer, wherein the surface layer is applied as a dry powder layer, and wherein the surface layer possesses between 30-40% refined fibres by weight, and wherein the surface layer is 0.2-1.0 mm thick.

2. The building panel according to claim 1, wherein the mix forming the surface layer further comprises wear resistant particles.

3. The building panel according to claim 1, wherein the pigments in the mix forming the surface layer comprises inorganic pigments, organic pigments or a combination thereof.

4. The building panel according to claim 1, wherein the carrier is a wood fibre based core.

5. The building panel according to claim 4, wherein the surface layer is attached to the wood fibre based core to obtain a building panel, wherein the core comprises a major part of the panel.

6. The building panel according to claim 4, wherein the building panel is a floor panel.

7. The building panel according to claim 4, wherein the carrier is an HDF panel.

8. The building panel according to claim 1, wherein the weight ratio of resin compared to refined fibres is in the range of about 120% to about 180%.

9. The building panel according to claim 4, wherein a balancing layer is applied to a surface of the wood fibre based core that is opposite to the surface layer.

10. The building panel according to claim 1, wherein a sublayer is arranged between the carrier and the surface layer.

11. The building panel according to claim 10, wherein the sublayer comprises a mix of wood fibres and a resin.

12. The building panel according to claim 1, wherein the surface layer is white.

13. The building panel according to claim 1, wherein the surface layer is devoid of wear resistant particles.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The disclosure will in the following be described in connection to preferred embodiments and in greater detail with reference to the appended exemplary drawing, wherein:

(2) FIG. 1 Illustrates a floor panel according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

(3) A panel 1 is provided with a wood fibre based core 6, a homogenous non-transparent decorative surface layer 5 and preferably a balancing layer. The panel 1 is in one embodiment integrally formed in a production process where the surface layer, the core and the balancing layer are formed in the same pressing operation.

(4) FIG. 1 shows the surface layer 5. It comprises a mixture of refined fibres 14, small hard wear resistant particles 12, 12′ and a binder 19. The wear resistant particles (12,12′) are preferably aluminium oxide particles.

(5) The surface layer comprises also colour pigments 15 and/or, optionally, other decorative materials or chemicals. Decorative materials include, for example, materials that may affect design aspect(s) the surface layer. Exemplary design materials include materials effecting texture, reflectivity, shine, luminescence, transparency, etc.

(6) Embodiments of the disclosure offer the advantage that the wear resistant surface layer 5 could be made much thicker than in the known laminated floor panels.

(7) A preferable binder is melamine or urea formaldehyde resin. Any other binder, preferably synthetic thermosetting resins, could be used.

(8) In the method according to embodiments of the invention preferably the same scattering and pressing units as disclosed in WO 2009/065769 are used, preferably together with a structured press plate in the method.

Example W1

Bright White Formulation

(9) On a HDF board with a thickness of 9.8 mm, two backing papers NKR 140 where fixed on backside for balancing, a WFF powder formulation was added, consisting of 40 Wt % refined fibre, 10 Wt % aluminium oxide, 10 Wt % titanium dioxide as pigment and 40 Wt % melamine resin. The WFF powder mix was applied by a so-called scattering machine, which distributed the WFF powder material evenly over the HDF surface. The total amount of WFF powder was 625 g/m.sup.2. The WFF powder was fixed on the HDF board by spraying a water solution consisting of 97 Wt % de-ionized water, 1 Wt % BYK-345 (wetting agent added to reduce surface tension) and 2 Wt % of Pat 622/E (release agent) on the WFF powder.

(10) The above material was placed into a so-called DPL press. The surface texture consists of a special press plate with hills and valleys with about 300 microns in difference in highest and lowest part. This deep press plate cannot be used when pressing DPL and HPL, the melamine impregnated papers cracks during the pressing. The resulting product is a bright white building panel.

(11) Further examples of powder mixtures are listed below.

(12) TABLE-US-00001 Type W1 W2 W3 W4 Sublayer W5 HDF Fibre Wt % 0 0 0 0 75 0 White Fibre Wt % 40 40 35 30 0 39 Prefere 4865 Wt % 0 40 45 52 25 0 Kauramine 773 Wt % 40 0 0 0 0 50 TiO2 Wt % 10 10 10 9 0 11 Al2O3 Wt % 10 10 10 9 0 0 Total Wt % 100 100 100 100 100 100

(13) In the mixtures above Prefere 4865 and Kauramine 773 are used, which are examples of melamine formaldehyde resins.

(14) For W3 and W4 the weight ratio of resin compared to the White Fibres (refined fibres) is increased. The increased ratio has the effect that the processability is increased and that the stain resistance is improved. In a preferred embodiment the weight ratio of resin compared to the White Fibres is higher than about 100%, preferably above about 120% and most preferably in the range of about 120% to 180%.

(15) A sublayer, a layer scattered on the core, in combination with any one of the layers W1-W4 above the sublayer gives even better processability such as embossing depth and higher gloss.

(16) A top layer, such as W5, without any aluminium oxide above any one of the layers W1-W4 further improves the stain resistance. It also increases the life time of the press plates.

Example R2

Colourful Red Formulation

(17) On a HDF board with a thickness of 9.8 mm, two backing papers NKR 140 where fixed on backside for balancing, a WFF powder formulation was added, consisting of 42.5 Wt % refined fibre, 10 Wt % aluminium oxide, 5 Wt % Heucosin Spez. Tomatenrot G 10138 as red pigment and 42.5 Wt % melamine resin. The WFF powder mix was applied by a so-called scattering machine, which distributed the WFF powder material evenly over the HDF surface. The totally amount of WFF powder was 625 g/m.sup.2. The WFF powder was fixed on the HDF board by spraying a water solution consisting of 97 Wt % de-ionized water, 1 Wt % BYK-345 (wetting agent added to reduce surface tension) and 2 Wt % of Pat 622/E (release agent) on the WFF powder.

(18) The above material was placed into a so-called DPL press. The surface texture consists of a special press plate with hills and valleys with about 300 microns in difference in highest and lowest part. This deep press plate cannot be used when pressing DPL and HPL, the melamine impregnated papers cracks during the pressing. The resulting product is a colourful plain red building panel not easily obtained without the refined fibre.

(19) The water solution sprayed on the WFF powder may include, for example, 80-100 Wt % water, preferably de-ionized water, 0-10 Wt % of a wetting agent, and 0-10% of a release agent. More preferably, the water solution may include, for example, 95-98.5 Wt % water, preferably about 97 Wt %, 0.5-2 Wt % wetting agent, preferably about 1 Wt %, and 1-3 Wt % release agent, preferably about 2 Wt %.