M&T Bank
Altoona, Pennsylvania
Creating a Bold New Branch Office Look
M&T Bank provides banking products and services with a branch and ATM network spanning the eastern U.S. from Maine to Virginia.
M&T Bank’s main financial services center in Altoona, Pennsylvania, serves personal and business customers alike. The three-story building was constructed in 1997 and was acquired by M&T Bank in 2000.
As is often the case when a new company purchases the physical assets of another company, M&T wanted the external appearance of its Altoona branch office to echo the bank’s primary brand color, a medium green shade that reflects its experience and work with large financial assets. To kick-start the branch re-branding project, M&T’s facility managers turned to coating systems company, Acrymax Technologies Inc., for assistance.
Kynar Aquatec® PVDF-based Coatings Custom-Engineered for Long-Term Performance
Founded in 1951, Acrymax designs, engineers, and manufactures coatings for custom applications. The company’s coatings systems protect assets -- ranging from historic buildings to rocket ships -- against extreme environmental conditions.
Acrymax’s fluoropolymer coatings are formulated with Kynar Aquatec® PVDF polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) resin. This water-based resin technology, developed by Arkema, Inc., makers of Kynar 500® PVDF, gives coatings superior protection and durability performance, thanks to its strong carbon-fluorine bonds. Its bonds in Kynar Aquatec® PVDF provide excellent resistance to chemical and environmental damage, including intense UV light, aggressive salt air, sea spray, humidity, and abrasion. That durability is one of the reasons Acrymax stands behind its coatings’ 10-year color fade warranty.
Kynar Aquatec® PVDF: Performance comparable to Kynar 500® PVDF but in an field-applied coating
Kynar Aquatec® PVDF offers the same weatherability and color retention as Kynar 500® PVDF for coatings. Side-by-side southern Florida weathering testing of Kynar 500® PVDF and Kynar Aquatec® PVDF-based coatings over two decades shows similarly superlative performance with respect to color fade and chalking. While Kynar 500® PVDF-based coatings are applied to metal building components in the factory, Kynar Aquatec® PVDF-based coatings are water-based, field-applied, and cure at ambient temperatures. The technology is particularly beneficial for projects like roof coatings, where on-site application is often necessary.
Property managers at M&T Bank were familiar with Kynar 500® PVDF coatings and when they discovered they could get that same type of finish and long-term durability in a field-applied formula, that helped cement their decision to choose Acrymax AF-5500 Fluoropolymer Coating with Kynar Aquatec® PVDF.
Acrymax® AF-5500 can be used over metal substrates and provides excellent adhesion to metal surfaces, even factory-applied fluoropolymer finishes. It is also low in VOCs.
Custom Color for a strong and recognizable identity
Part of the project’s design focused on M&T’s corporate colors and how to best use them for maximum brand recognition. The company’s corporate green was chosen for the roof and complementary shades of bronze, dark brown, and almond were chosen for the metal panels, exterior window frames and trim to contrast with the building’s tan brick exterior and align with the architectural character of the building.
Acrymax Technologies Inc. provided custom-color matching services. Instead of standard tints or colorants, Acrymax’s Kynar Aquatec® PVDF-based coatings use mixed metal oxide pigments for durable color retention and cooling properties – even for darker shades like the green used on the M&T Bank branch. The result is excellent gloss retention and color retention, even with dark colors.
Thanks to the superior performance of the Kynar Aquatec® PVDF-based Acrymax coatings and the hard work of the entire project team, the finished project results exceeded everyone’s expectations.