Emanuele Bon introduced Lacon, a Fantoni Group company specializing in the production of impregnated papers and “Cpl” continuous laminates, constantly searching for new opportunities through investments and product innovation, such as “Laminlac”.
Lacon is an acronym for “continuous laminates”, i.e. the decorative products produced with continuous cycle presses and glued onto wood substrates. The company is part of Fantoni Group, a leading panel manufacturer in Italy and Europe.
“In the past few months at Lacon, we have doubled our production capacity by adding a one-of-a-kind line for the production of “Cpl” (“continuous pressed laminates”) in three widths: 1,300, 1,850 and 2,120 millimeters.
Lacon’s specialty is impregnated papers, which are then applied by the company itself or other group companies, but the core business is the production of continuous laminates, sold all over the world with an export share exceeding 70 percent. We mainly sell in Europe for proximity reasons, wherever there are plants that need our laminates to coat all kinds of substrates”.
The product has changed a lot in recent years…
“In recent years, laminates have been emerging as a different product in terms of visual impact, performance and functionality. Today we have a “color fan”, an impressive range in terms of decoration and performance. This transition has been supported by “release” papers, which can transfer any texture onto our laminates, achieving very high customization levels with affordable investments.” The times are gone when a finish could be created only with expensive and “inconvenient” lamination belts.
Furthermore, modern “Cpl” is not only thinner and more flexible, as required in the past, but through the continuous improvement of manufacturing methods, today it is increasingly used as a substitute for Hpl, high-pressure laminates, in many applications, including kitchen countertops. We can produce continuous laminates with a mechanical resistance that compares with Hpl in terms of technical features, using presses that can generate the pressure levels needed to achieve significant results”.
It’s not easy, is it?
“Definitely not, we are a dynamic team, strongly focused on market demand. Lately, we have engineered a brand new product called “Laminlac“, a laminate that can be lacquered without preliminary sanding. There is strong pressure from users to have a solution of this kind, which allows to accelerate production and finishing cycles. We have gone beyond that, creating a small collection with different thicknesses to respond to diverse application needs. The most flexible is “Laminlac F”; while “Laminlac P” features higher paint absorption capacity and is available in different thicknesses to combine solid “covering” capacity and good flexibility. Then we offer “Laminlac K”, where “k” stands for “phenolic kraft”, i.e. multiple layers of paper are stratified to achieve the thickness required by the customer, possibly applying it onto blockboard panels or surfaces that are not perfectly smooth”.
As we said before, service is essential…
“Definitely. We supply impregnated papers, laminates that ensure better and better performance to users, avoiding some steps or operations that were necessary before. We believe this is the right direction, as well as the capacity to deliver small volumes: it would be better to deal only with big orders, of course, but this is not the best approach, in our opinion.
Also in customer relationships, flexibility is essential, it’s a key value in a complex market phase, where visibility is clearly limited and customers prefer to order exactly what they need.
This season has been hard for everyone and I think we have learned that all market players must stand closer together: offering your availability in this period is a key value for a company’s capacity to make business”.
We were saying that products have changed a lot recently…
“Both continuous and high-pressure laminates are developing in two directions: on one side decor, beauty and visual impact; on the other functionality, for instance our new product “Laminlac”. We can say that, in the finishing business, there are two “competitors”, namely coating and veneering, as well as the possibility to create surface with higher resistance. In our opinion, the combination of these two aspects is the innovative strength of this material, which is required to be more beautiful, and useful at the same time.
Research in design will play a key role, as a significant portion of our customers are requesting this. And also, laminates can hardly be sold as “raw” materials, like panels, so we need to add visual value. More and more players are considering different possible applications of laminates, and in these areas, what matters most is the technical elements, the fact that these products can be a commodity that production technology can make more and more relevant”.
