In the past, people always gained boards from nature wood. After decades developments, human learned to study and invent many types of hybrid boards that made of other materials instead of wood. Then three main artificial board appeared, plywood, chipboard and fiberboard. Today we will take about fiber board. Based on different density, it has been divided into approximate two types as MDF and HDF. MDF density is about 500~800kg/m3 while HDF is about 900~1600kg/m3. Actually most foreigners do not know this concept of HDF, while MDF is famous with its widespread use in furniture items.
HDF, full name is ‘High-density fiber board’, is widely used in decoration materials such as laminate. It is made of wood fiber and some other plant fiber. Thus you will ask the question that is HDF waterproof?
As we know, wood fiber has a good affinity to water. It will absorb the water and moisture from air, then start to deform and swell. Here i will introduce a concept called ‘Swelling rate’. This rate means the size deformation to the original size. Let us use laminate as an example, commonly the regular laminate swelling rate is about 18% in the market. In all, swelling rate represents the ability that HDF can withstand water. For above question ‘Is HDF waterproof?’, The answer is no of course. It is not correct to say that HDF is waterproof, but you can describe it as water resistant because some laminate has better water resistant performance with less than 10% swelling rate. Recently,Protex Flooring launched a type of laminate called ‘CWC’, which can also be called as super water resistant laminate, can even reach to less than 5%.CWC, full name is ‘Carbon Wood Composite’, is an upgraded type of regular laminate. It will be added glue during production to enhance its stability. When talking to glue, you will worry about that glue will cause and slowly release formaldehyde. In order to remove and avoid the bad effects from glue, Protex can provide MDI glue instead of urea-formaldehyde based on customer requirement. MDI glue is made of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate and it will not release formaldehyde after producing as final flooring.
HDF is made of various kinds of wood fiber while solid wood is made of real hard wood. Manufacture will add much glue to the core during production in order to make the core more stable. The ideal state is all glue will wrap wood fiber to strengthen water resistance. However, this can not be reached well in real production, Another point needs to be noticed is that too much glue will cause and release much formaldehyde. Thus many manufactures will control its glue rate to reach a balance. The glue will combine and mix all wood fiber and make them integrate closely, which can enhance HDF water resistant performance. When it comes to water resistant, HDF is better than solid wood without any doubt.
Solid wood is famous with its realistic wood surface and feeling. Based on this, laminate has been invented. It has wear paper, decor paper, core and balance paper. Its decor paper can be printed by digital printing or roller printing. The former is suitable for samples and the latter is suitable for mass production. Decor paper will gain a very similar and realistic wood texture as well. Laminate has an outstanding impact resistant performance than solid wood as well, thus it is becoming a better alternative of solid wood flooring.
Some professional buyers and customers will pay more attention to its technical test data. Here i will show you the Protex’s laminate test data and results for your reference.
Below is test product specification:
Below is technical data sheet:
From above TDS, it is obviously that Protex’s laminate has many outstanding characteristics such as wear resistance, impact resistance, water resistance, stable and stiff. Protex has a complete and professional production and always provides one-stop service for every customer. If you have interest, do not hesitate to contact us.
