Improving the cleanability of melamine‐formaldehyde‐based decorative laminates

Abstract

Decorative laminates based on melamine formaldehyde (MF) resin impregnated papers are used at great extent for surface finishing of engineered wood that is used for furniture, kitchen, and working surfaces, flooring and exterior cladding. In all these applications, optically flawless appearance is a major issue. The work described here is focused on enhancing the cleanability and antifingerprint properties of smooth, matt surface‐finished melamine‐coated particleboards for furniture fronts, without at the same time changing or deteriorating other important surface parameters such as hardness, roughness or gloss. In order to adjust the surface polarity of a low pressure melamine film, novel interface‐active macromolecular compounds were prepared and tested for their suitability as an antifingerprint additive. Two hydroxy‐functional surfactants (polydimethysiloxane, PDMS‐OH and perfluoroether, PF‐OH) were oxidized under mild conditions to the corresponding aldehydes (PDMS‐CHO and PF‐CHO) using a pyridinium chlorochromate catalyst. With the most promising oxidized polymeric additive, PDMS‐CHO, the contact angles against water, n‐hexadecane, and squalene increased from 79.8°, 26.3° and 31.4° for the pure MF surface to 108.5°, 54.8°, and 59.3°, respectively, for the modified MF surfaces. While for the laminated MF surface based on the oxidized fluoroether the gloss values were much higher than required, for the surfaces based on oxidized polydimethylsiloxane the technological values as well as the lower gloss values were in agreement with the requirements and showed much improved surface cleanability, as was also confirmed by colorimetric measurements. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40964.

Response surface optimization for improving the processing behavior of melamine formaldehyde impregnation resins

“…Consequently, the technological features studied are mainly focused on mechanical strength and hydrolytic stability of the resulting boards. In contrast, impregnation resins are much less well characterized and despite their economic importance only few studies are found focusing on the technological profile important for paper impregnation 29–33 and surface coating 8,23,34–36 . The present article intends to fill this gap to some extent.…”

“…Due to their excellent resistance against temperature, chemicals, hydrolysis and mechanical stress, MF resins have a broad range of industrial applications. The largest application area for MF glues is in the engineered wood manufacturing industry, where they are used as adhesives for gluing wood‐based panels like particleboards and for surface finishing of such panels via resin impregnated paper laminates 1–8 …”

Preparation of melamine–formaldehyde resin grafted by (3‐aminopropyl) triethoxysilane for high‐performance hydrophobic materials

“…The improvements of hydrophobicity may be caused by two reasons. (1) During the curing process, the SiO bonds with lower surface free energy in the APTES tended to aggregate on the surface . The aggregation of SiO bonds was proved by XPS, the Si element content of the surface of MF‐Si material was much higher than that of the bulk, the results could be seen in Figure and Table .…”

“…In the presence of triazine rings, MF materials are usually rigid and of weak toughness . Hydrophobicity and water resistance of MF materials are also poor because of containing abundant hydrophilic groups, such as methylol (CH 2 OH) . Employing formaldehyde as its raw material, the emission of hazardous formaldehyde is inevitable…”

“…Because of its commercial importance, numerous investigations focused on the modification of MF resin have been performed in order to improve its physicochemical properties and widen its downstream industrial applications . In order to improving the hydrophobicity and water resistance of MF material, specific chemical additives, such as siloxanes, silanes, fluorine compounds, and nanoparticles, were incorporated into MF formulation by physical doping or chemical grafting. The materials containing silicon or fluorine compounds are endowed with excellent hydrophobicity, water resistance, and self‐cleaning properties .…”