What is plastic laminate?

High pressure plastic laminate (sometimes refered to as HPL) is a decorative sheet material used on vertical surfaces such as cabinet doors and horizontal surfaces such as counter tops.
Many people refer to all HPL as "Formica", where in reality Formica is only one brand of plastic laminate (much as people refer to all adhesive bandages as Band-aids and all facial tissue as Kleenex).
The largest and most common brand names of laminate in the United States are Wilsonart and Formica. Other brands made in the US are Nevamar, Pionite, and Laminart. Arborite is made in Canada, Arpa and Abet Laminati are both made in Italy - all are readily available in the US.
Although there are some overlaps in solid colors and similarities in some woodgrains and patterns between manufacturers, they each have thier own set of colors and patterns to meet the tastes of nearly any designer or design concept.
In future posts I will discuss some design elements, cost effectiveness, applications, and limitations of HPL.

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