GFX: Building science
GFX: Hosted by Adam Grubb
GFX: Valspar Part 2: Layers of Innovation
Adam:
This is the building science of Valspar Coil and Extrusion. The people responsible for Valspar's expanding product lines understand color, but more importantly they recognize the importance of the chemistry and formulas ensuring maximum performance. The commercial applications for their product continue to expand and their market presence continues to rise. The reason for that in their words is simple: innovation.
Rick:
Innovation has always been a grounding force for us
GFX: Rick Afton Global Technical Director Coil and Extrusion Markets
but for sure over the last five years of time.
Jeff:
If we don't continue to innovate we become a total commodity.
GFX: Jeff Alexander Vice President of Sales North American Coil & Extrusion
And that's what we fight against. That's how we bring value to our company, and more importantly to our customers.
GFX: Nancy Peden Senior Project Chemist
Nancy:
Valspar is known as a very trusted to secure company. We are innovative and we can do really fun things.
GFX: Channing Beaudry Technical Director, Coil and Extrusion Coatings
Channing:
Well, one of the big trends is simulating the look of other materials and what we're seeing here is using a print system we can get pre-painted metal to look very similar to other natural raw materials.
Adam:
Have you seen testing change considerably as products change, as Valspar's innovation changes? Have you had to innovate specific tests to include those new products?
GFX: Marlene Garrow Testing Site Group Leader
Marlene:
We get tougher. We get tougher on our products. We're looking for products, our newer products withstand more salt, more abrasion. We want them to last longer in the weather, we want them to last longer in any atmosphere.
Channing:
This review, you know what we don't want to see. The one thing we always talk about technical is failures are really what lead to innovation. And so when you see something like that we can go back and understand what unique raw material that we put in there that caused this failure. And you know how long it's been up here, you know everything about each one of these panels?
Absolutely we know exactly what was in the formulation so we can go back and understand during this study and you can see some of them did not have the same issue as other ones did. So that looking at that with a positive control, we know what to stay away from.
Jeff:
Our customers are very involved in our innovation and it not only helps Valspar separate itself from our competitors, but it helps our customers differentiate themselves from their competition as well.
Rick:
Some of the better innovations that take place even with taking old raw materials and just putting them together in a new way, in a new formulation where reactions may be at different speeds, reactions may be different types.
Channing:
I think the big trends that we see now in the building industry as people and architects definitely want something that has a unique appearance. So we look at our crinkle finished that we've done in WeatherXL, all the way to our Nova system and Fluropon, which gives dramatic effects, sparkling effects, metallic, micas, all these other things color changing pigments where you can look at a building and at sunrise and sunset it looks like two different buildings with the paint changing.
Nancy:
Actually in the last three, four years, Valspar has made a concerted effort to expand into special effects color, not just color by special effects. So, this is just really the beginning for us.
Channing:
We have good, better, best, when we talk in terms of our product line. And a good solid product is our polyester coatings that have been refined over many decades to really give the maximum performance, but it is still limited by the polyester chemistry. The better is a silicone modified polyester where we actually react silicone into that polyester coating, giving a much stronger bond, much better light fastness. The best would be a fluorinated product where you have that fluorine bond, one of the strongest in nature even stronger than the silicone bonds. And that will stabilize the resin. What Valspar then does is we use a modifying resin in all of those systems. And that modifying resin is something we've created that has excellent UV durability. And that's really what gives us superiority over our competitors.
Jeff:
We're more focused on innovation. Our suppliers have been able to bring innovation to us, which has powered us and we'll see more of it going forward. I think that will be a trend. While maybe 15 years ago there wasn't so much innovation. What's happened the last five to 10, and what I see in the next 10 to 15, we'll be totally focused on innovation.
Adam:
Meeting the customer's needs is typically top priority for most companies. But Valspar Coil and Extrusion has more stake in the game than most. You see, their product covers the majority, if not the entire structure. So not only does it have to perform for years, but it has to look incredible as well. A team of color scientists and engineers responsible for literally inventing color is one of the more unique in the industry. We take a peek into their world next. For Building Science, I'm Adam Grubb.
GFX: Building science valspar
