Advantages of liquid metal - What are they?
The advantages of liquid metal are many.
In descending order of importance we suggest they are:
- Environmentally friendly
- Weight
- Cost
- Seamlessness & Curves
- Variety
The protection of the environment is so important that it is going to get an article all to itself. It’s by way of being one of the general advantages of liquid metal rather than a specific one.
Let’s look at the other advantages.
Weight is probably the most significant of the advantages of liquid metal over sheet or forged metal. We did an interesting comparison between Metalier liquid metal on a standard 2.4 x 1.2 sheet of 10mm MDF. The total weight of the panel was about 13kg against 35kg for the sheet metal. This meant it was easier to position and erect. The wall behind needed no extra strengthening to support the weight of the MDF. There was absolutely no way that anyone looking at or touching the panel which was rusted iron could tell the difference between sheet corten steel and the Metalier liquid metal coating.
Cost follows on neatly from weight. You save on expensive strengthening as well as saving on the actual cost of the product. It makes sense when you think about it. Sheet metal is sold by weight so it stands to reason that a sheet of brass at, say 5mm thick, is going to cost a lot more than a sheet of MDF or other cost-effective substrate coated with a Metalier coating that is .5 of a mm thick.
Seamlessness & Curves just don’t happen with sheet metal. You are limited by the sheet size and I’ve never found a sheet metal that could become round or oval. Foundry metal can be curved of course but at huge cost.
Variety is also one of the advantages of liquid metal. It is only with liquid metal that you can create textures and patterns such as lace and stripes and can mix colours together or have a pattern created with two different metals. It also follows any patterns in the substrate as shown in the featured picture.
There are many more advantages of course and we’ll tell you about them as we discover them. Contact us to see how Metalier can assist with your next project or complete the form below.
