Aluminium shot-blasted, anodised, ennobled

FSB reinvigorates aluminium

In typ­i­cally mat­ter-of-fact manner, the Brakel firm uses the term “Blasted Alu­minium Colour An­odised” to de­scribe what it brought to the pro­duc­tion stage fol­low­ing lengthy de­vel­op­ment and man­u­fac­tur­ing tests: an­odised colours in the form of satin matt alu­minium fin­ishes blasted with fine shot whose inim­itable sheen and pleas­ant haptic quality lend them an allure of a kind never before seen.

FSB has en­hanced its pro­cess­ing of alu­minium by adopt­ing a mix of manual and in­dus­trial methods that allows each of its many door handle designs to be “worked” out of the ma­te­r­ial to optimum effect. The an­odised colours sup­plied by FSB take as their point of ref­er­ence the classic metal­lic “colours” with which the builders’ hard­ware sector had en­deav­oured since the 1950s to emulate typical real hard­ware metals by means of colour-an­odised alu­minium fin­ishes. What used to be an at­trac­tively priced al­ter­na­tive for private builders’ clients unable to afford (or un­will­ing to buy) door fit­tings in solid brass or bronze has, however, since es­tab­lished itself as a design option in its own right for ar­chi­tec­ture and select in­te­rior fin­ish­ing schemes.

FSB is re­vi­tal­is­ing “its” alu­minium ma­te­r­ial with the aid of an­odised colors based on refined matt-vel­vet alu­minium fin­ishes whose inim­itable sheen and pleas­ant haptic quality lend them an allure of a kind never before seen. A con­scious attempt to relate to the actual metal is made – “colour” in the sense of “colour­ful” is out. This is re­gard­less of whether the host surface is high­lighted by means of a metal­lic colour/finish or whether it is to play a more down­beat role – notably in the case of an­odised or pow­der-coated window and facade pro­files – as part of a scheme of co­or­di­nated shades.

In tech­ni­cal and func­tional terms, blast­ing an alu­minium surface causes it to be com­pacted much in the same way as occurs during forging, as a result of which blasted an­odised alu­minium fin­ishes are some­what more re­sis­tant to knocks and scratches than tra­di­tion­ally worked and an­odised alu­minium.

Finishes

FSB 0510

Blasted Alu­minium
Medium Bronze An­odised (C33)

FSB 0710

Blasted Alu­minium
Dark Bronze An­odised (C34)

FSB 0810

Blasted Alu­minium
Black An­odised (C35)