FLOORING
of the design and manufacturing professionals of Engineered Floors as well as new equipment, including a Hymmen Digital Printing Line: The JUPITER JPT-C digital single pass machine, a direct print-to-board line is designed for 24/7 industrial production, with printing speeds of 25-50m/min, optical resolution of more than 1,000 DPI, high colour stability and print quality, and high-precision continuous substrate conveyor for maximum register accuracy. According to Hymmen, the JUPITER line features the DLE technology, creating structures that are embossed-in-register (EIR) to the decor of the surface. This technology grants commercial and technical benefits of digital single pass printing, including flexibility, fast setup times and individualisation. The digital structuring supports the surface performance. All features like abrasion and scratch resistance, adhesion, and chemical reliability of the core lacquer remain. The whole process build up is UV-lacquer based. The complete line has a length of 120m overall. It includes a feeding portal, several liquid coating machines for print preparation, the digital decor printer JUPITER JPT-C, coating applications as an abrasion resistance performance layer, the Digital Lacquer Embossing plus (DLEplus), machines for the topcoat application, and at the end of the line, the stacking portal. The final product stands out with an optimally registered embossing to the printing, resulting in ideal visual and physical depth on the product surface. PROJECT MANAGEMENT WITH HYMMEN AND FUTURE PLANS After the first contact in May 2021 together with the technology partner i4F, a large-scale product evaluation at the Hymmen technology centre in Rödinghausen, Germany started. In November 2021 contracts were signed and the plant project could be realised including the detailed
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engineering, production, shipping, and mechanical and electrical installation. The start of production was in August 2023. “From the beginning of the project the cooperation between the teams of Engineered Floors and Hymmen was very close. Upcoming challenges could be solved easily in the transparent and trustful atmosphere by the involved experts of both sides,” emphasised Dr René Pankoke, CEO and managing partner of Hymmen.
“Digital print LVT is the future, and at Engineered Floors, the future is now,” said Mike Sanderson, vice-president, product marketing at Engineered Floors. “Our pure grain HighDef LVT is the next generation of hard surface flooring. We will move the industry forward together with this latest innovation.” According to Hymmen, Engineered Floors already plans on widening the Atlantic-crossing partnership by increasing their capacity with the German machine and plant manufacturer. P
LEGEND 1 The Hymmen technology DLEplus at Engineered Floors’ Dalton plant 2 The complete line has a length of 120m
overall, including a feeding portal, several liquid coating machines for print preparation, the digital decor printer JUPITER JPT-C, and more
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2024 | PANELS & FURNITURE ASIA 53
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