Youngjin Steel is featuring Novelis aluminum sandwich panels at its plant and a showroom in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, Korea.

The Dangjin Plant chose aluminum sandwich panels for roofing and walls. Aluminum shingles used on the roof reduce the weight of the roofing materials on the substructure compared to steel shingles and thus deliver cost savings in the facility’s construction. The plant also used aluminum sandwich panels for the main wall cladding and juxtaposed the sandwich panels with color steel panels to create a visual contrast between the two materials.

Youngjin Steel took advantage of the aluminum sandwich panels’ light weight when constructing the roof of the Dangjin Plant, which was also made suitable for the mounting of solar panels. The ridge vent system on the roof was designed to improve air circulation and allow more natural light into the building, and the panels are fastened onto the roof rack using a boltless system, which makes the roof leak-proof and highly corrosion resistant.

Lee Hun Bum, director of Youngjin Steel, said in an interview with Steel & Metal News, “Those who have constructed factory buildings or ever used aluminum materials easily understand the advantages of aluminum materials over conventional steel materials.”

Sandwich panels made with Novelis’ high-strength aluminum are as strong as, and approximately one-third the weight of, colored steel sheets. This reduces the dead load on the substructure and makes the construction process easier. Compared to warehouses or livestock buildings made with single-ply steel, the indoor temperature of buildings made with aluminum roofs is lower by an average 4.5°C, keeping the buildings’ inhabitants cooler in the summer months.

Aluminum also offers superior corrosion resistance compared to regular steel roofing options, allowing for longer lasting quality and fewer instances of large-scale maintenance. Builders in Europe and North America have been aggressively adopting aluminum as composite panel and single-ply roofing materials as a result.

Novelis Korea and Youngjin Steel have been working together in the development of aluminum sandwich panels, which were also used in construction of the Korean Cattle Improvement Center complex in Yeongyang-gun, North Gyeongsang Province earlier this year. To build the complex, 22,000m2 of Novelis’ aluminum sandwich panels were used, most of which went to cladding the walls and the roofing systems of the cattle housings.

This is a summary of an article that originally appeared in Steel and Metal News.