What is a Laminate?
Laminates, also known as decorative laminates are artificially produced materials made from paper and plastic resins. Similar to veneers these are also used as an overlay over wooden surfaces to increase their beauty. Note: In India, people often refer to laminates by the name of Sunmica (which is actually the name of a well-known laminate company that was an early entrant in the Indian laminate market). There are also many other popular brands of laminates available.
How are laminates made?
Laminates are made from two different kinds of paper soaked in resins. One is a brown base paper that is soaked and saturated with a synthetic phenolic resin (plastic resin), and the other paper is a decorative paper on which the design pattern is printed. This decorative paper is soaked and saturated in transparent melamine resin. The use of resins make the paper hard and brittle. The two papers are placed over each other and hard-pressed together to manufacture the laminate sheet.