Laminex

Decorated board. Coloured board. LPM. Melamine. Here’s our quick guide to an essential building product for designers and apprentices.

It’s curious that our industry uses so many different terms to describe a product that’s truly fundamental to contemporary interior design. But no matter what you call it – “decorated board”, “coloured board”, “low-pressure melamine”, “LPM” or something else – it’s important that architects, designers and fabricators understand how it’s made and how to specify it. Because it’s a rare home or commercial fit-out that doesn’t use it somewhere.

Understanding decorated board

Decorated board is made by impregnating decorative paper with melamine resin and bonding it under heat and pressure to both sides of a substrate, typically MDF or particleboard. This creates a panel product with a very similar surface appearance to high-pressure laminate (HPL) and a complementary set of physical properties and performance attributes. While HPL has the impact and wear resistance required for benchtops and other horizontal surfaces, decorated board’s rigid structure is perfect for vertical components, such as cabinetry panels and doors, partitions and wall panelling. (You can read a more detailed comparison between HPL and decorated board here.)

HPL can be applied to vertical surfaces too. But decorated board is much more efficient and cost-effective, because it simply needs to be cut to size and edged. What’s more, it’s incredibly easy to clean and, unlike natural veneers and other materials, it resists fading.

The distinctions between different kinds of decorated board are largely based on the substrate used in their manufacture, which in turn makes them more or less suited to specific applications.

Laminex Lamiwood MR decorated MDF

Laminex Lamiwood MR is a moisture-resistant decorated MDF used for kitchen and bathroom joinery, laundries and built-in cabinetry such as study nooks and TV units. It’s made with E0 MDF for lower formaldehyde content and healthier indoor air, and can also be specified with a CARB2-accredited MDF core, for projects where compliance with the US-based air quality standard for reduced formaldehyde emissions is required. Lamiwood MR comes in a standard panel size of 2400x1200mm.

Laminex Vertiboard MR decorated particleboard

Laminex Vertiboard MR is a moisture-resistant decorated particleboard. It’s available as part of the Large Format Commercial range, in a panel size of 3600x1800mm, big enough for wall cladding and suitable for retail and office fit-outs such as work stations and office furniture. Vertiboard MR can be specified with an E0-rated particleboard substrate for lower formaldehyde content.

Understanding the differences between high-pressure laminate and low-pressure melamine is the best way to choose the right product for the project.

ILaminex launched the first high-pressure laminate, or HPL, onto the Australian market way back in 1952. Since then, Laminex laminate has become a mainstay in Australian homes and commercial spaces, in the process evolving into a technologically advanced, design-driven surface material. Decorated board, also known as low-pressure melamine or LPM, was introduced more recently and is now commonly specified alongside laminate by designers and fabricators. The two products go by several different names and are sometimes even referred to collectively as “Laminex”, but they’re actually very different. Understanding these differences is vital to getting the best outcome for every project, and the most cost-efficient outcome too.

The fundamentals of HPL and LPM

The technology behind the production of high-pressure laminate, or HPL, has moved on considerably since 1952, but the basic principles remain the same: sheets of technical kraft paper are impregnated with water-based resin and decorative surface papers are treated with water-based melamine resin; the papers are dried and cut to size, then collated together and pressed under high pressure (hence the name) and heat. This process activates the resins and fuses the paper layers together. The finished appearance is determined by the decorative top layer of paper, with solid colours using coloured paper and patterns such as woodgrains using multiple image layers, topped with an overlay paper to produce textural detail. The end result is a versatile and highly durable decorative surface that’s resistant to heat, UV, moisture and everyday wear and tear.By contrast, decorated board, also known as low-pressure melamine or LPM, uses medium density fibreboard (MDF) or particleboard as a rigid core, with melamine-impregnated decorative paper bonded to both sides. This process delivers a product with an almost identical surface appearance to HPL, but a very different structure and different properties and applications.

Choosing the right product

HPL is the best choice for medium-impact applications like kitchen benchtops, bathroom vanities and wall panelling, where it’s adhered to a solid substrate. It’s also a great solution for commercial applications, because of its durability and longevity. It comes in different grades for different uses: horizontal HPL offers maximum impact resistance for applications where durability is particularly important; postformable HPL can be heated and moulded to a radius, for seamless benchtop designs; vertical HPL is a thin product used primarily for visual impact, mostly with specialty decors such as metallics; and compact laminate is an extra-thick double-sided self-supporting laminate used for partitions, cubicles and locker systems, and benchtops. There’s also chemical-resistant HPL, for use in laboratories, and fire-rated HPL, for compliance with specific fire safety standards.

In comparison, the extra thickness of LPM and the fact that it is a pre-finished panel make it a cost-effective solution for structural work such as cabinetry carcasses, doors and panels, and furniture. The product is simply cut to size, finished with edging and assembled into the final design. HPL can also be used for these purposes, but it first has to be adhered to a rigid substrate, which adds time and work to the fabrication process, and is much less cost effective (except for projects where the enhanced durability of an HPL surface is a priority). This difference becomes even more apparent when considering the newly updated Laminex Made-to-Measure Doors and Panels offering, which delivers doors and panels fully finished to custom specifications, leaving the fabricator to focus on assembling the cabinetry and completing the job.

LPM panels are also well suited to larger-scale projects that require a mix of installation efficiency, aesthetic appeal, durability and ease of maintenance, such as retail, office fit-outs and multi-residential projects.