Excimer coating is now a favorite for flooring makers who want surfaces that loo...
Excimer coating is now a favorite for flooring makers who want surfaces that look stylish and actually stay that way. Instead of just mixing particles into the finish, excimer tech uses a special kind of ultraviolet light to build a real texture on the surface. That means you get gloss levels as low as 2–3 units, solid resistance to stains like coffee and wine, and a look that doesn’t wear out after lots of foot traffic.
Excimer coating uses 172-nanometer UV light to make tiny wrinkles on the surface, giving an ultra-matte finish without matting agents, and it’s tougher against scratches and stains than old-school matte coatings.
This tech solves problems you often see with older matte finishes—like fingerprints, shiny spots, or fading chemical resistance. Let’s get into how excimer coating works at the molecular level, what actually happens on the production line, and when it’s worth the extra cost for your product lineup.
Excimer coating uses 172 nm ultraviolet light to build ultra-matte flooring by creating micro-wrinkles in the top layer. This process skips the need for silica particles and gets gloss levels below 3 GU at 60°, while still being tough against scratches and stains.
Excimer coating treats the surface with 172 nm xenon excimer UV light to form an ultra-matte look on resilient flooring products. “Excimer” stands for excited dimer, which means xenon gas is pushed to a high energy state inside a quartz lamp. The 172 nm wavelength has 7.3 eV photon energy, only reaching the top 100–500 nm of the UV-curable lacquer film in a nitrogen-controlled space. This shallow polymerization creates a matte surface without adding silica or other matting agents—a method that started in the PVC and wood flooring world.
The 172 nm light gets absorbed in the top 10–200 nm of the wet film, causing fast crosslinking and surface hardening, while deeper layers stay uncured for a moment. This causes the surface to shrink and pull against the softer underlayer, which makes microfolds (or micro-wrinkles) that scatter light in all directions. That’s how you get gloss readings of just 2–3 GU at 60° and ≤5 GU at 85° per ASTM D523. After that, a regular mercury or LED UV lamp finishes curing the rest, but the wrinkles stay much smaller than the usual 70 µm decor film thickness.
Excimer coating gets gloss as low as 2–3 GU at 60° and ≤5 GU at 85° by building micro-wrinkles in the lacquer’s top layer, not by mixing in matting agents like silica. The 172 nm light creates a surface that scatters light from all directions, so you don’t get those annoying glossy patches that show up with traditional matte coatings under grazing light.
ASTM D523 and ISO 2813 set the standards for checking how shiny a surface is at different angles. Anything over 70 GU at 60° is a mirror finish; standard matte coatings usually hit 5–7 GU. Excimer ultra-matte surfaces? They’re down at 2–3 GU at 60° and ≤5 GU at 85°.
The 85° angle really shows off tiny surface details that 60° can miss. Lots of silica-matted floors look matte straight on but turn shiny when you look from the side, especially in busy corridors or under low retail lights.
To get a true ultra-matte finish, you need light scattering at both angles. Excimer micro-wrinkles take care of that, keeping the look even from every direction.
Old methods use stuff like fumed silica, calcium carbonate, wax, or talc in the coating. These particles rough up the surface to break up reflections. But if you add too much—over 15%—the coating gets too thick to apply and starts looking cloudy.
Particles mostly reflect light in certain directions, so you still see shiny spots at low angles. You just can’t get below 2 GU without hurting the coating’s toughness and resistance to chemicals.
Manufacturers say Excimer surfaces offer about three times better scratch resistance and double the MEK resistance compared to silica-matted coatings at the same gloss. The micro-wrinkle approach skips heavy matting agents but still protects the surface.
Excimer coating beats silica-matted finishes in surface performance because of its micro-wrinkle structure. Data shows about 3× better scratch resistance and 2× better MEK resistance, and the gloss only drifts by less than 1 GU after 500 abrasion cycles.
EN ISO 26987 tests resilient flooring against 24 hours of contact with stuff like Betadine, eosin, markers, coffee, wine, and mustard. The micro-wrinkle surface made by 172 nm UV polymerization keeps stains from soaking into the film, so you don’t get permanent marks. Industry results show Excimer-finished floors keep up with or even beat high-gloss UV coatings for chemical resistance, all while staying under 3 GU at 60°.
Fingerprints? Oils settle into the tiny valleys and spread out, so you barely see them. The wrinkled surface bounces light all over, not just in one direction, so marks don’t stand out. Tests show 85° GU change is under 1 GU after fingerprints, so smudges are almost invisible in normal light.
ISO 5470-1 / ASTM D4060 Taber abrasion tests with a CS-10 wheel at 1000 g measure wear resistance and gloss over time. Manufacturer data says after 500 cycles, 85° GU stays close to 4.6 GU with less than ±1 GU drift—nobody will notice the difference. By contrast, regular silica-matted surfaces usually get 2–3 GU glossier after the same test, which leads to shiny wear paths in busy areas and ruins the original look.
Excimer coating needs a three-step UV curing process that splits surface matting from the main layer’s hardening. Factory lines use LED pre-gel, 172 nm excimer treatment in nitrogen, and then a full UV cure to make stable ultra-matte surfaces at full production speeds.
First, LED pre-gel at about 365 nm and 500 mW/cm² thickens up the lacquer without curing it all the way, so it won’t flow out after excimer treatment. Line speed here is about 65 fpm. Next, excimer lamps at 172 nm and 30 mW/cm² (in a nitrogen atmosphere) cure just the top 100–500 nm of the coating. The difference between the cured top and soft underlayer makes the micro-wrinkles. Third, mercury (200 WPI) or LED lamps at about 25 fpm finish curing the rest, locking in the matte effect. Wet film thickness is kept at about 60 µm (15 g/m²), and curtain or roller coating spreads the lacquer evenly across line widths of 2.55–4 m.
You’ve got to keep oxygen below 300 ppm, or it’ll ruin the micro-wrinkles. Nitrogen covers the excimer zone, and inline sensors watch O₂ levels live. Excimer energy density sits at 30–40 mW/cm² to balance depth and speed. The substrate needs corona treatment at ≥38 mN/m Dyne for the lacquer to stick. Gloss from batch to batch stays within ±1.5 GU so the look doesn’t change. The excimer step is the slowest part, running at 25–65 fpm, which is a big reason it costs more compared to regular UV-cured lines that run over 100 fpm.
Excimer coating gives you that ultra-matte look and tough surface durability, but it needs more factory investment and nitrogen-controlled processing. It’s a good fit for premium SPC and LVT brands aiming at hotels, hospitals, or high-end homes, but the complexity keeps it out of entry-level products for now.
Excimer coatings hit 2–3 GU at 60° and ≤5 GU at 85° (ASTM D523), so you don’t get those weird shiny spots you see with regular matte PVC flooring under side lighting. The 172 nm micro-wrinkle finish scatters light in all directions, giving a natural, upscale look that’s pretty close to real wood or stone.
Surface performance is way better than silica-matted coatings. Manufacturers show Excimer surfaces have about three times the scratch resistance and double the MEK chemical resistance of typical matting-agent coatings. The micro-wrinkle surface also helps hide fingerprints by spreading oils into the valleys, keeping the floor looking clean—tests show 85° GU change is under 1 GU after fingerprints.
ISO 5470-1 abrasion tests show gloss barely changes after 500 CS-10 wheel cycles at 1000 g; 85° GU stays around 4.6 GU within ±1 GU drift—below what you’d notice. EN ISO 26987 chemical resistance tests with Betadine, markers, coffee, wine, and mustard prove these coatings resist stains even after 24 hours. VOC emissions stay under 10 µg/m³ at 28 days in real projects, meeting FloorScore and GREENGUARD Gold for healthier spaces.
Factory costs go up by about $1 per square meter compared to standard UV surface treatment. This is mostly because Excimer lamps are expensive, and you need a steady nitrogen supply. Oxygen levels have to stay below 300 ppm, or you won’t get the right wrinkle effect. That means you need to monitor and control the process all the time—more than you’d ever do with normal vinyl flooring lines.
You can’t use just any UV lacquer with Excimer. It needs a special formula, with the right acrylate chemistry. Regular UV varnish won’t make the micro-wrinkles, so you have to switch coating suppliers when you change the line. If you try deep EIR embossing (over 0.3 mm), the wrinkles get uneven in the deeper parts, and then you need more energy or maybe a spray application, but that slows things down. Line speeds drop to between 25 and 65 feet per minute during the three-stage curing, so you won’t get as much daily output as with single-pass UV systems. Excimer lamps also bring extra maintenance—replacements and service are more trouble than with mercury or LED-only setups.
Excimer coating makes the most sense when you need very low gloss that stays stable, strong stain resistance, and surfaces that don’t show fingerprints. You’ll pay about $1/m² more at the factory for this. If you’re picking Excimer-finished products, check six key process details to make sure you’re getting real micro-wrinkles—not just a silica-matted surface with a new label.
Hotels and upscale restaurants get a lot out of Excimer’s look and its chemical resistance (EN ISO 26987) against Betadine, red wine, coffee, and permanent marker—even after 24 hours. Healthcare places need VOC emissions below 10 µg/m³ at 28 days and easy-cleaning floors that cut cleaning-agent use from 1.21 kg/m² to just 0.26 kg/m² (that’s a 70–80% drop). Premium retail and high-end homes can justify the extra $1/m² at the factory (which becomes $5–8/m² more at retail) if they want big areas to look even, with a clean or wabi-sabi vibe. Manufacturers should use Excimer for their top products, but stick to regular UV matte for entry-level lines to keep profits steady across their range.
If you’re buying Excimer-coated flooring, ask for these seven documents to prove it’s the real thing, not just silica-matted:
1.Real-time oxygen log showing less than 300 ppm during Stage 2 curing
2.QC report with gloss measurements at 60° and 85° (ASTM D523)
3.Taber 500-cycle wear data (ISO 5470-1) showing 85° GU stays around 4.6 GU
4.EN ISO 26987 chemical resistance report for Betadine, eosin, and permanent marker
5.FloorScore or GREENGUARD Gold certificate
6.Line-speed and Excimer energy-density setup (aim for 30–40 mW/cm² at Stage 2)
7.Batch-to-batch GU tolerance of ≤±1.5 GU
If a factory can’t show all seven, they’re probably using silica matting or not purging nitrogen enough. The slow line speeds (25–65 fpm) and constant nitrogen make things more complicated—only well-integrated manufacturers can keep up with that, honestly.
No, you need a UV lacquer made just for Excimer, with the right acrylate double bonds that react to 172 nm UV light. Regular UV varnish doesn’t make micro-wrinkles, so you’ll have to change both your coating supplier and the formula if you want to retrofit an existing UV line.
Excimer works with EIR textures, but if the embossing is deeper than 0.3 mm, you get fewer wrinkles in the deep spots. You can try more Excimer energy or switch to a spray process, but both slow down the line and push up the cost.
Cleaning gets easier—annual cleaning-agent use drops from 1.21 kg/m² to 0.26 kg/m² (about 70–80% less) because of the stain-resistant micro-wrinkle surface. Stick with neutral pH cleaners, though. Abrasive pads and silicone waxes will mess up the ultra-matte finish.
No, you can’t really refinish Excimer-coated floors on site. The factory 172 nm UV curing that creates the micro-wrinkles needs a nitrogen atmosphere. If a plank gets damaged, you’ll have to swap it out. You can’t just sand and recoat like you would with normal urethane finishes.
Real Excimer surfaces usually show gloss values of 5 GU or less at an 85° angle (ASTM D523 / ISO 2813). They also keep their gloss within 1 GU after 500 Taber abrasion cycles (ISO 5470-1). If you're shopping for Excimer, ask for batch QC reports with both 60° and 85° gloss results. It's also smart to check for residual-O₂ logs that prove less than 300 ppm during production, and look for EN ISO 26987 chemical resistance certificates. These details help you know if the factory followed the right Excimer process steps.
