Cor-ten has made quite an impact in Western Australia of late.
Cor-ten is a weather resistant steel. In fact, if you insist that I go all technical on you, it's actually an 'Atmospheric Corrosion Resistant Steel' (I warned you).
Because Cor-ten contains a copper chromium alloy (technical again, sorry), it's a sign material with greater resistance to corrosion when compared to other unalloyed steels (still with me?). So what happens is this: when exposed to the elements, Cor-ten's chemical composition encourages the early formation of a rust layer on the surface of the material, thus protecting the steel beneath the rust layer.
In other words, the steel is allowed to rust in order to form a 'protective' coating.
Which is one of the reasons why Cor-ten has become popular with architects and designers: it's aesthetically pleasing. But it's resilient, and recyclable, too. In fact, as far as a sign making material is concerned, it's very hard to beat.
Which leads me very nicely to a Cor-ten featured project created by our good friends at Axiom Design Partners (which Signs & Lines subsequently manufactured and installed). Take a look at the stunning results here at the Mission Cottages Interpretation Centre (the project also includes the photo-etching process which I plan to cover in another post).
And if you'd like to discuss a particular project featuring Cor-ten, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
by Darrel Griffin, Business Development Manager, Signs & Lines
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