The Natural Choice – Reynobond® Design Line Series

Inspired By Mother Nature. Backed By The Strength Of Reynobond® Aluminum Composite Material And The Integrity Of Alcoa Architectural Products

By George Rosado, Commercial Director
Alcoa Architectural Products

At first glance you'd swear the building was clad in real mahogany. But after another look, you'll find that Alcoa Architectural Products' (AAP) Reynobond® Aluminum Composite Material (ACM), coated with a natural Mahogany Brown wood grain Design Line paint coating, was used instead. Virtually indistinguishable from nature's own handiwork, AAP's Design Line finishes can be used to inject the natural warmth of wood, the strength of granite or the rustic tone of terra cotta in any way you might imagine.

The new Student Union Building incorporates Reynobond® Design Line with a Scottish Oak paint finish. Click image to enlarge.

Unlike their natural counterparts, Reynobond® composite panels finished with Design Line coatings are not restricted by their weight or by the properties inherent in natural materials that affect the way they can be used in design. Their light weight, remarkable strength and extreme flatness offer an endless variety of striking design opportunities with all the benefits of Reynobond® ACM. The industry's original and most extensive collection of natural patterns and textures, the Design Line coating collection provides 39 natural wood, mineral, stone and patina finishes for Reynobond® ACM.

Because Design Line finishes employ a continuous coil-coating paint process, rather than a film, their patterns can be easily matched on unlimited quantities of panels and coil fabricated for flashing materials – enabling fabricators to maintain consistency of color and pattern throughout a project. Design Line patterns and textures include wood grains like Nordic White, Mahogany Brown, Colonial Red and Italian Walnut; stone finishes like Light Oyster Travertine, White Granite, Rose Granite, Blue-Grey Granite and Riyad Stone; terra/mineral finishes like Terra Cream and Terra Cotta Mineral; and Zinc, Copper and Rust patina finishes. Design Line Duragloss® 5000 advanced coil coatings are formulated with high-tech polymer-based resin and highly durable inorganic pigments, making them ideal for all types of outdoor and indoor applications. This finish is engineered to hold up to the corrosive effects of saltwater, intense UV exposure and extreme temperature shifts without warping, cracking or fading, so there are no geographical limitations on where they can be used. Coil-coated with Alcoa's patented paint process, the Design Line finishes have a standard 20-year warranty.

	The renovation and transformation of a corporate campus in Plainsboro, NJ was accomplished through the installation of more than 200,000 sq. ft. Reyonbond ACM with a Design Line Zinc Patina paint finish. Authentic zinc was originally considered for the project but was ruled out because of cost. Click image to enlarge.

DRS Architects, Inc., of Pittsburgh, PA, specified Reynobond® ACM with the Design Line Scottish Oak wood grain finish for the new Slippery Rock Student Union Building and Performing Arts Complex at Slippery Rock University in western Pennsylvania. Plans for the light-filled student union, sited at the foot of a wooded hillside, called for a visually striking palette of dark and light cladding materials. "The Slippery Rock area receives as much as 100 inches of snowfall a year, so durability and thermal retention were major considerations for the project. We originally specified a `wood' product," said Ron Grimm, project architect at DRS, "but once we discovered the Design Line coatings for Reynobond® ACM, we replaced that selection with Reynobond® ACM. The Scottish Oak finish gave us the high visual contrast we were looking for and helped to raise the insulation value of the curtain wall and increase the longevity of the façade."

Ecologically Sound

Design Line finishes for Reynobond® ACM can provide much more than just a striking, natural aesthetic. More than half of the collection of natural patterns and textures is available with AAP's proprietary EcoClean™ coating. A transparent finish that lets the Design Line finish you've spec'd shine through, the EcoClean coating is applied to pre-painted Reynobond ACM in a factory coil process. It is an advanced titanium dioxide (TiO2) coating that reacts with nitrogen oxide – the primary component of smog – breaking it down into harmless nitrates. As a photocatalyst, the titanium dioxide interacts with the sunlight to break down organic matter both on and floating around the surface of the Reynobond panels. And because the EcoClean coating makes the panel surfaces super hydrophilic, only a light rain or morning dew is needed to wash off grime. A sustainable choice that's ideal for use in cities where air pollution is a major issue, the EcoClean™ coating helps reduce the overall maintenance costs for the life of the building, keeping it cleaner longer. And, the sustainable characteristics of Reynobond® ACM panels can also add points toward LEED® certification, and the panels can be recycled when they reach the end of their life cycle.

Above and below, the River Region Health Center in Montgomery, AL, featuring face fastened Reynobond ACM panels with a Mahogany Brown wood grain Design Line paint finish. Click images to enlarge.

Reynobond® ACM with a Design Line finish can be used to provide a natural aesthetic at a fraction of the cost of many natural materials. The design team working on the retrofit of a large corporate campus in Plainsboro, NJ, specified 208,000 square feet of 4 mm Reynobond® ACM with the Design Line Zinc Patina finish for a cost-effective option that satisfied the desired natural appearance. "The client wanted the metal to have a natural look," said Bob Balaam, vice president of sales for BAMCO, Inc., of Middlesex, NJ, fabricator for the project. "We originally estimated the project with natural zinc, but it was cost prohibitive. When AAP introduced the Reynobond® ACM Design Line paint finishes, we were so impressed by the natural appearance of the collection's finishes that we presented the client with the Zinc Patina option as the perfect alternative to the natural material. Both the design team and the client loved the painted finish – it provided the aesthetic we wanted, was cost effective and was the only painted finish offered by an American manufacturer, known to us, that presents a true zinc finish, right down to the grain."

Euro-Chic Style

Reynobond® ACM finished with a Design Line coating and AAP's Face Fastened Solution installation system are a perfect, and practical, match. The Face Fastened Solution, which blends the European-styling of an exposed fastener system, offers all the advantages you'v come to expect from Reynobond® composite materials. The panel's extreme flatness and high strength-to-weight ratio are ideal for this type of installation, and because Reynobond® coil-coated materials are impervious to extreme temperatures and humidity, there are no warrantable geographic limitations on where this installation system can be used.

Chambless King Architects of Montgomery, AL, chose Reynobond® ACM to clad the River Region Health System building in Montgomery. Shaped in part by a sloping site, the building plan transitions from a two-story structure on the south elevation facing a hospital campus to a single-story structure facing a residential neighborhood. "The building is a series of large gestures," said John Chambless, principal of Chambless King. "To work, it had to have beautiful, sharp edges and angles that can be achieved only with ACM, and wall panels that are perfectly flat with no oil canning." Reynobond® ACM with the Design Line Mahogany Brown finish was installed on the one-story facade with the Face Fastened Solution. "We drew on the warmth of the wood finish and the pattern created by the exposed fasteners to give the façade a human scale."

The simplicity of the Face Fastened Solution installation system is part of its beauty. Minimal fabrication is required as the panels are installed flat. Panels can be ordered to the exact height and length needed while corner and angled panels can be easily fabricated using the same techniques and equipment used for panels installed in rout-and-return wet or dry extrusion systems.

All of the Benefits of Reynobond® ACM

Constructed from two sheets of aluminum permanently bonded to either a polyethylene (PE) or fire-retardant (FR) core, Reynobond® ACM finished with a Design Line coating combines the beauty of natural materials with the practicality of Reynobond® ACM. The material is extraordinarily flat, strong and highly formable. Panels can be roll-formed, shaped, bent, folded, routed, punched or cut to achieve small-radius curves, reverse curves, angles and other shapes necessary to create dramatic, distinctive designs not possible with natural materials like stone and wood. Challenging geometry is easily accomplished with Reynobond® ACM, making the possibilities endless.

Remarkably lifelike, the patterns and textures portrayed in the Design Line coating collection for Reynobond® ACM invite one to explore an endless variety of interior and exterior applications – allowing you to infuse your project with a natural style without drawing on precious natural resources or encountering issues often associated with the natural materials, such as matching graining and color. And without having the special considerations for the installation and structural requirements that would be incurred when using natural materials, you can keep your project within budget and on time.

AAP's Design Line finishes are appropriate for use on Reynobond® ACM with both PE and FR cores. And, to cut down on lead time, many Design Line finishes are stocked in AAP's Finished Goods inventory. Please reference the Reynobond® Material Stocking List at  www.reynobond.com for the most up-to-date information, including minimum order requirements and lead times.

Whether you're specifying a natural look for one structure or 20, you can do so with the confidence that all Reynobond® ACM panels finished in the same Design Line painted coating will match, no matter the run. For more information or to download the Reynobond® ACM Design Line finishes color chart, visit www.reynobond.com/designline.

Reynobond®, Reynolux® and Duragloss® are registered trademarks and EcoClean™ is a trademark of Alcoa, Inc.
LEED® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Green Building Council.

About Arconic Architectural Products

Arconic Architectural Products manufacturers metal composite material and single-skin metal claddings for use in both exterior and interior applications. For more information, visit arconic.com/.