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Let's briefly mention that there are two types of laminates on the market, those called HPL (High Pressure Laminate) and those identified with the acronym CPL which properly means Continuous Pressed Laminate. For the former, a very wide and complete reference standard has existed for many years, EN 438 which, in addition to defining and classifying the HPL, also contains numerous test methods combined with specific requirements based on the intended use of the material.

For CPLs, strangely, no reference document has ever existed though, in truth, there has been an attempt to produce a European standard (EN) many years ago but without coming to any concrete result. Perhaps the difficulty of standardizing these covering materials derives from their considerable variability which leads to a notable diversification of both their final characteristics and their applications. Today this challenge has been resumed and re-proposed by some important Italian producers who, together with Catas, are facing a path to the publication of a standard within Uniplast in the Sub-Commission 17.
The work started in 2016 and today we have already reached a good point with the definition of a draft of a standard divided into three parts: Part 1: General "Part 2: Test Methods and Part 3: Specifications. The companies participating in this group and Catas have so far conducted many tests and others are still underway to properly classify these materials according to their intended use.

In this regard, we remind that the current draft provides for a division of the CPL into five classes of use (horizontal, vertical, flexible, edges and floors) to which seventeen test methods are associated with corresponding different requirements for each of the five classes indicated above.

For info:
Claudio Caon
+39 0432 747224
caon@catas.com