Arborite

About Arborite®

Established in Canada in 1948, Arborite® is synonymous with quality high-pressure laminate (HPL). Our name, Arborite, means two things – “made from trees”, and “keeper of trees” and was originally developed to help conserve natural resources and recycle waste materials. Our company remains committed to providing the A&D community with environmentally appropriate, high-performance solutions on the leading edge of design.

For each launch, we gather and research market trends and complementary materials. Then we talk to you, the architecture and design community, to help us understand what YOU need from our laminate.

Those guidelines combine with our Montréal culture, and voilà! Arborite’s distinct brand: European-inspired design solutions, with a special emphasis on woodgrain looks, translated for North American applications.

Working in close collaboration with the world’s leading printers, we can achieve print fidelity of natural materials. Through technology, we can offer the look of endangered wood species, exotic and precious stones, and create designs that combine both organic and abstract characteristics. Through various textured finish options, we can enhance the look and feel of our laminates to have you question whether it’s an engineered surface or the real material.

Our Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified products are a testimony of our commitment to environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable forest management.

All Arborite laminates are also GREENGUARD Gold certified for indoor air quality. Our laminates are designed in Montréal, manufactured in the US and readily available through our North American distribution network.

How is laminate made?

High-pressure laminate (HPL), or what is also commonly known in the industry as “p-lam” or “plastic laminate”- is actually more paper than plastic given that our product is composed of +70% paper.

The materials used to manufacture HPL are: decorative paper, kraft paper, melamine resin and phenolic resin. HPL is produced by pressing layers of resin-impregnated paper between steel plates at more than 1,000 pounds per square inch under a temperature exceeding 260 degrees F. Basically, laminate is made by baking resin-treated papers under pressure.

Let’s break this down step-by-step:

• • Decorative papers are saturated with melamine resin which enhances performance for wear, stain, heat, and impact resistance.
• • Kraft papers are saturated with phenolic resin which ensures laminate’s flexible characteristics.
• • The decorative and kraft papers are then sandwiched between two stainless steel plates that emboss the textured finish onto the laminate sheet. These “sandwiches” are loaded into the press openings and are pressed at more than 1,000 pounds per square inch at 260 degrees F for about an hour.

This manufacturing process seals and hardens the laminate sheet and provides you with a nonporous engineered surfacing material.