Your Skilled Interior Hardware Craftsman

In the spotlight: Zooming in on lustrous corrosion-resistant zinc alloy hardware

In ancient times, zinc metal products—including knobs and pulls— have been increasingly launched in large scale of applications all over the world (communication equipment, musical instruments and home furniture hardware). Interestingly, zinc derived from the Orient and was regularly imported to Europe in the 17th and early 18th centuries. (The intriguing information is retrieved from International Zinc Association)

Nowadays, zinc is known for its fourth most common metal in use, trailing behind only iron, aluminum and copper with the production of about 10 megatons once a year. Zinc, mixed with other metal alloys, now is commercially employed in large-scale applications, especially in furniture hardware.

Galvanization (a kind of metal special treatment)—meaning zinc is coated on the iron or steel home furniture hardware—is popularly used as an anti-corrosion agent to protect builder hardware from corroding away slowly and damages, compared to those of ferrous hardware without an anti-rust layer. This protection layer lasts even longer than that of ferrous hardware or other rust-triggered metal hardware for furniture (drawer pull hardware or door knob hardware). Imagine a situation, a strong corrosion-resistant zinc property attached to a ships’ iron keel makes it useful in protecting zinc alloy metals exposed to sea water from rust. Similarly, the superb zinc alloy coating attached on the surface of cabinet hardware or drawer hardware would be a terrific protective guard for home furniture hardware.

The below door pulls or drawer knobs, coated with primarily zinc and other minor-percent amounts of copper, aluminum and the like, make the zinc alloy pulls and knobs, like zinc aluminum ones, have superior corrosion resistance and malleability; what’s more, zinc alloy knobs and hardware pulls give the vivid impression of a lustrous texture and intricate shape

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It is common today to raise the issue: the iron & steel industry and its importance to the infrastructural development as well as the home furniture hardware manufacturing. The steel industry is often considered to be an indicator of a single country’s economic progress and its boom.

Recently, I found out that from August to September 2009, the domestic steel price, chiefly, is being spurred by the raw materials costs, rather than totally by the demand. Though the cosmetic steel price had been going up and down in recent years, it has bottomed out and recovered gradually over time. A piece of good news is that the decreasing raw material costs have lowered the production costs, triggering the continuous huge demand for the iron applications, including the iron and steel hardware for furniture.

Iron and steel furniture hardware exists here and there every day. While waking up, people would see the door handles or knobs made of steel, alloy steel or other “mix-of-iron-and-alloy”materials. Entering into the kitchen, people might see the cabinet pulls& knobs, consisting of stainless and steel.

Indeed, everything regarding as steel belongs to the iron hardware. They are of their forming presence in the steel, alloying mostly with Chrome, Nickel and other alloying elements. The stainless, alloy steel with the Nickel, chrome & other alloying materials added to would help produce desired properties.

Do you want to avoid the problem of rust on the furniture hardware? For stainless-steel-made hardware, at least 11% chrome added to steel would form a hard oxide on the metal surface, helping to prevent corrosion. Chrome also helps control the quality of tensile strength and hardness.

Nickel in steel applications increases the hardness, ductility and makes being more stable in its usage. Vanadium added to the iron/carbon mixture to produce steel diminishes the effects of metal fatigue.

All of the drawbacks, including corrosion, melting, lack of tensile strength, which might happen to the iron/ other material use in home furniture hardware, but alloy steel and stainless steel we have will stand a 90% chance of being avoided.

Keywords: home furniture hardware, iron, steel, iron hardware, hardware for furniture, cabinet pulls, knobs, stainless steel, furniture hardware, steel applications