Maybe you’ve also had this experience walking through recent furniture industry shows. Passing by the booths of suppliers of just about any decorative surface — TFL, 3DL, HPL, and even newer variants like polypropylene and PET, the sexiest new feature they all seem to want to talk about is the touch, the texture. Or at the European shows, “haptics.” 

Material textures have been the final frontier of engineered decorative materials for quite some time, as laminate producers endeavored to put some distance between them and the much-maligned stipple, pebble or pearl finish that became THE “plastic laminate” texture. 

The very first decorative laminates carried a “furniture finish,” smooth and a bit glossy like finished wood veneer. The problem was, this finish was almost as susceptible to scratching as wood finishes, which defeated laminates’ core mission: to be durable and easy to care for. 

Pressing a stipple texture onto the laminate minimized the amount of the material’s hard surface area exposed to wear and tear, and effectively minimized visible scratches. It worked, but it reduced the clarity of the printed design, created an inescapable “this certainly doesn’t look like wood” impression. 

The stipple-finish curse has haunted laminates for decades. More options emerged — convincing woodgrains, and matte-gloss combinations that could mimic stone surfaces. But the biggest news over the last few years has been the development of a silky new matte texture, often referred to as “anti-fingerprint.” 

Please, DO touch!
Also known as super matte, ultra matte, soft touch, and by numerous branded terms like “Traceless” (Wilsonart), “Eclipse” (Uniboard) and “Tactil” (Arauco), anti-fingerprint textures deliver on their promise on both vertical and horizontal surfaces in many applications. 

In recent case studies on multifamily design, I’ve learned that in this market in particular, these finishes are highly valued because they reduce the cleaning required between tenants and in model units.

“The matte and anti-fingerprint finishes are amazing,” said Heather Elkins, director of interior design for One Chicago, an 812-unit apartment building by JDL Development. “They give you the feel of a soft lacquer, very luxurious, very high end.”

“And we’re getting a lot of interest in our PET laminates that have a lux matte texture,” said Brenda Radziwon, designer and materials expert from Quest Engineering, who manufactured the cabinetry for the One Chicago project. “It’s a really nice luxurious look that doesn’t fingerprint. A lot of people like that, especially in multifamily, because it keeps the cabinets looking a little fresher, cleaner.”

Beyond functionality, these finishes have a beautiful, velvety, expensive feel that makes it impossible NOT to touch them. (The best comparison I can make is to the silky feel of the touchpad of a high-quality laptop computer.) And the way these finishes interact with light brings new levels of depth and richness to woodgrain and solid-color laminates, especially black, which loves to amplify fingerprints and smudges. 

This technology represents an interesting intersection between design and function, said Lea de Beer, Marketing and Communications manager for a major producer of surface texture technology, DTS Systemoberflächen GmbH in Germany. 

“When we develop surfaces for a specific goal like durability or haptics, we often find that the beauty of the underlying design is also enhanced in some way, adding depth and bringing out the richness of the colors and details.”  
If “haptics” is a new term for you, you’re not alone. In defining the term, de Beer noted: “Texture is what you can see when the light hits a surface. Haptics is what you feel when you touch it.” 

A quick sidenote: The part of the brain that interprets touch and pressure in the occipital lobe is larger than the parts of the brain that processes vision, speech, concentration, planning and problem-solving. Only the areas that control motor functions, body awareness, coordination, and reading and language, are larger. 

A peek under the hood
So, how does anti-fingerprint technology actually work?

DTS’s solution, called “clean touch,” falls under its ELESGO surfaces brand. ELESGO stands for ELEktronenStrahl Gehärtete Oberfläche, or, in English, electron-beam cured surface. It’s a mechanical solution that minimizes the amount of surface area you can actually touch, similar to the stipple finish but on a microscopic scale. Picture a surface of nano peaks and valleys. When you touch it, you’re only coming into contact with the tips of the peaks. Any oils or dirt you leave settles into the valley, effectively disappearing from view. 

When cleaning is required, which is rarely, a microfiber cloth with a simple household cleaning solution or a Magic Eraser-type sponge does the trick. 

DTS surfaces are electron-beam cured transparent or pigmented acrylic resins, either as a lacquer free film for use in existing laminate presses (branded ELESGO One & Only), or with a hotmelt backing for use with conventional veneer and moulding presses or roll hot laminating machines. 

“These surfaces are not only anti-fingerprint. They also have high scratch resistance, and can be engineered for chemical, bacterial and heat resistance, exterior building facades, outdoor flooring, and for other properties as needed,” said DTS Sales Manager Andreas Backhaus. “While anti-fingerprint is a huge trend right now, we also produce many different textures, all the way to the other end of the spectrum — high gloss — and everything in between, including woodgrains, stones, metals, even a texture inspired by the surface of ice.”

Texture trends in context
I’ve been observing developments in laminate design for over 30 years, beginning with the earliest forays into embossed-in-register textures that match exactly the details of the printed stone, wood and other designs, to sophisticated raw and rustic woodgrain textures that fool even wood industry experts. 

Over the last few years matte, gloss and matte/gloss combinations have all had their 15 minutes of fame, but these anti-fingerprint surfaces have created a whole new volume of industry buzz, beginning a half decade ago at the major furniture and materials fairs in Europe, initially on vertical and horizontal TFL surfaces. They seemed to almost magically address the bane of decorative surfaces — fingerprints and smudges — in the most demanding of all settings: very busy international exhibition floors. 

Materials producers are able to position their anti-fingerprint offerings as premium options. Consumers, designers, building owners and developers are seeing the value. 

“While anti-fingerprint is still huge in the market, and still huge with the designers, we’ve noticed that high gloss is coming back a bit,” said de Beer. “This time as more of a visual accent to the softer matte finishes. I think this is why we saw such a great response to our Frozen design at interzum last year, which is a combination of matte and gloss in a pattern that looks a little like frost on a window.” 

Backhaus emphasized that sustainable solutions are also in high demand. 

“All of our surface lacquers are electron-beam cured, which uses very little power, which creates a fully crosslinked material that’s absolutely food-safe. No solvents or formaldehyde are used anywhere in the process. For our customers producing laminates, they add a lot of durability and ease-of-care advantages, can be applied with their existing equipment, and have minimal waste.” 

For more information on DTS and its ELESGO surfaces visit laminate.de.