Evaluation of surface characteristics of laminated flooring

In this study, surface characteristics of commercially manufactured laminated flooring were evaluated. The surface roughness of samples consisting of high-density fiberboard (HDF) base and melamine resin saturated paper overlay was investigated. Here, 10 cm×10 cm samples of two types of panels were used for the experiments. A fine stylus technique was employed for the measurements. Three roughness parameters, namely average roughness (_Ra$R_{\mathrm{a}}$), mean peak to valley height (_Rz$R_{\mathrm{z}}$), and maximum roughness (_Rmax$R_{\max }$) were considered to determine roughness of the flooring panels. It was found that statistically significant difference existed between two types of samples as well as values taken along and across the sandmarks of the HDF and overlaid panels. Average _Ra$R_{\mathrm{a}}$, _Rz$R_{\mathrm{z}}$, and _Rmax$R_{\max }$ values for HDF were found as 2.73, 26.04, and 27.27 μm, respectively. Overlaid samples resulted in 15.6%, 26.0%, and 21.0% lower values of above parameters than those of HDF panels.