US patent relating to Välinge powder technology granted
Viken, Sweden - May 23, 2013
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued on April 30, US patent 8,431,054 assigned to CeraLoc Innovation Belgium BVBA, a company within the Välinge group. The issued patent protects methods for manufacturing wood fibre floors (WFF), for example of the type marketed under the trademark nadura®.
The patented methods includes mechanically mixing wood fibres with a binder and wear resistant particles into a mix, and bringing the mix under heat and pressure. The mix may for example be applied on a MDF or HDF core for forming a surface layer of a floor panel having high wear resistance. The patented methods offer an alternative to conventional laminate flooring production.
A floor or building panel manufactured according to the patented methods, for example a nadura® floor panel, can have deep embossing and obtains high wear resistance through the surface layer due to the wear resistant particles being homogenously mixed in the surface layer.
Today, the Välinge licensee
MeisterWerke produces and sells nadura® products on the European market. nadura® products are also offered for sale by the Swedish internet-based floor shop
Bjoorn.com.
The products will within short be available also in North America.
"With this granted patent we have a good protection of the basic powder technology and can increase our activities related to this technical field. The nadura® product with its high end surface specification is one step in bringing the powder technology to the market and also the powder backing for the DPL process, which has got great attention from the industry since it is more cost efficient and flexible than the today used paper-technology. Also the digital print technology in combination with powder is now commercialized since it is the only melamine based technology of today that combines cost efficiency, no need of impregnation operation and a possibility to print directly in line." says Niclas Håkansson, CEO of Välinge.
The patent application was filed on November 13, 2008 and has an earliest priority date of November 19, 2007.
Standard nadura® produced according to the granted patent.
Digital printed nadura® produced according to the granted patent.For further information please contact:
Markus Adler
Deputy Manager Surface Technology
mobile: +46 (0) 768 94 77 01
e-mail:
Niclas Håkansson
CEO, Välinge Innovation AB
e-mail: