Patterned finishes for stainless steel sheets

Most of us who deal with the surface treatment and finishing of steel, stainless steel or other non-ferrous metals have an idea what the terms "rolling steel", "rolling metal sheets", "hot rolling" or "cold rolling" mean.

It becomes more specialized when it comes to terms such as "pattern rolling", "design rolling", "structure rolling", "emboss rolling" or just "designing". With this special rolling manufacturing process, various metal surfaces can be refined and their properties can be changed and improved both technically and visually.

These types of patterned stainless steel sheets are of great interest to a large number of customers from many different fields:

• Architecture: construction, outdoor and indoor areas, lifts
• Design: artwork, sculptures
• Industry: mechanical engineering, machinery, automotive
• Shopfitting: mall and shop decorations, escalators, reception desks

Pattern rolling expertise: stainless steel and other metals

The numerous advantages which are achieved by rolling metal sheets, clearly speak in favour of the patterned or pattern-rolled, and embossed surfaces from mirrorINOX:

• Improved surface quality
• Resistance to scratches and dirt
• Optical flatness
• High toughness
• Advanced technical and mechanical properties
• Visual appearance

mirrorINOX also offers various rolled structures that are exclusively manufactured and distributed.

Pattern rolling as a manufacturing process

How do we form patterned/embossed stainless steel sheets?

For conventional rolling manufacturing processes such as inox steel rolling or rolling of other metal sheets, plain and flat rolls are usually used. In contrast to that, pattern rolling is possible only by using individually designed, custom manufactured structured rolls, which make pattern rolling a rather specialized process.

A wide variety of structures and designs can be etched onto these rolls, which are made of extremely hard special stainless steel. These structures are defined on the one hand by the technical requirements and parameters of the forming, embossing process (structure depth, working width, sheet thickness, material hardness and others) and on the other hand, of course, by the customer's design requirements.

The properties of patterned stainless steel

Traditionally, the pattern rolling found its first applications in industry, namely in mechanical engineering. The rolling manufacturing process gives the stainless steel sheets properties such as:

• Rigidity
• A significant weight saving by using thinner, lighter base material
• Robustness
• Slip improvement or slip resistance

In the course of time, the inox metal sheets produced using different pattern rolls became more and more popular in the field of architecture and design. In those applications, their advantageous properties such as optical flatness and scratch resistance came into play.

Thus, the metal surfaces of different alloys, such as stainless steel, receive technical, functional and visually high-quality added value through the pattern rolling manufacturing process, making them an attractive and beneficial material in many markets.

What is the pattern rolling process?

As already noted above, when design rolling (sheets rolled on one side – embossed sheets) or pattern rolling (sheets rolled on both sides), the rolling stock, i.e. the coils or sheets, is subjected to a rolling process with the aim of applying the structure of the respective roll(s) onto the sheets (on one or both sides).

The manufacturing technology is relatively uncomplicated and cost-effective. The cold forming of a stainless steel or metal sheet or rather of its surface takes place mostly in coil form, but it is also possible in sheet form.

The selection of materials that can be rolled includes:

• Stainless steel
• Steel
• Aluminium
• Brass
• Copper
• And other non-ferrous metals

All these materials can be improved in their surface quality and functional performance by pattern rolling.

Possible dimensions:

mirrorINOX offers custom-sized patterned and embossed stainless steel sheets:

Patterned stainless steel sheets by mirrorINOX – single or double-sided

mirrorINOX offers metal sheets rolled on one side (embossed-rolled or design-rolled) and on both sides (pattern-rolled) and has a high level of specialized knowledge and many years of experience in this stainless steel surface treatment.

While sheets that are design-rolled on one side meet requirements such as a higher-quality appearance and resistance to scratches, the properties of sheets that are pattern-rolled on both sides, such as even greater optical flatness and rigidity and interesting light reflections, are also highly appreciated.

Regardless of the intended use and the desired effect, mirrorINOX is happy to advise you and find the ideal solution for you in this product group.

As for many other special surfaces, mirrorINOX is the leading inox steel sheet and plate manufacturer and your consultant and supplier for the highest quality material even for the most difficult applications in the field of architecture, façades, yacht and shipbuilding, shop construction or product design.

Our range therefore not only includes pattern-rolled and embossed stainless steel sheets, but also the following finishes of stainless steel and other metals:

• Nano-coating
• PVD/TiN-coating
• Bead blasting
• Fluid forming
• Polishing
• Mirror polishing