Composite Panel Association’s Marketing Committee and the CPA’s Decorative Surfaces Council unanimously voted a few years back to rename the class of widely used board products as Thermally Fused Laminates. The CPA explained the reason for the name change, stating, “It is the collective view that the term Thermally Fused Laminate (TFL) is more descriptive than ‘melamine’ and appropriately unifies the decorative surfacing materials represented by CPA under the ‘laminate’ umbrella.” Although the use of the new term has gained popularity and usage in some areas, we know that some of our customers, co-workers and vendors use both, making communication sometimes difficult. To try and keep us all on the same page we have utilized the CPA’s definitions below to help differentiate the decorative surfaces.