ImageFirst News

Monday, January 15, 2018

5 Reasons You Should Consider Our Innovative Approach to Rust

At ImageFirst™ we’ve perfected the finishing process of producing a weathered steel look using aluminum.


Author: Ryan Hudnut 

5 Rea­sons You Should Con­sid­er This:

1. Lighter Weight

At ⅔ the weight of steel, per square foot, this prod­uct is more eas­i­ly and more eco­nom­i­cal­ly installed. Only light-duty machin­ery and min­i­mal labor are need­ed at install time.

2. Dura­bil­i­ty

The fin­ish of the mate­r­i­al is NOT rust­ing so the fin­ish is not degrad­ed any fur­ther. It will nev­er rust through or dis­col­or sur­round­ing materials.

3. More Oppor­tu­ni­ty

Need illu­mi­na­tion, rout­ed let­ter­ing, or a cus­tom shape? No prob­lem, alu­minum allows for this flex­i­bil­i­ty. No torch­es, water jet saws, or welders are need­ed like with Cor-ten steel.

4. Van­dal Resistant

The process involves apply­ing a primer with iron flakes to alu­minum then clear coat­ing to seal the mate­r­i­al. This clear coat­ing fends off pos­si­ble van­dal­ism by seal­ing the mate­r­i­al and mak­ing it eas­i­er to clean. 

5. Unique Look

Much like nat­u­ral­ly rust­ing met­al, this process pro­vides a very unique look across all sur­faces due to the prod­uct and process. 

How it works: 

A primer and iron flake solu­tion are applied to an alu­minum pan­el, then an acidic solu­tion is sprayed on to begin the ​“rust­ing” chem­i­cal reac­tion. Depend­ing on the desired rust lev­el, the sign could sit for a cou­ple hours or overnight. The longer, the rustier. 

Just like tra­di­tion­al rust, the prod­uct varies unique­ly with each appli­ca­tion. Once the desired rust lev­el is achieved a clear coat is applied to stop the rust­ing reac­tion per­ma­nent­ly. While alu­minum can be more expen­sive than steel, the val­ue-added dif­fer­ence is made up quick­ly through the con­trol of the look, flex­i­bil­i­ty of design, dura­bil­i­ty of the prod­uct, and the labor need­ed at install.

Want to know more? Shoot me an email at ryan@​imagefirstsigns.​com

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