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Industry & Trends

Hymmen Enters Patent Partnership With i4F

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January 11, 2021 | Bill Esler

News Release

HAMONT, BELGIUM – i4F, a group of companies providing patents and technologies to the flooring industry, announced that it has entered into a patent partnership with Hymmen GmbH Maschinen- und Anlagenbau, a leading global digital printing systems provider, specialized in flooring.

Hymmen Pen Image

This new strategic partnership gives i4F exclusive licensing rights for all Hymmen’s digital printing patents and technologies for flooring production, including Hymmen’s award winning Digital Lacquer Embossing (DLE) technology. This represents an important addition to i4F’s comprehensive digital printing portfolio that already includes market leading technologies from Classen, Kronospan and Benchwick. 

Hymmen has established itself as one of the world’s leading providers of industrial digital printing for flooring and won an Interzum Red Dot Award for its patented DLE technology in 2019. Hymmen is completely dedicated to flooring, and has provided most of the digital printing lines in the global flooring industry. More than 80% of digitally printed flooring around the world is produced using Hymmen technologies. 

“i4F is the perfect match for Hymmen as we share the same passion for innovation and continuous development within the global flooring industry,” says Dr. René Pankoke (below), CEO and President of Hymmen. “i4F is recognized as the technology leader in the flooring industry and will support us on developing and further expanding the market for digital printing.”

Dr. Rene Pankoke - Hymmen

In addition to its exclusive licensing rights, i4F will work in close collaboration with Hymmen to promote digital printing opportunities in the flooring industry and will represent Hymmen on future patent protection related issues. Historically, Hymmen has maintained a strong IP position including, for example, its recent filing of a patent infringement lawsuit against Barberán S.A. at the District Court in Düsseldorf.

“The ability to produce high quality digitally printed flooring has become strategically important for the future of our industry,” says John Rietveldt, i4F’s CEO (below). “i4F believes that Hymmen not only has the most innovative and highest quality technologies, it also maintains a fiercely strong IP position. This latest addition to our patent cluster concept reinforces our promise to licensees to receive the world’s best, most cutting-edge technologies in the industry backed up by a robust patent protection infrastructure.”

John Rietveldt - CEO i4F

Digital printing will play a more crucial role in the future of flooring as it enables unlimited design flexibility and can be applied to a wide range of materials. This facilitates faster response times to market demands and trends while reducing material waste.

About i4F: i4F is an innovations group focused on the development of patents and technologies for the flooring industry. Its portfolio includes IP for flooring installation and wall mounting systems, material compositions, surface treatment, digital printing as well as laminate and board production technologies. i4F has strategic partnerships with the industry’s most important IP players, including Classen, Kronospan, HMTX, UWC, Kowon, CFL Flooring, Tarkett, Kingdom Flooring, Lico, Benchwick and QuickStyle Industries.

The company’s flagship technologies, 3L TripleLock and Click4U, provide a unique one piece drop-lock installation technique for flooring panels that eliminates the need for an additional insert on the short side. The solution is suitable for laminate, luxury vinyl tiles, expanded polymer core, solid polymer core and wooden flooring panels. International patents and patent applications for i4F’s technologies have been granted and filed in over 100 countries worldwide. www.i4F.com

About Hymmen: Hymmen – the technology partner for excellent surfaces: The company predominantly deals with industrial production technology for the production of board materials or the surface finishing of board or roll materials. With 200 employees worldwide Hymmen works on investment projects in the following industries: Furniture, Flooring, Doors/Gates, Decorative Laminates, Building Materials, Steel & Aluminium, Composites & Technical Laminates. The offered technologies include Industrial Press & Calender Lines, Liquid Coating & Lacquering, as well as Industrial Digital Printing Lines and Automation & Control Technology.

Since 2008 Hymmen has put its focus of R&D on industrial digital printing. With more than 45 operating digital printing lines worldwide and a cumulative sales volume of more than 100 Mill. EUR in digital printing lines it may be seen as market leader in the woodworking industry. The latest developments in digital printing include process optimizations in decor printing with UV-curing inks as well as the digital structuring (Hymmen DLE plus).

Hymmen operates a spacious technology center and laboratory in which all production processes with customers’ original materials can be tested and optimized. Hymmen is the right partner for every cSaveustomer seeking high-quality mechanical engineering combined with profound technological know-how, innovative strength and development potential for its own products.

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