Embossed stainless steel exterior wall panels from Todrin Laser Industries, Inc
Finding the right process to emboss stainless steel exterior wall panels was a challenge Todrin Laser Industries, Inc. faced with its customer Della Valle Bernheimer, award-winning Manhattan architectural design firm. Todrin’s wall panel project was for an exquisite new residence masterfully designed by Della Valle Bernheimer (DVB) with a singular façade of glass and irregularly punched, stainless steel panels. The glass and steel combination animate the building by reflecting the changing light, the season and the vibrant New York surroundings.
The challenge for Todrin Industries was to emboss 36 x 60 inch stainless steel sheets with symmetrical rows of raised diamond shapes across the entire sheet surface. Top quality was paramount – the finish had to show well with no surface scuffs or other abrasions in, on and around the rows of raised diamonds. The sheets were supplied with protective PVC film covering which needed to be retained both during and after the embossing process for surface protection. This posed a potential problem for the embossing operations. Also, flatness of the embossed sheet was critical, both for appearance and structural integrity requirements. This flatness requirement was especially challenging because over 50 percent of the sheet surface required embossing with potential for major sheet distortion.
“We did quite a bit of experimenting before we settled on the final punching process,” reported Dick Nichols, president of Todrin Laser Industries. “Our primary business focus has been as a laser job shop but we were getting more requests to do CNC punching work, particularly for high end, decorative components used in residential construction. Among these were interior stainless steel wall panels, radiator covers and lighting enclosures. To do this punching, we recently bought out a small metal fabricator. When the DVB project came to us for proposal, we began running some tests on the Amada press we acquired and looked into special tooling needed to do the embossing work. The punching requirements were beyond the capabilities of the existing equipment so we looked at new.”
