Americhem Visits the International Builders' Show 2016

Las Vegas was booming with the Design and Construction Week taking place a few weeks ago. This monstrous event includes the International Builders’ Show (IBS), The Kitchen & Bath Industry Show and The International Surface Event all taking place at the same time.

IBS, was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center from January 19 to 21, by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). It is a great opportunity for our architecture team to make their yearly trip to visit our customer’s displays and to see the latest products, materials and technologies for building and construction. We were pleased to see our customers were displaying products with Americhem technology.

© Oscar Einzig Photography

This was my first visit to the show and I was astonished by the wide array of businesses represented, from deck boards and fence rails to 3D printing and online database registrations. It was great to see what people are bringing into the building and construction market, and it didn’t hurt that there was also fresh baked cookies, coffee and other fun treats!

© Oscar Einzig Photography

This year there were two full exhibition halls and an outside area full of everything you could imagine, from front doors to toilet seats and everything in between. The theme of this year’s show was Discover the Building Universe and it translated with the plethora of new products that focused on home technology and increased energy efficiency. With next generation products coming to market earlier than expected, homes that are being built now have technologies that people were expecting to see in 5-10 years. Cost saving, space saving and energy saving are the upcoming trends. Your next home will have automation platform controls that will be able to control your lights, audio, video and security systems with one simple interface.

It appears that the building and construction industry is making leaps and bounds when it comes to technology, catching up to other industries such as automotive. These technologies are coming fast and will soon change how everyone lives.

 Aubrey Barto
Marketing Assistant, Americhem

Three Types of Woodgrain Effects in Faux Wood Products

Arch

It’s not always easy to get what you want. As the saying goes, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. For consumers, that can mean choosing between the natural look of wood and the maintenance-free benefits of composite products.

Fortunately, consumers don’t have to choose between the two thanks to Americhem’s realistic woodgrain effects in its nGrain simulated woodgrain technology. Our color masterbatches can help you provide a product that looks as good as the real thing, with three different effect types to keep your customers happy.

Faux Wood That Looks Real

Chevron

In order to look like the real thing, your composite wood should mimic the real thing. That’s why Americhem can help your products attain the natural look of wood through these three effect types:

• Arch – A domed woodgrain effect which has a curved or bowlike appearance
• Cathedral – A woodgrain effect characterized by jagged lines or peaks to create a more realistic woodgrain effect
• Chevron – A woodgrain effect shaped like an inverted “V”

Extra Benefits of nGrain and Americhem

Cathedral

In addition to making your faux wood look real, Americhem can help you in a variety of ways, including:

• Custom solutions to fit your applications
• Field and tech support
• Collaboration through every step of the process

Give us a call at 1-800-228-3476 or contact us online today to learn more about how Americhem’s custom color masterbatch technologies can benefit your applications.

Vinyl Siding Institute Member Companies Meet to Move Industry Forward

Kate Offringa presided over
the first VSI member meeting since
she became president in 2014.

The VinylSiding Institute (VSI) ushered in some big changes during its semi-annual membership meeting held April 19-21 in St. Petersburg, Fla. The meeting saw some new VSI board members added and a new president, Kate Offringa, who officiated at her first VSI member meeting. Offringa, named president in late 2014, comes to VSI with extensive executive management experience, including serving as executive director of the Vinyl Building Council and president and CEO of the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association.

There was a lot of excitement about the changes and one of the meeting’s key objectives was to enhance vinyl siding’s already solid leadership position in the cladding marketplace. There is a lot of optimism within the VSI, both for the housing market in general and the vinyl siding category. It was great to see the membership working together to advance the common goal of ensuring a quality product category for the homeowner. It was especially heartening to see companies that compete against one another on a daily basis coming together in the best interest of the industry, and the end consumer.

Over the last 20 years, VSI has introduced a certification program to ensure that the industry manufactured vinyl siding to meet or exceed quality standards. Later it would sponsor a Certified Installer program so that these products were installed properly. With these programs in place, VSI sought to educate builders, remodelers, planners and architects on the performance benefits of vinyl siding. Homeowners were added to this education campaign in 2014. And they’re not done yet. The buzz at this year’s spring meeting was about VSI’s next evolutionary leap forward. The Steering Committee and Board have agreed to hold a strategic planning meeting this summer to advance the priorities of its members. It signals a new dynamic that will create value for suppliers and manufacturers alike.

The meeting also included several excellent speakers, including one who spoke to the group about demography. This is a key topic as VSI seeks to educate consumers throughout North America. VSI’s next member meeting will be held September 16-18 in Washington, D.C., when we’ll learn a lot more about the organization’s efforts to serve the needs of its members as well as the industry. 

Mike Fair

Market Manager, Architecture

Americhem, Inc.

Best Qualities of Composite Decking

Classic wood decking sure looks good, but it comes with a lot of maintenance. That’s why composite decking is a populor option for people looking to stay away from the potential splinters and staining sessions.

Composite decking needs to maintain the look of real wood for a long time, which is why Americhem offers premium color masterbatches that keep the faux option looking excellent for longer.

Faux Wood That Looks Real

Good composite decking has to pass the eye test. A big part of having a product look like real wood is to effectively mirror woodgrain patterns, which is why Americhem came up with our nGrain® simulated woodgrain technology.

nGrain® is compatible with various resins, giving composite decking the look of natural wood, with realistic streak types and grain patterns built directly into the formulation. 

Weather Resistance

Decking should be built to last. Real wood can worsen with age, with splintering, mold, and fading colors as eventual possibilities. Americhem can help composite decking look good for a long time, as nGrain® is designed with durability in mind.

Still not sure about how your composite decking will hold up to Mother Nature? In order to maintain color retention and functional longevity, we can test your products in our weathering testing facilities, allowing us to determine just how they will react to long-term exposure to UV light, heat, moisture, and humidity.

A Masterbatch Solution

People want to enjoy their deck and not have to constantly maintain it. Composite decking enhanced with Americhem’s custom color masterbatches can look just as good as a wooden deck and maintain its quality for much longer.

Give us a call at 1-800-228-3476 or contact us online to see how Americhem can benefit you.

IBS 2015 Exceeds Expectations

Each year, Americhem’s Architecture business team visits the International Builder’s Show (IBS), held annually at the alternating venues of the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.

This year’s show in Las Vegas has been encouraging to everyone in our delegation. Traffic and exhibitors are both on the rise and the halls are as busy as we’ve seen them for the past several years. The building and construction market is improving, and even though it was one of the last industries to come back to its pre-recession levels, all of the exhibitors here seem bullish on the future.

We’ve visited each of our customer’s displays and many more. Each and every customer we've talked to said that business at this show has been great. The show also takes up much more real estate this year. There are three full exhibition halls and some outside exhibits. Shows in the recent past struggled to fill one and a half halls. The booths of many of the major suppliers are also bigger this year. Another factor in the show’s growth is the addition of the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show which is co-located with IBS.

We didn’t notice a lot of new products amongst the exhibits, although one of our customers was launching a new PVC deck board which looks to our team like the best impression of natural wood to date in a PVC board. During day one of the show on Tuesday, one of our customers said that there were so many people in their booth that you couldn’t move and today was just as packed. Even the monorail on the Las Vegas strip was so full that we had to take a cab to the show this morning.

We had several people making their first visit to the show and they’re first impressions were interesting. Account manager Stefanie Holtham said, “Of all the trade shows I’ve ever been to, this was the most informative. It’s a great place to learn about the building and construction industry.” Account manager Mark Juve liked the professionalism of the booth displays, many of them containing interactive elements. Companies like Ply Gem invested heavily in their displays and Ply Gem’s booth appeared to be the largest booth in the IBS portion of the exhibition.

We were pleased to see our customers’ products that displayed Americhem technology – even the deck on one of the model homes outside featured color and additive solutions from Americhem. If this week’s show is any indication, the building and construction industry appears poised for a great comeback in 2015.

Mike Fair

Market Segment Manager, Architecture, Americhem Inc.