Blackened Stainless Steel

NES fabricate and finish blackened stainless steel rain-screen cladding panels and facades. External Grade:
• NES offer hot blackening of grade 316 stainless steel for external usage. You can specify how consistent and dark you wish this finish to be.
• There will be some change in the blackening over the years as the FeO3 black oxide washes off, fades and mellows. Jet black is not possible or (for me) considered desirable.
• To create this finish, the Chromium needs to be stripped from the face of the stainless steel so the iron can be oxidised in the patina baths. In the presence of free air this Chromium layer then reforms quickly.
• We can leave the sheet mill, radial brushed or linear brushed.
• I have included a couple of interesting projects in New York that have used this exciting finish in the gallery shown above.

The blackened stainless steel cladding panels are available in several finishes:
• Our "patina finish" is designed to exacerbate the organic texture within the surface of the alloy. There is considerably more variance within the colour and texture of the sheet. This is often a source of considerable benefit when viewed on the scale of a facade. To control these extremes NES can provide top and bottom limits for the colour and texture. These can vary over time as the oxide on the facade settles and is impacted by other environmental factors. Fundamentally, stainless steel will continue to be an extremely resilient and long-life product.
• Our "charcoal finish" has been mechanically sanded to harmoginise the colours. Generally, this darkens the panels and makes them a more consistent black. Over time with external exposure, there will still be changes to the colour of the facade. Having a more severe may heighten the visual impact and contrast with the architecture.

NES offer a comprehensive range of fixing systems for the blackened steel cladding panels:
• Our "invisible fix" system makes the panel appear as a 3-dimensional floating block. This can be cantilevered away from the building by up to 500mm to create unique architectural features. We do this by using capacitor discharge studs to weld ribs inside the panels. Please see an excellent example here: Projecting cladding at 257 City Road.
• Our " through face fix" system is more economical and uses much less raw material and fabrication to clad the building. Countersinking of the fixings is available to minimise shadows and rainwater "teardrops" around the fixings. This can be a way of building-in some value engineering into the specification of the blackened steel facade.