Special
Laminate, PVC, LVT, vinyl and Design floors : click systems examined
IT’S CLICKING BETTER AND BETTER John Rietveldt (i4F - B) "In the world of flooring, we literally discovered the Holy Grail" i4F may be very young in the flooring world, but in less than eight years, it has gained a worldwide reputation for locking systems. These systems have revolutionised the world of laminate and various synthetic floors and are now conquering the world of engineered wood thanks to a host of unique features. The man behind the company is Dutch CEO John Rietveldt. Rietveldt started in late 2013 without even having his own office. What started with one highly experienced technical colleague, Eddy Boucké and, somewhat later, four people in a rented building in Eindhoven is now a company that is active worldwide, with a headquarters in Belgium. A head office that will move to a brand-new building in Turnhout at the end of 2022. "Belgium is a real flooring country, which provides the necessary credibility for your company," he says. "We bought a building in Hamont-Achel, with accompanying R&D space, but growth is continuing so we had to look for a place where we could build a much larger R&D centre, where we could do extrusion as well as develop other technologies. We found it not so far from Antwerp, in Turnhout, on the Eindhoven-Antwerp motorway. We are still waiting for the permit to start building, but it is certain that the space will be ten times bigger than what we have now. We expect to be operational around October, November 2022. One piece drop-lock At the very beginning, i4F launched a one piece drop-lock. This turned out to be a direct hit, especially since the rise of the various synthetic floors started just then. The i4F solution solved a major problem: it was a perfect system for easy floor installation and it eliminated the need for a plastic strip in the profile. "Our big breakthrough was that we were the first to develop a one piece vertical locking system that passed all tests. In the world of flooring, this was literally the discovery of the Holy Grail, because it enables you to produce not only efficiently, but also in a far more sustainable way. The market needed such a vertical locking because it is much easier to install. A great stroke of luck for us was that new materials such as LVT or PVC were starting to gain ground when we launched. These were the very types of floor coverings that were turning the market upside down. Our installation system proved perfect for these new materials, which are much thinner than what we were used to. Being thinner has an impact on your locking and our drop-lock system worked much better than other locking soltuions. Internally we still call this 'the perfect storm', this was just about the most important development in flooring solutions since 30 years." Water-resistance An important element in floors is how water-resistant they are. In this respect, John Rietveldt points to the company's own 3L TripleLock® and Click4U®. "In the US, NALFA sets the requirement that laminate flooring must virtually not swell at all when water is on it. That's where our 3L TripleLock® and Click4U® come in, both for synthetic and laminate locking." "With synthetic floors, this is almost a non issue. Because these are derivatives of petroleum, you hardly ever have a water problem. And with 3L TripleLock and Click4U, all requirements are met and surpassed with flying colours. With laminate, it mainly comes down to the fact that you don't want any water under the floor or in the profile itself. This is why we developed i-Click4U® within the product portfolio. Thanks to the adaptation of the profile, we developed a water-resistant system for wood and laminate that is the only 'one piece' drop-lock system that is truly water-resistant. We announced this locking system this year and will continue to promote it next year, including during Surfaces in the US in February." Parent patent with many brothers and sisters As was clear from the above, there is no one type of locking system for all the listed material types. What makes i4F so strong is that it actually starts from one 'mother patent', from whom numerous derived 'siblings' emerge. "You have to make a 'big basket' within your patent portfolio you can use for herringbone, tiles, laminate, wood, etc. and even different thicknesses," John Rietveldt explains. "We strive for technical perfection and work in a continuous process, almost 'made to order', but
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Floor Forum International 120
