Stainless Steel Mesh
Woven metal fabrics are a popular architectural product in Europe, where stainless steel mesh is used for a high-level finish in many internal and external settings, such as wall and ceiling panelling, space dividers, external cladding and facades.
Now Sydney firm Interspace Manufacturing Pty Ltd is making and installing woven stainless steel wire mesh screens using metal fabrics from iO Metal Fabrics Pty Ltd, a German firm with an Australian presence and a member of ASSDA.
ASSDA member Interspace has been designing and manufacturing store fittings and custom fixtures for displays and exhibitions since 1970. The firm began utilising stainless steel mesh two years ago and has produced partitions for a number of interiors, including the AMP Building in Sydney and the office of medical supply firm B. Braun, designed by Leffler Simes Architects. Another project is Space 207 in St Leonards, Sydney, which is being billed as "the North Shore's finest office building, so advanced it is destined to lead the way in business premises for a long time to come." The designers of Space 207 set out to create an environment representing "style, sophistication and elegance" and chose stainless steel mesh to complement the building's hi-tech, ultra-modern decor.
Woven stainless steel fabrics are versatile and reliable. Made from corrosion-resistant grade 316 stainless, they are equally at home in hostile external locations requiring stainless steel's hard-wearing capability and in internal spaces where aesthetic values come to the fore. They can be put to a variety of uses, including partitions, wall and ceiling cladding, awnings and sunscreens. In Germany they are also employed in roadside noise reduction barriers.
Stainless mesh is lightweight but strong and it is extremely resilient when subjected to environmental threats such as heavy weather, fire and chemicals.
Like textiles generally, metal fabrics are woven on a loom, producing an attractive array of patterns and textures in a varying degrees of weight and flexibility.
This article featured in Australian Stainless magazine - Issue 23, December 2002.
