Surface Design Awards – Complete

• INTERIOR SURFACE OF THE YEAR - NEW
  This is a new category that recognises wall, floor, ceiling and surface design products, including decorative, creative and inventive surfaces for the interior of buildings including both commercial and residential properties.

Master Oak is a versatile, durable and easy to look after decorative surface that looks and feels just like genuine oak. Made in Belgium using 100% recovered wood, it sets a new standard in wood look surfaces for commercial interiors.

Through technological leaps in the way we make the surface of our decorative panels, we’ve added definition and detail and made sure our textures go deeper than ever before. At the same time, we’ve improved the matt finish, enhanced our patented digital printing technology and with the industry’s largest patterns, we’ve made Master Oak our most authentic panel yet. Simply, there is nothing else on the market today that comes close.

Our digital printing technology is unique in the industry. A patented coating applied to the digital paper ensures that we can give Master Oak more colour-play and depth, as well as better sharpness and contrast. The end result is a decorative surface that looks exactly like oak.

This print technology also allows us to create the largest pattern in the industry. Master Oak has an extra-large pattern of 5.8m2, which means an authentic look and fewer repeats. What’s more, Master Oak is copied exactly from an original piece of oak.

The result of advancements in press plate technology, patented UNILIN Timber Touch Technology is at the heart of many of the improvements we’ve been able to make to Master Oak’s melamine and HPL options.

Regular HPL and melamine-faced panels only have around three or four depth levels, which limits how much texture can be applied to the surface. Timber Touch Technology has 64 different depth levels for 20 times more texture than regular structures.

Timber Touch Technology gives Master Oak its impressive feel, so that it has the touch of real oak – from rough to smooth and everywhere in-between. It also gives Master Oak its uniquely matt finish that has almost absent shine levels for a natural ‘unfinished’ effect.

Developing Timber Touch Technology wouldn’t have been possible without a state-of-the-art melamine press. The machine allows us to create the necessary deepness and a perfectly synchronised surface.

Master Oak compromises nothing for its authentic look. It remains just as easy to look after and just as durable as any other Unilin HPL or melamine surface. Compared to real oak, Master Oak is three times as scratch-resistant, more colourfast and more stain proof.

It can be used on everything from desktops to shelves, doors, hotel furniture, storage, cupboards, partitions and more. Thanks to its excellent performance characteristics, the finish is also easy to clean and needs no specialist or ongoing maintenance. We’ve applied the technologies in Master Oak to our HPL and melamine surfaces for a wide range of applications:

• HPL doors
• HPL sheets
• Melamine-faced MDF
• Melamine-faced chipboard
• Shelving
• Edging tape
• End grain edging tape

Master Oak is suited to virtually all interior uses. So, everywhere from retail, cafés and bars, hotel and offices to schools and hospitals can enjoy the comforting and relaxing look of natural oak.

We’ve created Master Oak in six oak looks: light natural, natural, double fumed, brown, elegant black and everest white. Each look has been created by our in-house design team. Looking towards global trends and exploring how natural wood finishes are used in commercial interiors, they have put together a range of authentic oak looks that are versatile and usable in real world applications.

Master Oak Elegant black and Master Oak Everest white are exclusively available in our coloured in core high pressure laminate (HPL). This special construction ensures that the edges of elegant white and everest black are the same colour as the Master Oak finish. Ideal for furniture and cabinetry construction, coloured in core leaves a smart edge.

Circularity was at the heart of our foundation in the 1960s. About forty flax traders were looking for a sustainable way to give loam, a by-product of the flax industry, a meaningful destination. At that time, these wastes were simply incinerated. They came up with the idea to invest in the production of boards based on the loam, so-called flaxboards.

Subsequently loam became our first raw material, but due to the scarcity of the loam on the one hand and the growing demand for panels on the other hand, we were forced to look for other raw materials. We resolutely opted for wood as a renewable raw material and as a source of green energy.

We are committed to keeping wood in circulation for as long as possible. After all, wood equals stored carbon. By processing wood into high-quality panels, we save it from combustion and thus reduce CO2 emissions. When we can no longer use wood as a raw material for products, we convert it into renewable energy in our own power plants. In this way, we ensure that nothing of this natural raw material is lost.

We consciously choose recovered wood to produce quality products such as Master Oak panels. Recovered wood is wood and wood waste that is no longer usable for someone else and we therefore save it from incineration. We give it an extra life by using it as raw material for new products. This means that every day we save 4,000 trees from being felled.

Using 100% recovered wood in the making of Master Oak is made possible by the industry’s most advanced sorting and cleaning process. An ultra-modern machine sorts the post-consumer wood, using a mix of processes including magnets, wind sifters and centrifuges to remove impurities.

We’ve invested 40million Euros over the past six years to develop the technology and through using wood that would otherwise have been incinerated, we give continued life to more than 1,000,000 tonnes of wood every year. For any wood that cannot be used in production, we have established a joint venture with Aspiravi, a green energy producer, to convert non-recyclable waste wood into green power.