Expand Your Business with Surface and Floor Graphics

Picture it. A beautiful home with wall-to-wall wood flooring. Perfectly polished, the light hits it just right and a warm glow fills the room.

But can you achieve the same look and feel with something that’s not wood? Can laminate do the job? How about digitally-printed laminate?

For print service providers (PSPs), printing floor graphics is the proverbial no-brainer. During the pandemic, floor graphics were popping up everywhere reminding people where to stand and just how far away six feet was.

But when it comes to laminate flooring, could it be just as easy? Can you simply print digital floors on your UV wide-format printer, or is there something else needed?

While printing floor graphics is not that difficult — it just requires using a different substrate and a good glue to get the right adhesion on the floor — printing on a laminate, such as that used on kitchen cabinets or furniture, requires more.

But looking at the bottom line, it’s worth it.

These Floors Are Made For Walking

The surfaces market is huge and growing rapidly, however, it is still mostly printing with analog roto gravure technologies. The advantage of this approach, once you understand the process and have made the major capital equipment investment, is that it is designed to produce economical, consistent long production runs. Changing a design is costly, both in terms of time and money.

However, the trend is shifting toward more short-run, customized, and unique designs. Today’s consumer is looking for the flexibility to create and convey their own identity through custom-made, tailored designs with a quick turnaround. The goal is to get their unique message into the market quickly, which lends itself to digital printing technology.

Entering the surfaces and flooring market is a great new opportunity to expand your business, but you need to get the right equipment. There are a number of choices.

We’ll examine some options for printing on laminate, which can also provide insight into creating floor graphics and entering new markets such as tabletops and wall coverings in an affordable way.

High-Pressure Laminates

One printing option is HPL, or high-pressure laminate, one of the most durable decorative surface materials. This involves printing on a special type of décor paper and using unique, water-based inks and melamine (a tough plastic-type material) to create one solid piece of laminate.

This is then pressed together at a high pressure (which is why the process is called high-pressure laminate) and high temperature to create solid, usable sheets that can be applied to furniture or flooring.
That said, while most sign graphics PSPs would benefit by expanding their business and printing high-pressure laminated decors, the investment can run into millions of dollars.

Direct-to-Board Printing

Another option is direct printing on a board, panel, or even a plank using a flatbed or hybrid printer. However, UV ink is not strong enough to be scratch resistant. A lacquer or a strong varnish finish would need to be added to make the printed board or panel usable.

Instead, printers typically print on the board or a PET/PVC substrate, then press the substrate and the board together to create one strong surface.

After pressing the board and the substrate together, a white layer could be added. This could be a coating of white paint, or a PVC foil attached to the board. The next step involves printing the décor or pattern on the board, and adding a top layer with an adhesive to make sure the top layer and the UV ink have the right adhesion or bonding.

After completing these steps, the board, print, and top layer is pressed into one solid format. This is done in a continuous way, using what the industry calls a short cycle press.

Short-cycle presses are used to refine wood-based boards. A hot press is used to permanently apply resin-soaked paper to the surface. The resin soaks into the surface and allows for adhesion. The paper serves as the base to apply the resin and for the decorative layer.

However, this continuous feed of boards is an industrial application as you can’t really stop the process once it is started. This approach requires speed and volume to be market competitive.

Direct-to-Wood Printing

You can also print on a wooden board like MDF or HDF, then apply a varnish. It can be a UV varnish or any other polyurethane-type transparent paint that is strong and scratch resistant. However, this will always be weaker than the industrial processes.

Other Options for Customized Flooring

Creating flooring and printed furniture using the processes described above may not be ideal for traditional printers. The printing process is further complicated by the distribution model. Access to flooring installers and showrooms is needed, and customers often want customized graphics, so the offering is not easy.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The answer is UV printing on a chipboard type of material that has a white coating or foil applied to it.

Any design can be printed on these panels and easily protected with a transparent laminate or UV-based full flood coater. Available in matte and gloss finishes (depending on the chemistry) it would offer compact and good results for the needs of a PSP. These businesses could now print small runs and coat them with a strong durable coating.

The furniture world already works this way, applying multiple coatings, one on top of another, and generates excellent results. Creating flooring graphics is also possible in this same way, allowing you to add new markets more efficiently and cost-effectively.

You would also now have access to new markets like table-tops and wall coverings for such retailers as fast-food restaurants, expanding your reach into new areas where good profit margins still exist. It’s likely that using table-top and wall covering printing as an entrée, you could grow your business beyond signage.

This last printing option is one that would create synergy. It’s well known that industrial processes in the analog world are not always compatible with digital approaches. But there is a way everyone can benefit from each other’s knowledge and combine the strengths of both processes.

The digital print supplier could print décor paper for the HPL or CPL markets, thus giving the analog business digital capabilities without having to make a huge expenditure on capital equipment and resources.

The PSP could invest in a multi-pass, water-based inkjet system designed specially to print décor paper used for interior decoration, such as laminate floors and furniture. This would enable the PSP to do contract and adhoc work meeting the interior decoration market’s demand for just-in-time delivery and customized designs. The ultimate benefit is opening new doors, entering new markets, and expanding their business beyond the typical sign and display graphics. The possibilities could be endless.