Architects and building owners continue to expand the use prepainted metal  for its long-term durability, specifically its excellent  chalk, fade, and adhesion performance. The use of Insulated Metal Panels (IMPs) is also on the rise in a variety of roof and wall applications due to its sustainability and versatility. Combining the two, prepainted IMPs provide  superior energy efficiency and durability, both of which are necessary  in today’s competitive marketplace to comply with ever-evolving building codes and customer expectations.

1. Many Design Options

Prepainted IMPs provide architects the ability to create unique designs with multiple profiles, colors, reveals, and custom modular widths, resulting in aesthetically pleasing design options for horizontal and vertical applications. The coil coating process offers engineered paint systems for a wide variety of applications that  provide excellent flexibility and hardness and that can be formed into a prepainted finished product with performance characteristics superior to post-painted metal.

2. High Performance and Durability

During the continuous coil coating process, metal coils are unwound, cleaned,  and pretreated, and coatings are roll-applied with controlled and uniformly thick applications of primer and finish coatings. This process results in very consistent coverage across the entire coil. This method is highly efficient and unmatched by metal components painted after fabrication.

Prepainted metal is designed to withstand harsh weather elements and provide excellent corrosion resistance  because pretreatment and multiple coatings are applied to both sides of the metal to enhance its long-term durability. The continuous coil coating process uses a closed-loop thermal oxidation system, which captures and destroys volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found in solvent-based coil coatings or paint. The waste heat is then returned to the ovens to reduce or eliminate the need for natural gas consumption, making the coil coating process environmentally friendly. On average, a continuous coil coating line takes 15 minutes or less to process coils that weigh 20,000 to 60,000 pounds, increasing manufacturing output and satisfying demand more efficiently.

3. Increased Building Envelope Performance

IMPs are considered the ultimate solution for the architectural, commercial, industrial, cold storage and residential markets due to their excellent insulating and weatherproofing characteristics. IMPs have a continuous insulating foam core that is formed together between two sheets of coated metal to provide resistance to air, moisture, and thermal conditions for increased building envelope performance.   This thermal performance is  expressed in R-values, the measurement of the effectiveness of insulation and its ability to resist heat flow. The higher the R-value, the more effective the insulation. IMPs have an R-value of -7.0- to 7.2-per-inch, whereas unfaced urethane has an R-value of only -5.6-per-inch. This superior insulation performance mitigates thermal bridging and thermal drift. Due to these high insulating capabilities, less insulation space is required to comply with building codes, leading to maximized enclosed space.

Because of the vast coatings available, IMPs are adaptable for substitution or use with many other building materials, including concrete tilt-up, stucco, brick, block, single skin metal panels, glazing, and EIFS.

To dive deeper into the discussion on the latest news and trends in the industry, be sure to share these posts via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media using the buttons below and join the NCCA LinkedIn group here. The NCCA LinkedIn group provides a forum for discussing issues pertinent to the process, industry participants, users and potential users of pre-painted metal.