Aluminium

The circulatory lightweight

Alu­minium is the most com­monly oc­cur­ring metal in the Earth’s crust. In com­par­i­son to other metals, alu­minium has not been known for long – it was first pro­duced with a chem­i­cal re­ac­tion in 1808.

Right from the start, alu­minium has been used as a high-tech ma­te­r­ial, when light weight and high dura­bil­ity are re­quired. Space travel as well as air­craft and car­mak­ing are in­con­ceiv­able without it and it was re­spon­si­ble for making some in­no­va­tions pos­si­ble in the first place.

Es­pe­cially in the second half of the 20th century, alu­minium started its tri­umphal advance into in­te­rior design and into design in general. Its tech­no­log­i­cal mys­tique to­gether with its silvery, glit­ter­ing surface opened up new hori­zons in the use of metal in in­te­rior design. At FSB this started with the designs by Jo­hannes Po­tentes in the 1950s.

Even today, the ex­per­tise we gained back then in alu­minium pro­cess­ing forms the basis of all FSB handle ranges made from this won­der­ful ma­te­r­ial. The natural colour of alu­minium is natural silver (FSB 0105). We rec­om­mend this colour to cus­tomers who ap­pre­ci­ate the typical at­trib­utes of the ma­te­r­ial. This also in­cludes the fact that alu­minium is very pleas­ant to the touch, pri­mar­ily because this light­weight metal is par­tic­u­larly good at adapt­ing to the ambient tem­per­a­ture.

Most FSB product fam­i­lies are avail­able in alu­minium. We only use primary alu­minium for our cast alu­minium prod­ucts, which is pro­duced using re­new­able energy from water, wind and sun.

This reduces the carbon foot­print to less than 4.0 kg CO/kg, which is less than a quarter of the global average. In ad­di­tion, the ma­te­r­ial can be re­cy­cled again and again without loss.

We also do not leave alu­minium waste gen­er­ated during the man­u­fac­tur­ing process unused. The so-called "sprues" from gravity casting are melted down again by us and thus re­turned to the pro­duc­tion cycle.

Finishes

FSB 0105

Pol­ished Alu­minium Nat­ural-Colour An­odised

Staining methods

After the me­chan­i­cal ma­chin­ing, its surface is pro­tected by an­odiz­ing. FSB uses a stan­dard process for an­o­dis­ing. This process uses direct current and a sul­phuric acid elec­trolyte. The oxide layer built up in this stan­dard process is approx. 10 μm thick. The hard­ness of this layer is up to 350 kp/mm2 (Vickers), cor­re­spond­ing to 2,500 to 3,500 N/mm2. The sil­ver-white oxide layer can be coloured to extend your design options.

FSB uses two types of coloura­tion:

1. Colour­ing the surface and in the central region of the oxide layer by im­mer­sion colour­ing which is also known as the ab­sorp­tion process. During this, the ini­tially sil­ver-white an­odised alu­minium is chem­i­cally coloured in organic and anor­ganic dye so­lu­tions. The light fast­ness has a value of about 6 to 7.

2. Colour­ing at the base of the pores of the oxide layer. Here, metals are elec­trolyt­i­cally de­posited using al­ter­nat­ing current into the pre­vi­ously created sil­ver-white oxide layer. This is called a two-stage process. The light fast­ness values are from 7 to 8.

After colour­ing, the surface becomes more dense. This ensures that the colour’s re­sis­tance to cor­ro­sion, light and weather stays within the spec­i­fied values. Ba­si­cally, alu­minium needs no special care as a ma­te­r­ial. This ar­ti­fi­cially created anodis ed layer pro­tects the alu­minium. Dirt spots can be removed with water and a soft cloth.

In daily use alu­minium sur­faces can be worn or scratched by harder ma­te­ri­als. Damage is typ­i­cally caused by rings worn on fingers. This “damage” to the alu­minium surface may impair the aes­thetic im­pres­sion but has no effect on its func­tion. Many users even like this patina re­sult­ing from use.