I’ve heard about MDF laminated with melamine. It seems to be a fairly common material, or so I thought. When I ask about it at many building supply companies, I’m looked at like I’m from another world. Does it exist or not?
Carol Reed: It does. You can get it from a cabinet shop sheet goods supplier. Building supply companies often don’t serve that particular market. Check at a local cabinet shop for a source.
Greg Williams: It is more common to find particleboard laminated with melamine, but many furniture manufacturers use an MDF with a melamine lamination. You probably won’t find it at the building supply places.
John Brock: Melamine powder is mixed with a waterbased formaldehyde solution to make a resin. This resin can be mixed with wood chips and pressed to make chipboard. Additionally, a paper sheet can be coated with the Melamine resin and pressed onto the surface of the chipboard. The resulting panel is scratch and moisture resistant. I use a lot of it for pantry and utility shelving.
Here’s a bit more information taken from http://www.dsm.com/en_US/html/dmm/MDF.htm. “Melamine is used as Melamine-Urea-Formaldehyde (MUF) resin in the moisture-resistant grades of MDF that are predominantly used as the substrate for flooring panels. The swelling values of these panels have to be very good, and melamine is used to achieve this.”
