Texturandum®: An Innovative Solution for Customisable Aluminium Finishes

This content has been provided by Aludium

Creating distinct patterns on sheets of aluminium has, until now, been a time-consuming, labour-intensive process with conventional techniques, which has led, in turn, to significant process costs. Techniques such as embossing, engraving, brushing, and printing suffer either from high process costs, detail limitation, expensive tooling, size restriction, or impact on the material’s mechanical properties.

What is needed is a solution that can reduce the process costs and save time while maintaining a high level of definition, detail, and customizability, as well as sustaining the material’s initial mechanical characteristics.

Texturandum® is a state-of-the-art, patent pending, technology developed by Aludium, which provides the ability to apply any desired pattern to almost any aluminium surface in a well-defined and cost-effective manner. Its high quality is maintained in an affordable sense for the mass market, as well.

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Comparison of Texturandum® with Embossing

Assessing Texturandum® against other patterning techniques, especially embossing, shows a clear advantage for Texturandum®.

While embossing provides limited pattern dimensions not higher than 500 mm in width and not thinner than 0.3 mm in thickness, Texturandum® offers a high dimensional range and low tolerances, with patterns as wide as 1280 mm and as thin as 0.27 mm (up to 1 mm). Its thinness facilitates its formation and application to other materials.

Mechanical properties are easily affected and altered under embossing. Texturandum®, on the other hand, causes no variation in mechanical properties, allowing customers to integrate it into their existing production lines quickly and apply their standard forming processes without any change or issue. The behaviour of aluminium with Texturandum® finish remains the same as the standard alloy without it (mill finish condition).

The alloys handled in embossing are limited to 1xxx and 5xxx type alloys, usually used in soft tempers. Texturandum®, on the other hand, allows customers to select any alloy (1xxx, 3xxx, 5xxx, 8xxx) with any temper (O, H1x, H2x) from Aludium’s wide variety of products.

With Texturandum®, controlled flatness and surface uniformity of the material’s back side are attainable – enabling standard material processing – in addition to previous optional operations like degreasing, chemical pretreatment or re-oiling, which are not available from embossers.

Moreover, Texturandum® provides a top-quality adhesion to paint and coatings, with reduced scrap material and higher filiform corrosion resistance than products with conventional mill textures. It also helps avert counterfeiting by creating a unique, uncopiable design with an embedded logo, and allows tracking, identification, and branding of the products.

Possibilities with Texturandum®

With this breakthrough technology, customers can reproduce almost any pattern they desire onto aluminium. Whether it is a geometric pattern, as in chequerboard or carbon-fibre, or a natural pattern, as in leather, honeycomb, or elephant skin, or even graphical features, such as logos and characters, Texturandum® provides the ability to create special, tailor-made configurations in high definition. Without altering their existing process conditions, customers can apply visual surface transformation processes right after the Texturandum® process. Samples and trial quantities are instantly available for customers to visualise the technology’s uniqueness and quality.

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Texturandum® is currently available in coil, slit-coil, and cut-to-length sheet formats. It can provide an authentic look and feel, with a bright, semi bright, or mill finish background quality.

Applications of Texturandum®

Texturandum® has received a substantial interest from manufacturers and designers. Its range of applications is quite extensive, with its most prominent applications being automotive trim, packaging, and interior design elements.

Automotive Trim

Texturandum® offers an exceptional, light weight finish for dashboards, light fittings, door panels, consoles, and other interior trim. Its quality finish, wide range of alloys, and ability to create an exclusive desired pattern allows Texturandum® to set the standard in automotive interior trimming.

Packaging

Packaging is another notable application of Texturandum®. Closures, food cans, pharmacy/para-pharmacy packages, cosmetic packages, and semi-rigid containers comprise the packaging application area of Texturandum®.

Long and short aluminium closures, bottle caps, and easy-open closures are products that preserve beverages, food-grade oils, and other food grade and non-food liquids.

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Aluminium food containers, such as coffee capsules, are lightweight products and act as good barriers to light, liquids, micro-organisms, oxygen, and other factors influencing the packaged food’s organoleptic properties. Those aluminium grades have outstanding mechanical properties and high-quality surfaces. Also, semi-rigid containers used as single-use containers are impermeable, inert, and display good mechanical properties.

Aludium’s aluminium alloys are also used for package pharmacy and para-pharmacy products. They are used to protect medical instruments, medications, and disposable health-sector materials.

Cosmetic containers are another application of Texturandum®, alongside actuator sheaths, collars, ferrules, overcap pieces, and other relative cosmetic products.

All these products comply with the FDA and European instructions regarding aluminium coming into contact with food, cosmetics and, pharmaceuticals.

Interior Design Elements

Another major application area for Texturandum® is interior design and decoration. Offices, houses, and personalised spaces that require a coherent design or a consistent brand identity are places where Texturandum® can stand out with unique and authentic patterns, graphics, and logos reproduced meticulously onto aluminium.

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About Aludium

Aludium has three mills in Spain and France and a state-of-the-art aluminium research and development centre in Spain called Cindal R&D Centre. Aludium’s Cindal R&D Centre is one of the world’s leading aluminium research centres. It provides significant support to large and small players in the aluminium industry who do not have access to their own laboratory facilities. Cindal R&D represents Aludium as a member of the CEN, AENOR, European Aluminium (EA), Materplat, ACF, and EAFA.

 

If you have any questions about Texturandum® or would like to receive support from experts and researchers in the Cindal R&D team, send a question to Aludium.

Article by Aludium

With more than 60 years of experience, Aludium is a leader in the manufacture of flat rolled aluminium. The company, which has more than 900 employees, uses a highly specialised production process to create high quality aluminium sheets and coils. Aludium’s products are distributed to global customers active in the architectural, energy and insulation, equipment, packaging, and transportation sectors. Our short lead times and unique logistic concepts are highly appreciated by our customers. The sustainability of our operations is a part of Aludium’s DNA. That starts with keeping our people safe and encompasses our operations. Major investments in our recycling capacity (including state-of-the-art rotary and multi-chamber furnaces) will reduce Aludium’s emissions by 340,000 tonnes/year of CO2-equivalent. Aludium can produce up to 300,000 tonnes of alloys from the 1xxx, 3xxx, 5xxx, and 8xxx families at its three plants in Alicante and Amorebieta (Spain) and Castelsarrasin (France). Through its world-leading Cindal R&D centre in Alicante, Aludium excels in the development of innovative processes and products.