Since the launch of Mohawk’s original SolidTech line more than seven years ago, the company has unveiled several extensions and enhancements to the product line—each making their own mark in the product’s ongoing evolution. But perhaps it’s the latest iteration of the popular resilient offering that stands to make the greatest impact since the initial launch.
With the official, large-scale unveiling of SolidTech Premier featuring Signature HDX at Mohawk’s recent series of regional Roadshows, the company is looking to revolutionize the resilient flooring category with not only exciting new technologies, but also advancements designed to provide meaningful features and benefits for flooring retailers and, by extension, their customers. These enhancements include proprietary innovations designed to better mimic the visual characteristics of real hardwood while replicating the texture and heft of the genuine article.
“With this development of SolidTech Premier, our objective was to put the most authentic looking vinyl floor there is into the market,” Joyce Waeleghem, senior design director, resilient, told Floor Covering News. “My background is in wood flooring, so I wanted to transfer the authenticity of real wood to the resilient category—a segment that is often seen as be- ing fake or plastic. We worked for more than three years on developing new technologies to make what we believe is the most authentic vinyl floor out there.”
With SolidTech Premier with Signature HDX technology, Waeleghem and the design/product development team said it has achieved that objective. Leveraging an innovative image-capturing technology first utilized on its RevWood laminate offerings, Mohawk has extended the technology to virtually all hard surface products across its portfolio. “It’s a truly unique, new technology that creates this super authenticity,” Waeleghem noted.
That authenticity hinges on three different aspects—the first of which entails capturing the visual and textural attributes of the source material itself, according to Mohawk. In a nutshell, this proprietary process essentially involves digitally capturing real wood planks and then refining that imagery utilizing a sophisticated process that scans, catalogs and preserves the imagery of the source material.
“It’s very complex, Waeleghem noted. “When you look at the surface of a wood floor, you’ll notice there’s depth and texture to it—it has roughness, it has smoothness, it has knot variation. But in standard resilient products in the market, it’s dumbed down to be able to be producible to three layers maximum. Real wood, by contrast, actually has tens, even hundreds of different depth variations. Signature HDX Technology allows us to create those complex layers of texture to create the multidimensional beauty of real wood.”
According to Mohawk, Signature HDX renders up to a staggering 75 layers of design depth. “That’s a significant improvement over the previous 64 layers, which was first available on our RevWood engineered laminate-wood lines,” Waeleghem explained.
Another noteworthy aspect of the Signature HDX technology is the replication of characteristics that appear in real hardwood planks—things like knots, mineral streaks and checks, for example, along with the unique color/tonality you find with the source material. The realism of SolidTech Premier with HDX is such that Surfaces attendees who visited the Mohawk booth were hard pressed to discern the difference between the new resilient line and wood. “We actually had the product installed on the runway at our booth, and people were asking if it was wood or vinyl—most people couldn’t tell,” Waeleghem said. “They just thought it was a beautiful floor.”
That high level of realism, according to Waeleghem, can be attributed to the third key element of SolidTech Premier—Mohawk’s low-gloss Clarity finish. “The technology we developed created a layer with 100% color clarity,” she said. “The Clarity finish allows you to see all the little details in the printed image, which is not the case with standard products in the market. Although maybe with a naked eye you don’t really notice the pixels, you can usually feel that there’s a plastic layer that goes on top of a print that doesn’t feel like real material. With our new technology, we create zero loss of color detail. We are able to provide sharpness because the texture and the color are collaborating together; that’s where that authenticity comes in.”
Not just good looking
Beyond the product’s visual appeal, there’s also a performance story behind SolidTech Premier. The inherent waterproof attributes of resilient combined with Mohawk’s WetProtect technology mean it can be installed in areas of the home that are prone to spills or moisture incursion.
“Wet Protect is an amazing technology that keeps all moisture on top of the floor,” said Trey Thames, senior vice president, residential, Mohawk. “Most consumers aren’t thinking that spills are potentially going through the joints of their floor underneath. Wet Protect prevents that from happening and also gives consumers a subfloor warranty.”
The features and benefits don’t end there. SolidTech Premier also includes the Uniclic locking system as well as an All Pet warranty. “It’s a no-brain- er for a consumer to make the choice to upgrade,” Thames said.
All these attributes not only position SolidTech Premier as a differentiator in the market, according to Mohawk, but something more. “With that combination of performance and beauty, we feel we can be a true game changer in the market.”
