Formawall

The Modular Benefits of FWGX
Design Innovation
The Modular Benefits of FWGX
June 13, 2018 at 9:19 pm 0

Reveal your design with FWGX insulated metal panels and specialty finishes.

Formawall Dimension Series Graphix (FWGX) combines the ultimate in design freedom and exceptional architectural performance in an all-in-one panel design, created by transverse reveals. The product gives designers the option to segment Formawall panels along the module width, disguising a single panel as multiple smaller panels for a unique, modular appearance.

This dynamic system reduces the number of panels required for unique project aesthetics, leading to simplified installation and a reduced opportunity for air and water infiltration. Additionally, FWGX panels can be installed either horizontally or vertically for high-end, architectural visuals.

Take your design to another level by implementing CENTRIA’s wide array of specialty finishes with the FWGX system – including Allura Terra Cotta Series and Natural Stone Series, Allusion Faux Finishes, and more – to create a bold profile that outperforms ACM and other alternate cladding materials.

Earth Tone Series

CENTRIA’s Allura premium PVDF coating system features a matte, low-gloss finish combined with subtle texture. Inspired by terrestrial surfaces, the inaugural Allura Terra Cotta Series features five warm, earth tone colors that offer outstanding overall adhesion and color consistency. New this year, the Allura Natural Stone Series features five cementitious colors that perfectly match the color and texture of stonework or masonry.

Faux Finish Series

CENTRIA’s Allusion coating system is a pre-finished decorative paint system that accurately simulates expensive natural finishes, including wood and specialty metals. Using high performance, field-proven print coating technology, this metal print coat finish system can be used on both steel and aluminum substrates, offering significant cost savings along with lower maintenance than the natural materials they emulate.

Combining the modularity of FWGX with exciting specialty finishes creates an aesthetic that is anything but ordinary, backed by the same advanced thermal and moisture performance (ATMP) technology you’ve come to expect from CENTRIA

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Trending Towards Sustainability
Expert Analysis, Sustainability
Trending Towards Sustainability
March 2, 2018 at 3:11 pm 0

Insulated metal panels are at the forefront of sustainable building materials.

From plastics to electronics, there is growing awareness about what goes into the products that make up our world. The built environment is seeing the effects as well, which are reflected in new, more holistic sustainable building standards.

According to the EPA, people spend about 90 percent of their lives in buildings, and until recently, building owners, architects, and designers have had very little say in what goes into the building materials. Today, however, the way we make decisions about designing and constructing is evolving. Design-build teams are recognizing that buildings are more than just places that we occupy; they are the spaces where generations of people live, work and play.

For years, insulated metal panels have been the go-to solution for highly efficient, cost-saving green building enclosures. Their superior thermal efficiency reduces moisture and mold, which can be harmful to occupants, as well as heating and cooling costs. As an all-in-one product, insulated metal panels offer faster installation, less construction waste, and reduced maintenance. These performance and sustainability benefits already lend insulated metal panels LEED credit opportunities.

Fueled by building owners, new sustainable ideas are raising the standards for design-build teams—as well as manufacturers. The sustainable building industry is now moving the needle even further toward healthy building materials. We are rethinking not only how our buildings can be more efficient, but also how every product we use can be more sustainable.

Raising the Bar

The latest LEED standards are primarily driving this more holistic approach to measuring a building’s overall effect on health and the environment. The U.S. Green Building Council released LEED v4 in 2013, and the changes are taking the healthier material trend mainstream.

Overall, LEED v4 raises the bar on sustainable building. Some of the major changes are an expanded focus on energy and materials. With high R-values, many insulated metal panels produced today can offer build teams more credit opportunities for whole-building energy efficiency. Prerequisites also require greater transparency of product material contents as well as the manufacturing process to help building owners, architects, and designers make more informed decisions about what goes onto — and into — buildings.

To achieve LEED v4 credits, environmental product declarations and health product declarations are two voluntary tools that can help building owners, designers, and architects identify a more sustainable insulated metal panel. An environmental product declaration states the environmental impact through the product life cycle, from manufacturing to recycling. A health product declaration discloses any potentially harmful chemicals in a product. It compares product ingredients to a set “hazard” list based on information from government agencies.  

Building product manufacturers are beginning to take steps to reduce and eliminate these chemical ingredients from their products. One specific ingredient is halogen: a chemical compound that consists of five elements on the periodic table that can be harmful to human health and the environment over time. In insulated metal panels, the ingredients are often used within the foam core as an economical and effective fire retardant.

Halogenated flame retardants were historically added to products to inhibit ignition or spread of flames. Flame retardants delay the spread of fire by suppressing the chemical reactions in the flame by the formation of a protective layer on the material’s surface. Halogenated flame retardants are compounds that contain chlorine and bromine (halogens), which are classified as persistent bioaccumulative toxins. These toxins can build up in organisms and the building environment, and have been shown to negatively affect the following biological functions: neurological development, reproductive system, thyroid hormone disruption, and liver toxicity.

Where Do We Go from Here?

We are already seeing restrictions on products containing halogen throughout Europe and in parts of the United States. Looking at these trends, the use of halogen-free building materials is on the horizon for insulated metal panels. Already earning high marks in sustainability, insulated metal panels with halogen-free foam will provide building owners with a safer occupant environment and offer architects enhanced performance and sustainability metrics.   

Kim Rager, CENTRIA product manager – insulated metal panels, oversees strategic product planning, sales strategy, and market analysis for Formawall with halogen-free foam, CENTRIA’s premier line of insulated metal panels, as well as industrial/commercial foam products.

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Taking Moisture off the Table
Design Innovation
Taking Moisture off the Table
February 20, 2018 at 3:43 pm 0

Iowa homeless shelter marries envelope aesthetics with high performance. 

Rob Smith’s design team faced a dilemma.

They needed to identify a design solution for a new homeless shelter in Des Moines, Iowa that projected a “caring institution without looking like a Taj Mahal” and still stick the landing on key envelope performance goals.

“We wanted to achieve as high an R-value as possible without insulating the stud space,” Smith explains. “It’s all about water vapor. We wanted to eliminate dew point as an issue.” (more…)

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Future-Forward Aesthetic
Design Innovation
Future-Forward Aesthetic
June 17, 2017 at 3:00 pm 0

TreanorHL Architects link exterior design with interior purpose. 

It’s amazing what nearly one million pounds of bi-directional pressure is capable of.

To learn exactly what that kind of stress can – or can’t do – to a concrete structural component is what the University of Kansas School of Engineering’s new 26,055 square foot, $15.6 million High Bay Research Facility is all about.

The futuristic building, sleekly-clad in CENTRIA Formawall Dimension Series 3-inch horizontal panels, presents a visually-striking image to visiting KU alumni and friends. Long ribbons of small windows help break-up building mass, while the front of the structure presents a large glass-enclosed exposure that showcases current engineering projects. (more…)

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America’s Game
Panel Discussion
America’s Game
January 31, 2017 at 9:46 pm 0

CENTRIA products are showcased on National Football League stadiums nationwide.  

The first stadium of its size to utilize a retractable roof, NRG Stadium will play host to Super Bowl LI on Sunday, February 5th. The grandiose, high-performance venue will serve as an appropriate backdrop to a clash between two of the NFL’s most dynamic offenses, not to mention the pomp and circumstance that coincides with the world’s greatest sporting spectacle.

Houston’s NRG Stadium is one of dozens across the United States to feature CENTRIA exterior metal building products. The flashy metallic façade showcases over 250,000 square feet of CENTRIA’s flagship product, Formawall Dimension Series insulated metal panels (IMPs) in multiple shades of silver. Other CENTRIA products include IW Series single-skin concealed fastener panels and nearly 175,000 square feet of EcoScreen perforated screenwall. (more…)

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Aesthetic and Technological Advantage
Design Innovation
Aesthetic and Technological Advantage
July 13, 2016 at 5:46 pm 0

Mon Power Regional Headquarters showcases creative spark.

Round the bend on southbound Interstate 79 just past the Highway 250 interchange in Fairmont, W.Va. and prepare to be amazed: A futuristic, high-tech citadel suddenly towers over the rolling West Virginia countryside.

The Mon Power Regional Headquarters is a dazzler. The $50 million, 148,000-square-foot data center “looks like you’re going to run into it. By design, it’s perfectly situated for maximum visibility from the interstate,” explains Richard T. Forren AIA, NCARB, principal/senior project architect, of Omni Associates Architects, Inc., the building’s designers.

(more…)

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Making Waves
Design Innovation
Making Waves
May 10, 2016 at 3:00 pm 0

Great Lakes Research Center showcases the best in metal wall panel technology. 

 Stationed on the shores of the Keweenaw Waterway to Lake Superior, Michigan Tech’s new, three-story Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC) is a one-stop shop for any and all scientific research relating to the Great Lakes—the largest surface freshwater system in the world. The facility hosts collaborations between a number of university departments researching air-water interactions, biogeochemistry, hydrodynamics, fisheries, and storm-water management, amongst other subjects.

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Transparency in Manufacturing
Sustainability
Transparency in Manufacturing
January 9, 2016 at 1:38 pm 0

CENTRIA’s environmental product declarations set a trailblazing path for product life cycles.

CENTRIA released its first series of environmental product declarations (EPDs) in 2014 to review five of the company’s high-performance insulated metal wall panels. The continuing trend toward EPDs offers a major advantage to not only the customers, but the industry as a whole.   (more…)

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