WAREGEM, BELGIUM -- The International Surface Event in Las Vegas, NV, is the ideal place for Unilin Technologies to present their SynchroTile & SynchroTile+ patent packages that are based on innovative Print-in-Register and Digital Texturing technologies for ceramic tiles for which they started the R&D in 2008.

SynchroTile is a licensable technology for printing specific surface decoration in register with a correspondingly textured ceramic body. The use of a state-of-the-art camera inspection system recognizes the 3D texture on the base body. This texture is then synchronized with multiple graphic patterns and glazes, producing an absolutely stunning result. The SynchroTile technology package contains multiple worldwide Print-in-Register patents such as U.S. patents 9,874,030; 10,450,761; 10,988,942; and European patent EP3084100.

SynchroTile and SynchroTile+ provide ceramic manufacturers the freedom to achieve remarkable, realistic and natural effects on their ceramic tiles.
SynchroTile+ is a licensable production technology using digital printing to create 3D structure in ceramic tiles. This patent portfolio contains multiple negative and/or positive embossing production methods. The first method includes the use of digital glaze to create a surface texture before or after printing the decorative design (e.g. EP2108524B1 and US8,465,804). The second method involves a glue being digitally printed in a predefined pattern and then a powder being spread onto the glue, creating beautifully embossed structures after vacuum removal of unglued powder and subsequent firing (e.g. EP2542426, EP 3 290 226 B1 and EP2708375). A third method includes generating a structured ceramic 3D tile by using a sinking agent as a substance to interact with the glaze during firing or a “resist” that repels the glaze before the firing process.