How vinyl flooring is made

The wood grain on a vinyl plank is a printed film, and the texture is pressed in to line up with the picture.

stations: 8
things upstream: 48
raw sources: 18
steps from the ground: 8

The short version

Luxury vinyl tile starts as PVC compounded with plasticizer, stabilizers and mineral filler. Heated calenders turn that into a core, often built around a fiberglass mat. A printed decor film and a clear PVC wear layer are laminated on under heat and pressure, rollers emboss the texture, a UV-cured coating sets the surface, and the cooled sheet is cut.

Compound the PVC

Raw PVC is kneaded with plasticizer, stabilizers and fillers such as limestone powder, then degassed to remove trapped air. Plasticizer sets how firm the tile feels, and stabilizers protect it from the heat of the line.

Goes in
PVC Plasticizer Limestone
Calender the core

Softened compound runs between heated rollers that set its thickness. In one line described by the machinery maker BUSS, the first calender coats a fiberglass mat and the second coats its other side.

Goes in
Fiberglass
Bond the print film

A printed film showing wood or stone is fused to the base under heat and pressure.

Goes in
Ink
Laminate the wear layer

A separate, ready-made clear PVC film feeds on through hot rollers and fuses to the print. This film's thickness is the mil rating on the box.

12 mil or 20 mil is typical

Goes in
PVC
Emboss the texture

A textured roller or plate presses into the clear layer. On embossed-in-register lines, a mark or sensor in the print keeps knots and grain lined up with the dips underfoot.
Cure the top coat

A thin liquid urethane or acrylic coating is rolled on and hit with ultraviolet light. It sets within seconds, and every part of the sheet gets the same exposure.
Temper and cool

The layered sheet passes through a tempering stretch and is then cooled before it reaches the cutters.
Cut to measure

Machines cut the sheet into planks or tiles. Line checks cover wear layer thickness, gloss, adhesion and any visible flaws.

End of the lineVinyl flooring

Worth repeating

A 20-mil wear layer on a vinyl plank is only roughly 0.5 mm of clear PVC.
Philadelphia architect Frank Furness won an 1894 patent on rubber floor tiles, a forerunner of resilient flooring.