Specifying MCM Panels
by Jonathan McGaha | January 31, 2016 12:00 am
Guidelines and direction for specifying MCM panels
“The metal panel is the wrapping paper for the building,” says John Trifonoff, vice president, metal operations for East Coast Metal Systems, Bellaire, Ohio. By that he draws attention to all the things that architects love about metal from the ease with which it can be shaped to the way different textures can reflect different light at various times of the day. This wrapping paper can make a building special in a way that other materials-concrete, brick and EIFS-can’t.
Specifying metal is a technical and complicated issue, and recently the Metal Construction Association (MCA) developed master specifications for metal composite material (MCM) panels. We asked a group of experts, including a number of MCAcertified MCM fabricators, for specific insights on specifying panels, including panel size, color, texture, profile, fastening systems and others.
“Panel size. You’re really not limited to much on panel size-only to the size that the manufactures can produce-but what happens is for constructability and workability in the field, the largest we like to promote is 5 by 16. When it gets bigger than that you get into a lot of costs. It’s too big for people to handle. The substrate needs to be designed in a certain way. It becomes a very cumbersome panel size in anything larger.”
John Trifonoff, vice president, metal operations.
East Coast Metal Systems
Bellaire, Ohio
“Architects should consult a fabricator in lieu of a material manufacturer in writing their specification.”
Zeke Miller, president
Miller-Clapperton
Austell, Ga.
“With all panels, the number one role is to provide a leak-free building. With more systems being classified as rainscreen systems, the waterproofing behind the panel is a key component to overall performance. Personally, I prefer the fluid-applied water and air barriers over the wraps and self-adhered waterproofing sheets. In either case, the reliability of the systems are in the small details, such as how do the wall system flashings get stripped in to the underlying waterproofing system? I have found that the upfront time used in studying the small details pays off huge dividends in the end.”
Bob Oakley, commercial sales and estimating
American Roofing & Metal Co.
Louisville, Ky.
“Two MCM core materials are available: polyethylene (PE) and a fire-retardant (FR) core. The polyethylene is flammable and there have been several high-profile building fires where flames propagated up the building exterior. The International Building Code and others regulate the use of PE core by limiting heights and areas along with separations. It is worth mentioning that codes are minimums. My recommendation is that clients be educated on the materials that they are selecting with a strong encouragement to use the FR core. As more and more FR material is specified, the cost has been coming close to be in line with the PE core. If they are cost neutral, why wouldn’t you go with FR?”
Eric Sassak, associate architect
SmithGroupJJR
Detroit
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“Color is also limitless. But the only thing about color is a lot of times they spec a custom color in small quantities. We’ll have a job that only has 2,000 or 3,000 square feet on it and they want two or three custom colors. The cost is astronomical and it usually gets value engineered out due to the misunderstanding of this cost impact to produce such small quantities of custom colors.”
– Trifonoff
“Thermal movement is a factor that destroys both aesthetics and performance of any system if it is not completely understood for a particular material. Thermal movement needs to be a part of the engineering of any detail or panel dimension based on the material type, thickness and overall dimensions.”
– Oakley
“When selecting the right material for a project, one key factor that I use is I try to select the hardest material that can be tooled or fabricated into the desired look that I am after. The main reason hardness matters to me is that it seems less likely to get damaged by installation or adjacent construction operations. Softer material is more susceptible to oil canning. It seems the coefficient for thermal movement is less with harder material, and it is also less likely to be damaged from ominous storms or high winds.”
– Oakley
“The panel shape is limited to your imagination except for a few little things. One is acute angles. If they try to take them over 135 degrees on like a bull nose, we’ve had to change some designs. You can’t bend the material like that. Or, when they try to incorporate small bump outs or features in a panel that are smaller than an inch, these can be cumbersome. Usually you have to change the design to allow for fastening points and the thickness of the material. A lot of times architects look at it like it’s a piece of sheet metal, but it’s not. It’s thicker. It doesn’t work like sheet metal.”
-Trifonoff
“It is very important during design for the designer to be aware of the dimensionality of MCM. Our panel size choices can be very wasteful-or worse, unachievable-if we are not careful. Sometimes, very deep returns are desired. This has a big impact on panel height. A 4-inch return takes 8 inches from the width. Sixty-two inches is a pretty standard width, a 5-foot-tall panel with deep returns is not possible with that material. Addressing this issue during design is far less costly and embarrassing than during construction.”
– Sassak
Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/specifying-mcm-panels/