Valspar Fluropon Pure Coating: Hazardous Material Reduction and Material Transparency for LEED v4 and Living Building Challenge Product Paper

OverviewWith increasing global interest in sustainable design, standards are rapidly evolving and interest in hazardous material reduction and material transparency is growing. In fact, hazardous material reduction and transparency are new to the latest v4 version of LEED’s international building certification program. Both of these concepts are also a core part of the Living Building Challenge (LBC), another leading international green building standard that is quickly gaining momentum as a comprehensive and advanced approach to sustainability. The American Institute of Architects is encouraging stronger focus on hazardous material reduction and material transparency

in building materials including hosting several education seminars at the recent national conventions. Sessions were dedicated to providing more information about the philosophy, advocacy and certification of LBC. At the Metal Construction Association’s annual meeting, Living Building Challenge director served as the keynote speaker to help members understand how their products can become part of the LBC program.

This article provides an overview of Valspar’s recently launched Fluropon Pure coating and how it supports participation in LEED and LBC certification programs.

Fluropon Pure Innovation in Architectural CoatingsFluropon Pure coating is Valspar’s latest innovation within its flagship Fluropon product family. Designed for the architectural market, this coating is ideal for buildings with extreme environmental requirements or for any project where a customer desires a greener product. Fluropon Pure is formulated with the environment in mind as an LBC Red List Compliant coating system intended for use with a Red List Free pre-treated metal substrate. It can be used when participating in LEED v4 and Living Building Challenge’s Declare programs.

Fluropon Pure delivers all the capabilities of Valspar’s original Fluropon 70% PVDF coatings, including energy-efficient cool roof formulations. It can be applied to Galvalume, hot-dip galvanized and aluminum substrates. As part of the Fluropon coil and extrusion family, Fluropon Pure coatings are backed and warrantied by Valspar.

Performance of Fluropon Pure Valspar’s Fluropon® 70% PVDF coating set the industry standard for performance, long-lasting color and durability when it was introduced 50 years ago, and it continues to be a leader in the industry. Fluropon is field-tested and time-proven to deliver enduring beauty. Fluropon coatings protect thousands of iconic buildings around the world, providing superb protection against harsh outdoor elements including ultraviolet rays, dirt and stains, chemicals, heat, humidity and corrosion. PVDF is one of the strongest chemical bonds known, making Fluropon resistant to many elements found in the environment such as air pollution, acid rain and airborne dirt.

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All coatings within the Fluropon coil and extrusion family are ideal for exterior use on metal curtain walls; roof and wall panels used on monumental structures; window and door frames; store fronts; commercial, industrial and agricultural buildings; pre-engineered buildings and high-end residential homes. In additional to strong performance in the field, these coatings all provide superior flexibility, formability and color consistency during the manufacturing process.

Since Fluropon was introduced, Valspar has continued to innovate. This leading coating system has evolved and grown to offer multiple product lines in a wide range of colors, sheens, gloss levels and special effects. Within the Valspar Fluropon Special Effects coating family, Kameleon delivers pearlescent hues with active color shifts. Nova creates rich colors with an intense silver or gold sparkle that has never been achieved until now. Rustica features natural and polychromatic colors with a weathered antique look. Valspar Fluropon is also available in a Solar Reflective (SR) formulation, which reflects heat absorption from the sun, lowering energy cooling costs and keeping buildings more comfortable. This coating meets all ENERGY STAR®, LEED® and CRRC performance requirements.

What Makes Fluropon Pure Unique?Valspar scientists conducted extensive research and testing in formulating Fluropon Pure to remove a number of undesired ingredients. The result was a coating formulation that contains no PFOA, hexavalent chromium, lead or phthalates.

Here are some specifics related to the performance of Fluropon Pure: Color: Fluropon Pure is available in thousands of colors. Valspar is in the process of building a robust color database with each unique formulation that complies with the Fluropon Pure guidelines to make color selection faster. Valspar is an industry leader in providing consultative services to customers to expedite the material transparency documentation process for LEED v4 and LBC.

Metal Substrate: Chrome has been used in coatings for decades due to its superior corrosion-inhibiting properties and its ability to adhere to any metal substrate. With the removal of hexavalent chromium in Fluropon Pure, Valspar’s research team has developed a coating process that performs equivalently to chrome for use on Galvalume, aluminum and hot-dip galvanized substrates. Metal Pre-Treatment: Fluropon Pure may be used on Galvalume, aluminum and hot-dipped galvanized substrates. To ensure compliance with Valspar’s warranty against corrosion, Valspar-specified pre-treatment ystems must be used. Valspar is actively evaluating additional pre-treatment systems for use with this coating system.

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LEED v4 and Fluropon Pure CoatingLEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, has changed how buildings and communities are planned, constructed, maintained and operated. This member-focused association provides minimum safeguards for codes and standards used in the design, build and compliance process to construct safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures. Since it began in 1994 with one standard, LEED has grown to become the most widely used third-party verification for green buildings and covers all aspects from design and construction to maintenance and operation of buildings. LEED standards have been applied to nearly 85,000 worldwide projects, covering about 13.8 billion square feet. LEED v4, the latest version of the certification program, has several new features including hazardous material reduction and material transparency. By using building products that comply with these requirements, credits can be earned for higher levels of LEED certification. Coatings manufacturers are responding by working directly with architects and building product manufacturers to formulate compliant coatings and provide ingredient transparency. When used in new construction, Fluropon Pure coatings offer opportunities to earn LEED v4 points. Valspar will work with architects to provide the technical information needed to support their projects.

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The list below provides an overview of categories where Valspar Fluropon Pure can contribute to achieving credits.

For more detailed information on LEED credits, check out the LEED Credit Library for New Construction.

Living Building Challenge (LBC) and Fluropon Pure CoatingLiving Building Challenge is a comprehensive, international sustainable building certification program created in 2006 by the non-profit International Living Future Institute. LBC is quickly gaining momentum in interest and use. Certification is based on how the building actually performs over a minimum of 12 months of continuous occupancy.

The LBC program is comprised of seven performance areas knowns as Petals: Place, Water, Energy, Health and Happiness, Materials, Equity and Beauty. Coatings fit into the Materials Petal. One key component of this Petal is the Red List, which identifies more than 800 individual chemicals in 22 chemical categories that cannot be used in a building project due to toxicity concerns.

Valspar Fluropon Pure coating has been formulated with the environment in mind and meets LBC Red List compliance requirements under LBC’s “Declare” method of documenting product ingredients. The three LBC Declaration status designations include:

• LBC Declare Label: product meets voluntary disclosure of ingredients to promote transparency.• LBC Red List Compliant: product meets requirements of LBC’s Red List Imperative due to a temporary exception. Fluropon Pure Coatings fit into this category.• LBC Red List Free: product does not contain any ingredients on LBC’s Red List.

Valspar is strongly committed to ongoing research and development with the goal of formulating a Red List Free status coating that will deliver the durability and longevity expected by building owners.

I. Building Product Disclosure and Optimization – Material Ingredients Valspar has published a Fluropon Pure LBC Declare label that can be used to meet the material ingredient disclosure requirement for this credit. Valspar also supports its building product manufacturer customers by providing the information needed to complete ingredient disclosure forms (e.g. Health Product Declarations).

II. Building Product Disclosure and Optimization – Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) Valspar supports the development of customer EPDs for products produced with Fluropon Pure coatings.

III. Building Life Cycle Impact Reduction Valspar supports the development of customer life cycle impact assessments with Fluropon Pure coating.

IV. The Heat Island Reduction – Roof Valspar has formulated a solar-reflective version of Fluropon Pure coating that can be used toward credits in this category. Urban areas can be 6° to 8° Fahrenheit warmer than the suburbs due to the heat island effect, caused in part, by dark surfaces absorbing solar radiation. To resist heat absorption and aid in structure cooling, solar-reflective pigments are available in Fluropon Pure. Valspar has more certified solar-reflective color offerings than other coating manufacturers in the industry. Customers can work with Valspar on color selection.

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SummaryAs a leading global manufacturer of coatings, Valspar is constantly innovating to develop new coating formulations that deliver beauty and long-term performance along with meeting unique market needs. Valspar’s innovations include the recent launch of Fluropon Pure, a 70% PVDF coating that meets the hazardous material reduction and material transparency requirements for LBC and LEED v4.

Fluropon Pure is “LBC Compliant,” providing a reduced hazard coating with material transparency. It also can be used to help building projects earn LEED v4 credits.

True to its 200-year history of innovation, Valspar will continue to innovate and lead with technological advancements in coatings. With dozens of green coating formulations, Valspar is on the forefront of science to support the growth of sustainable buildings.

Rick Afton is the Coil Global Technical Director at Valspar. Contact Rick for additional information, rafton@valspar.com, www.valsparcoilextrusion.com.

SOURCES:

Valspar Technical team

valsparcoilextrusion.com

LEED: usgbc.org/LEED

Living Building Challenge: living-future.org/lbc

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