The Process of How Melamine Dinnerware is Made

Melamine is a high-quality resin compound that creates beautiful, highly food-safe, scratch-resistant, heat-resistant, and incredibly durable dinnerware. Because it can get processed to look and feel exactly like any other material used to make dinnerware and also have those advantages, it’s an excellent material to work with.

But how is melamine dinnerware actually made? What is the process that goes into crafting an elegant piece of melamine dinnerware?

Design Stage

First, the dinnerware gets designed. Will it be plates, saucers, deep plates, bowls, or serving platters? How deep or how wide should the dinnerware be? What should it look like upon completion?

Companies use specialized software to use computer-aided design to create and design the plate according to their preferred specifications. In this stage, they’ll plan the colors to use and the kind of design that should go on the plate. 

This software also creates 3D forms of the dinnerware, which get used to make a casting “mold” for the product. The molds are necessary to develop the final melamine plate. There could be multiple molds of the same item to increase production.

Byzoo is particular about the appearance and the themes of the dinnerware in the catalog. In this stage, our creative team focuses on using beautiful, thematic colors and carefully selecting the ideal patterns that tie the themes together.

Production Stage

Now that the product has gotten designed, it goes into production. Melamine itself is a resin—it can get molded to the appropriate form necessary. This is how it achieves the look and texture of other materials. 

The melamine resin is mixed with other appropriate compounds to create a polymer. It typically appears as a white powder, which is called a molding compound. This is when pigment is added to the melamine to give it a distinctive color (should the design call for it).

It's important to remember that melamine is a “thermosetting polymer.” Melamine needs extreme heat to be molded. And once melamine is molded, it will permanently hold its shape, unlike other plastics. 

The compound is then injected into heated molds so that the compound takes on the mold’s form. The heat and pressure melt the compound and eliminate the excess water, creating the final shape. Now the melamine can be left to cure down to a stable form.

There is another method to create melamine plates—through a hydraulic press. Hydraulic presses create an incredible amount of force (up to 300 tons of pressure in one push). The melamine powder compound is placed on the bottom of the mold, while the top of the mold is pushed down by the hydraulic press. Through the enormous pressure, the resin gets pressed from powder and into a pure solid form even without a high heat level. 

When the hydraulic press lifts, what’s left on the bottom mold is a solid, shiny melamine dinner plate or bowl, pressed perfectly to form. 

Finishing Touches

Once the melamine plates have been cured to their final, permanent state, they can be designed, glazed, and laminated according to the specifications. As mentioned earlier, some plates already have the pigment mixed in during the processing of the melamine, so they create a solid-colored plate. But some melamine plates need a special design or pattern over them. These designs may get painted on with food-safe paints and then glazed for further safety. 

Another method that can be used to design the plates is through special laminating material where the design gets printed. And then the laminate design gets carefully cut according to size. 

Plate designs are either cut in circular form or in arcs to border the plate. Bowl designs are cut out and looped in a near conical shape, so they fit smoothly in the inner circumference of the bowl.

The material has a special glue on the back, and it’s this glue that will get heated and pressed to laminate the design onto the plate before a final coating is placed to protect the design. 

On a similar note, hydraulic-pressed melamine plates can get their designs pressed in by the hydraulic. After the plates have been molded by the press, glue is applied directly to the plate itself. The design is carefully placed in perfect alignment on the plate. And once again, the press comes down to absolutely seal the design in, finishing the plate.

High-Quality, Durable Melamine Dinnerware for Every Table

The melamine dinnerware is now ready for every meal. They are lightweight, sturdy, and long-lasting, giving you years of good use from your beautiful plates and drinkware. Find the perfect melamine set for your home. Visit the Byzoo online shop today.