TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is directed to building panels and, in particular, to building panels having as simulated wood grain appearance.

BACKGROUND

Buildings may conventionally include polymeric siding panels and/or roofing tiles that are affixed to the sides or roofs of buildings, and protect the underlying building structure from environmental damage. Conventional building products may have a variety of profiles and surface finishes to provide a variety of aesthetic appearances to the building.

It is conventionally known to produce polymeric siding panels as an extruded sheet. The polymeric siding panel may include a generally uniform pigmentation throughout the thickness of the siding panel. An aesthetic finish may be applied to the polymeric siding panel to change the color or appearance of texture of the siding panel. In particular, color or texture may be applied such that the siding panel better reflects natural wood.

It is also conventionally known to produce siding products in an injection molding process. The injection molding process allows for the siding product to be produced with a variegated surface on the exterior-facing surfaces of the siding product without the need for a subsequent manufacturing operation. However, previous attempts to introduce variation in color to enhance the texture variegation have proven unsatisfactory, as the color variation has not been aligned well enough to act as a high-quality facsimile of grain in natural wood.

Accordingly, building panels having simulated wood grain and methods of making the same that produce siding having color and texture that more closely match the color and texture of natural wood may be desired.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, a method of injection molding a building panel includes co-mingling a first material and a second material in a molten material, where the second material includes a color that contrasts with the first material. The method also includes injecting the molten material into a cavity of an injection mold with pressure, modifying a flow front of the molten material as the molten material flows in the cavity, and cooling the molten material to form a solidified building panel. In examples, the method includes injecting a first material, a second material, and a third material, where the first material is base material of first color, the second material includes a colorant of contrasting color, and the third material includes a second contrasting color to create streaks such as a streaker colorant.

In another embodiment, a building panel includes an exposed exterior facing portion having a simulated wood grain including a plurality of peaks and valleys that are proximate to one another and a plurality of color variation including streaks of lighter color portion and darker color portion. Each of the color variations may be transverse to a set of adjacent peaks and valleys.

In yet another embodiment, a building panel includes an exposed exterior facing portion having a plurality of color variations comprising streaks of lighter color portion and darker color portion. Each of the color variations are oriented such that at least some of the streaks of lighter color portion and the darker color portion extend along the exposed exterior facing portion of the building panel to visually simulate natural wood.

These and additional features provided by the embodiments described herein will be more fully understood in view of the following detailed description, in conjunction with the drawings.

