1 Skin Feel Texture
The skin-feel sensation is primarily generated by objects with special structures and properties. Features include surface morphology, surface friction, elasticity, flexibility, etc., which, when in contact with the skin, create a soft, full, warm, and comfortable sensation. This technique was first developed and applied in furniture panels by Italy, known for producing top-tier luxury brands, hence the “blue-blooded aristocrats in flooring” nickname for skin-feel flooring.
Experimenting and simulating the texture effects of different materials, GUOLIAN’s product designers dedicatedly researched the “skin-feel surface layer” for delicate skin. They eventually integrated the highly acclaimed skin technology into flooring, providing the public with products that lead the international trend.
The skin-feel coating gives the wood a skin-friendly texture, gentle light sensitivity, rich details, maintaining the visual characteristics of the original wood grain while radiating the vitality of natural wood. The texture and color layers of each floor vividly restore the charm of the natural ecosystem.
2 How is skin-feel coating made?
The innovation behind skin-feel flooring includes two key parts: ultra-matte coatings and specialized process equipment. To create an ultra-matte finish and micro-textures that mimic skin, our team ran extensive experiments on top-layer coatings and process parameters. These efforts allowed us to achieve a tactile sensation that truly replicates the feel of skin.
2.1 Skin-feel Lacquer
Traditional floor UV lacquers contain polyurethane acrylic resin, monomers, UV initiating agents, functional agents, and other components. The coating, with specific viscosity, spreads evenly on the floor using a rubber roller. When exposed to UV light, the resin undergoes cross-linking under the action of the light initiator, curing to form a polymeric film. The surface roughness and glossiness of the film are influenced by the coating components and curing process.
Building on the conventional matting mechanism, we need to create a certain level of surface roughness. We can reduce the resin’s cross-linking density, modify specific cross-linking structures, or add more matting agents to trigger light scattering and achieve the matte effect. However, many matte coatings on the market use too many matting agents, which lowers transparency and weakens the tactile feel, creating surfaces that look and feel less soft.
GUOLIAN’s factory selects UV resin for ultra-matte coatings with good elasticity, moderate cross-linking density, and excellent surface curing. This resin provides a soft skeleton, and special quasi-molecular curing equipment creates wrinkled textures on the surface under quasi-molecular lamps, achieving an ultra-matte effect. By minimizing matting agents, the film’s tactile sensation improves significantly, and the coating exhibits outstanding leveling properties.
2.2 Curing Principle
Excimer laser is a spontaneous radiation light source that transforms inert gas, halogen, or inert gas halide filled in the lamp tube into excited dimers R2*, X2*, or RX*. It then emits non-coherent ultraviolet (UV, wavelength between 200nm and 400nm) and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV, wavelength between 100nm and 200nm) spectra. The photon energy of vacuum ultraviolet radiation is above 6 eV, surpassing the bond energy of most chemical bonds, enabling it to initiate chemical reactions, alter material surface structure, and enhance performance at room temperature.
The skin-feel coating, based on excimer laser technology, involves applying paint to the primer layer and then, in an oxygen-free environment, irradiating the paint surface with excimer lamps. At this point, the acrylate double bonds in the UV coating formula absorb the 172nm ultraviolet light generated by vacuum ultraviolet. This absorption leads to the generation of free radicals without the need for a photosensitizer. Under the influence of this intense ultraviolet light, the liquid adhesive components can crosslink into a solid dry layer within a fraction of a second.
Since 172nm ultraviolet light penetrates only 100 to 500nm, the coating cures a very thin surface layer, forming an uneven layer that floats on the uncured liquid. This process causes the surface to contract and forms uniform wrinkles on the paint. The paint with uniform wrinkles then cures completely. When light hits the wrinkled paint surface, it reflects diffusely, producing a super-matte finish.
2.3 Facilities and Process
The primer layer coating for ultra-matte skin-feel flooring follows the conventional UV roller coating process, while the top layer utilizes the UV ultra-matte skin-feel surface coating process. Specifically, a special lasered roller device is used to apply the UV ultra-matte skin-feel top layer coating onto the primer. In the curing process, a segmented curing approach is employed, requiring quasi-molecular lamps or other pre-curing methods. This results in the generation of elastic wrinkled textures and an ultra-matte gloss, creating a smooth and delicate tactile sensation similar to touching the skin.
3 Properties of Skin-feel Coating
The skin-feel sensation is primarily based on the special structure and properties of the finishing surface, such as surface morphology, surface friction, elasticity, flexibility, compressibility, density, and thermal properties. When in contact with the skin, these characteristics create a soft, full, warm, and comfortable sensation. Based on these features, evaluators consider surface touch (roughness, flatness), fingerprint resistance, and glossiness as key indicators of ultra-matte skin-feel flooring quality.
Based on the coating properties test results, the abrasion resistance of the skin-feel coating is excellent, with a hardness no less than 2H, meeting the requirements of engineered flooring standards. Additionally, the adhesion of the coating film is also qualified, and the glossiness ranges from 1.5° to 2.5°, providing an ultra-matte visual effect.
To test the surface touch, gently touching and rubbing the floor surface with the hand results in a very delicate and smooth sensation, without a gritty feeling. Applying pressure to the floor surface with the fingers and then removing them quickly leads to the rapid disappearance of fingerprints, demonstrating excellent fingerprint resistance of the flooring.
4 Summary
Skin-feel coating design is gradually making its way into the homes of high-end individuals, becoming one of the ways people establish an emotional connection with their living spaces. GUOLIAN’s ultra-matte skin-feel engineered flooring empowers a beautiful home life!
