The Application
of Stainless Steel for Elevators
Stainless steel is
mainly used in elevator decoration, like ceiling, door panels, door frames, interior
and exterior cladding, control panels, handrails, etc. Among them, type 304 is
the most popular choice in normal situation, type 316 is mainly used in
seaside, high-corrosion or heavy-duty escalators, type 430 is used in general occasions
and steps, and type 443 can partially replace 304 in some specific cases.
Whenever we take the elevator, you will notice that the
elevators are decorated with stainless steel plates or sheets. Some panels show
a mirror-like feeling, some with patterns, which creates a beautiful visual
experience. This is the effect of mirror stainless steel sheets in elevator
decoration. As mirror stainless steel are widely used in the elevator industry,
PVD coated stainless steel sheets become more popular because of color options
based on mirror finish.
Today, XTT will share things about the application of stainless
steel in the elevator industry!
What are Mirror Finish Stainless Steel Sheets?
People who have a certain understanding of mirror
stainless steel plates will know that the production principle of mirror
stainless steel sheets is to polish sheets through professional equipment with
abrasive materials to make the stainless steel plate surface smoother and
smoother. The brightness can be as clear as a mirror.
What Is the Process of Mirror Finish?
The mirror surface has a higher decorative grade among
stainless steel, and the processing technology is more complicated than brushed
finish. It’s made through mechanical polishing on the surface to achieve flat
and mirror-like surface. It can be divided into two parts: polishing and brightness.
There are 3 steps for polishing, rough grinding, semi-fine grinding, and fine
grinding. And there are also 2 steps for brightness, waxing and brightening.
The whole operation is as below:
² Rough Grinding: Select 600# abrasive belt to polish the surface in a
straight line back and forth to remove impurities and rough spots on the
sheets.
² Semi-Fine Grinding: Use 800# abrasive belt to polish the surface according
to the first step, which is mainly for further grinding the marks left in the first
step until the surface has no marks and is basically bright.
² Fine Grinding: Use 1000# abrasive belt to continue polishing until the
surface is close to a mirror effect.
² Waxing: Put wax on wool wheels to complete the mirror-polishing
rather than further grinding.
² Brightness: The last step is to use a cotton cloth wheel to rub the
surface, making it clean fully.
What are Pattern or Embossed Finish Stainless Steel Sheets?
At present, many developers will give priority to
stainless steel pattern sheets for elevator decoration. They can not only meet
the needs in terms of material and size, but also have their own unique value
in terms of decoration and beautification.
How Does Pattern Come?
Stainless steel pattern sheet is embossed through special equipment, so that the surface appears with concave and convex patterns. Main advantages are attractive, durable, wear-resistant, strong decorative effect. The range of width are 680mm, 730mm, 750mm, 1219mm, and the thickness rang is 0.5mm to 1.2mm. Moreover, there are various designs for options.
What are Etched Finish Stainless Steel Sheets?
Stainless steel etched sheets use chemical methods to
etch various patterns on the surface of stainless steel. Using 8K mirror,
brushed, and sandblasted finish as the base finish, after etching treatment,
the surface of the object is further processed. The etched sheet can be
processed with various complex processes such as partial texture, brushed, gold
inlay, partial titanium gold, etc. to achieve the effect of alternating patterns
and brilliant colors. The etched finish is mostly used for elevator doors, or
interior wall panels, and the color is normally gold or rose gold. The design
is custom to meet the whole design of exterior theme. It becomes more popular
in construction decorations, but the production process is more complicated
than others.
How To Make Maintenance for Stainless Steel Elevators?
Whether it is brushed, mirror, PVD coated, or etched
finish stainless steel, they are not rust easily and resistant to weak corrosive
media such as air, steam, and water, but not 100% non-rust. While the
environment is different, the maintenance should be made accordingly.
Common methods:
² Clean it with soap,
weak detergent and warm water to clean dust and dirt.
² If there are
impurities such as grease and oil on the surface, wipe it with a soft dry cloth
first, and then clean it with neutral agent, ammonia solution or special
detergent.
² If advertisements
are pasted on the surface, the trademarks should be washed with warm water and
weak detergent first, and the adhesive components should be scrubbed with
alcohol or organic solvents.
² If there is acid
attached to the surface, rinse with water., soak with ammonia solution, then
wash with neutral detergent or warm water.
² Don’t use steel balls, abrasive tools to avoid surface scratches.
