Metallic colours are not only trendy – in autos, architecture, furniture and household articles – but they can also reflect sunrays. VPW Nink decided to apply it to corrugated PVC for carport roofing, terraces, decorative walls, and make it with 50% recycled material.
“About two years ago we had an idea how to give our coloured standard PVC sheets SALUX® WS-Premium a more attractive and modern design,” says Anja Schendzielorz, head of R&D at VPW Nink.
“I proposed to our innovation team: ‘Why don’t we combine the advantages of a metallic appearance with our previous standard PVC colours?’ ”
So Schendzielorz and the team developed the second generation of SALUX® WS-Premium with a shiny metallic protection layer, which looks like a real aluminium surface. The result: not only a “cooler” aluminium effect but also cooler in temperature.
Metallic particles increase the reflection of infrared radiation and this accordingly results in a lower surface temperature of the PVC sheet. “We measured a difference of the surface temperature of up to 15 degrees Celsius between the alu-metallic and the standard grey layer.”
An added plus: the lower surface temperature reduces the risk of material deformation of the profiled sheets on hot summer days.
“Numerous positive feedback of our customers to the aluminium-metallic PVC-sheet gave us the kick for the next update: we expanded the product range with some new metallic colours in red, green and copper versions,” Schendzielorz says.
And VPW Nink sought to save natural resources. “The lower side of the corrugated sheets contains a very high amount of recycled plastic. That means up to 25% regranulate from pre-consumer waste and 25% own grounded material,” she says.
“That means it’s lightweight, environmentally friendlier and inexpensive for a wide range of applications,” Schendzielorz adds.
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