Vinyl Flooring Technical Specifications Explained
Brief on Vinyl Flooring Plank’s Structural Make Up
In our previous article on “How to Design Product Specification for Vinyl Floorings“, we have explain how flooring business and flooring product managers can design their vinyl flooring collections just by looking at its wear layer, print design, base core, installation method and underlayment. While these elements in short does make up to the whole products to a vinyl floor, whether it be in semi-rigid LVT or rigid core SPC, there are still other important aspects which determines the overall performance and quality in vinyl floorings. These aspects are therefore referred to the technical specifications in vinyl floorings.
Why Vinyl Flooring Technical Specifications Matters?
A technical specification is a detailed and comprehensive chart or table which describes all related technical performances under a set or sets of product standards. These standards generally follows industrial practices that were set by national or international associations of specific industries. In resilient flooring industry for example follows standards that are set by SCS Global Services in FloorScore®, UL GREENGUARD, and others more. Each of these standards may has its own specific agenda in product quality, environmental friendliness, health and safety and other baselines to meet, and flooring products that pass these standards can be certified and use the relevant logo on the packaging.
Though, often Brands also choose to comply on standards above the given industry standards to leverage its product positioning in the market.
Vinyl Flooring Technical Specifications Tests
For Resilient Vinyl Floorings, the there are various tests associated in the vinyl flooring technical specifications.
Below is some of the most important technical specifications that we follow for our resilient flooring product category.
| Item | Standard Specification | Standard Code | Test Result | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Thickness | According to SPEC | ISO24346:2006 | Pass | Determination of overall thickness of resilient floor coverings by condition the test sample at 23+/-2°C for 24h at humidity of 50+/-5% RH. |
| Wear Layer | According to SPEC | ISO24340:2006 | Pass | Thickness of wear layer meet the required specification in lab environment condition 23+/-2°C and 50+/-5% RH. |
| Straightness & Squareness | <0.15mm | EN ISO24342:2023 | Straightness: 0.02mm Squareness: 0.01mm | Measures straightness & squareness of floor tiles by placing edge of tile against a L-shaped measuring tool. Feeler Gauge/Thickness Gauge used. |
| Curling Performance | <0.2% | EN434 / ISO23999:2018 | 0.1% | Curling determines the dimensional stability of vinyl planks, also known as Dimension Stability Test |
| Abrasion | T：Fv≤2.0 | EN660 | Group T | Determination of Abrasion Resistance using Stuttgart method. Grade T：Fv≤2.0, P：2.0＜Fv≤4.0, F：4.0＜Fv≤7.5, M：7.5＜Fv≤15.0 |
| Indentation | <0.2mm | EN433 / ISO24343-1:2012 | Pass | Determination of indentation and residual indentation. |
| Fire Classification | BFl-S1 (>8kW/m2 radiation intensity) | EN13501-1:2018 | BFl-S1 Pass | Fire classification determines how fire proof the vinyl floorings are reacting to fire and ignitability. Meeting the BFl-S1 standard means the vinyl planks are fire retardant |
| Color Fastness | >6 Grade | EN20105-B02 | Pass | |
| Anti-Chemical Performance | Not affected | EN423 / ISO26987:2012 | Pass | Chemical test using Acetone, Hydrogen Peroxide (30%), Citric Acid (10%), Shoe Polish contact 2 hours & Sodium Hydroxide (25%) contact 30 mins |
| Anti-Slip Performance | R9 / R10 | DIN51130 / AS/NZS4586 | PASS | |
| Castor Chair Resistance | 25,000r no visible damage | EN425 / ISO4918:2018 | no visible damage | |
| Sound Absorption | <19db | EN ISO717-2 | <19db PASS | Acoustics Rating of sound insulation & Impact sound insulation on Resilient Floorings |
| Electrical Resistance | <2kV | EN1815:2016 | 0.5kV PASS | |
| Anti-Bacterial Performance | Good | EN ISO846:2019 | Evaluation of the action of microorganisms on plastic materials | |
| Emission for VOC | <10 mg/m3 | ISO 16000-3,6,9 AgBB/DiBt | 0.083 mg/m3 PASS | |
| Heavy Metal | No Heavy Metal Detected | EN71-3:2019 | PASS | 19 types of heavy metals were tested with Not Detected Results. |
Quality in Exceeding to Industry Level of Standards
It is important to note that while there are already a industry level of standards in resilient vinyl floorings, Global leading brands such as Karndean may choose to use test standards that exceed the industry level.
Brands can choose to implement higher standards to position themselves and their flooring products differently from their competitors.
What Flooring Importing Business need to Consider about their Product Offerings
Flooring importers, whether you are a regional flooring brands or wholesalers of brands or distributors in flooring products, its important to understand the ins and outs of your flooring products. For resilient vinyl floorings, while the product design in vinyl planks are very simple, with multiple layers each provide different functionality to the floorings, it is also important to have depth understanding of various of test standards / technical standards that the floorings has passed. As a flooring business, especially for importers of vinyl floorings, can use different level of product standards to strategically position their brands and products in the market.
Sreelance Material Technology is a specialized sourcing partner for flooring brands and distributors. Our resilient vinyl flooring products are in full compliance to Floorscore & UL GREENGUARD standards and offers only floorscore certified vinyl flooring products. To learn more about our flooring products and product standards, please feel free to email to info( at ) sreelance.com or reach out to us at Contact Us Here.
