Välinge presents the first HDF based fold down system.

Viken, Sweden - October 09, 2007

Välinge has presented the first 5G+ side push system to its licensees where the flexible tongue is made of a machined HDF based component. The first HDF tongue was presented and delivered to Kronotex.

Välinge has for many years supplied very advanced machined and HDF based 3G locking strips for mechanical locking of long sides of floorboards. This technology has been developed further and enables production of high quality flexible tongues, which are made of HDF. The flexible tongues on short sides could be bended and displaced in a groove with a side push (P) created by a long side of a panel installed in a new row.

HDF material is very flexible and could easily be bent in a horizontal plane parallel with the fibre direction. This property has been used to develop an extremely reliable and cost effective locking system for the short sides of any type of floorboards.

The production is extremely cost efficient. 200.000 tongues could be produced from one single m3 of HDF material with a speed of 2000 tongues per minute. Production tolerances are considerably better than for extruded plastic sections. In standard laminate floorings 4 tongues are used for each m2 of flooring.

This new technology improves installation considerably since only one single angling action, without any resistance, is sufficient to install a floorboard.

The material cost for the new 5G+ HDF tongues is negligible. Production equipment is very flexible. Length, width and thickness of the HDF tongues could easily be varied without any tool change.

The new technology is more environmental friendly since a wood fibre based material could replace the previously used plastic components. The new HDF tongues are compatible with all present 5G plastic tongues and could be connected to the same edge configuration. "old" and "new" floorboards are possible to connect with both types of tongues.

Once again Välinge is the first in the world to introduce a new and revolutionary locking system that will be commercialized world wide on a large scale in cooperation with the Välinge licensees.

For further information please contact:

Niclas Hakansson
R&D Manager
Mobile : +46 (0)42 23 87 59
e-mail:

Marcus Bergelin
Production & Support Manager
Mobile : +46 (0)42 23 87 53
e-mail: