Sandvik Decorex(tm) has won a highly coveted Materialica Design + Technology Award for 2008, presented recently at the Materialica Trade Fair in Munich, Germany. The annual awards, which have been held since 2003, seek to outline the importance of materials for industrial design-oriented applications, to encourage a dialog between designers and manufacturers and to promote new ways of combining cutting-edge materials, technical precision and excellent design for industrial and consumer goods. Optimizing color choices and textured finishes, Sandvik Decorex combines the technical qualities of stainless steel with a vibrant and durable color coating. Suitable for decorative applications across a variety of products such as consumer electronics, computers, electrical appliances, mobile phones, cameras, automobiles and building interiors, its use allows fewer production steps and facilitate imaginative design options. The process is based on advanced nanotechnology with color added to the stainless strip by a highly developed vacuum process. This fully integrates with the surface of the strip resulting in a color layer of less than 1 micron yet highly durable. Totally environmentally friendly there is no water or air pollution, no toxic residues and the process consumes only 1/3 of the energy required for electroplating.
