Aluminum Railing:
Flat Top Rail (200 Series)
Infill: Tempered Glass
Paint: Baked Enamel
Color: Black

Aluminum Patio Cover:
Infill: Laminate Glass
Clear Glass & Bronze Glass
Paint: Powder Coated
Color: Black

Before:
 

STAGE 1:

STAGE 3:

Hope you enjoyed these beautiful pictures. Contact American Structures & Design, Inc for your Railing, Patio Cover and Canopy needs; we’d love for your project to be the next featured project on our blog!

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This is your invitation to the BUILDEX EXPRESS show.

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Powder Coating involves three basic steps. These processes can be done in very expensive and elaborate facilities or believe it or not in somebody’s garage With any painting process the prep is very important and done with chemicals.

1. Part preparation / pre-treatment Chemical pre-treatments involve the use of phosphates or chromates in submersion or spray application. These often occur in multiple stages and consist of degreasing, etching, de-smutting, various rinses and the final phosphating or chromating of the substrate. The pre-treatment process both cleans and improves bonding of the powder to the metal.. It is also the biggest difference between the many powder coaters we have worked with over the years. Most facilities are not equipped with the proper cleaning facilities to give you a ready piece of material for coating.
2. The powder application, The most common way of applying the powder coating to metal objects is to spray the powder using an electrostatic gun. The object is then heated, and the powder melts into a uniform film, and is then cooled to form a hard coating.
3. Curing. This cure process, requires a certain temperature for a certain length of time in order to reach full cure and establish the full film properties for which the material was designed. Normally the powders cure at 200°C (390°F) for 10 minutes.

Advantages are:

1. Powder coatings emit zero or near zero volatile organic compounds.
2. Powder coating overspray can be recycled and thus it is possible to achieve nearly 100% use of the coating.
3. Small jobs are much more cost effective than using a Baked Enamel/Wet coat

Disadvantages are:

1. Very hard and expensive to get Written warranty from powder coaters due to powder coatings will break down when exposed to UV rays between 5 to 10 years
2. Touch up colors very hard to match powder colors
3. Scratches are very noticeable due to powder is much thicker than Baked Enamel/Wet coat

Liquid Coat/baked enamel is the type of paint that most people think of when paint is mentioned. It comes in liquid form and is sprayed to a substrate. The types of paint can vary allowing you to pick how the paint will hold up to certain elements, discolor/oxidize and how long it will last. The process of applying the paint can be done vertically or horizontally .Since our products consist of Aluminum extrusions I am going describe the vertical Paint line system which is how 99 percent of our material is coated. This vertical line is a state of the art multimillion dollar paint line and every step is in a controlled environment. The paint of choice is a Duracron coating manufactured by PPG who isthe leading paint manufacturer in the world. The first stage is a five stage pre treatment process. It is then cured prior to printing. The paint process is done on a vertical pint line which carries the extrusions from the beginning to the end of the process and electro statically applied so the finish is very thin and consistent. The materials are then run thru the oven process. This cures the paint giving a fish that cannot be obtained by just spraying paint to a substrate.

Advantages are:

1. Custom Colors are easily mixed and able to reproduce.
2. Finish is thinner than powder coating so touching up is easier and less noticed
3. Written Warranties from the paint manufacturers are easily obtained

Disadvantages are:

1. Small jobs are not economical
2. Lead times tend to be longer

In closing, Working with these paints for thirty plus years(longer than Most paint warranties) has allowed me to see the Advantages of each type of paint and how each of them perform over time. We utilize both types of paint in our business but the majority of our products are liquid coated /Baked enamel. This is mainly due to the fact we believe the quality of the paint and process is superior for our type of product . Most important when comes to getting a written warranty for our customers it has never been an issue or a fictitious piece of paper.

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Why use Cable infill on your railing systems?

The primary advantage is that you can see right thru it. Stainless Steel Cable is strong, yet it’s almost invisible. Cable is available in various diameters but popular sizes are 1/8” and 3/16” cable. Since pickets can only be so thin before they become too weak to support the system and provide safety, Cable makes an unobstructed view possible. No glass glare and no thick pickets or metal bars. Cable doesn’t interfere with the view or give a confined feeling.

Cable can be used to invoke a high tech design and its applications are limitless. Cable railing, Cable trellises and Cable walls are just a few applications we’ve seen here at American Structures & Design, Inc.

Attractive, strong and modern with no visual obstructions blocking your view of the ocean, field or stage. Cable railing can be made from wood frames as well as metal frames. Indoors or outdoors. The best part, Cable infill is virtually maintenance free; there’s no glass to clean and no thick bars or pickets to dust off.

Cables can be run vertically or horizontally. There are many different styles of fittings to choose from depending on your look and your specifications. Contact American Structures & Design, Inc for your next railing project… we’ll provide you with the design criteria you need and help you to achieve the most effective solution for you, but we’ll leave the creativity and decision making up to you.

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Thanks,
The American Structures Team

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Our goal is to keep you interested and coming back repeatedly for your weekly update by sharing Tips & Tricks for fabrication and installation. Cutting edge industry news and only to be revealed on a need to know basis “ Top secret”  technical information relating to the many product lines we carry as listed below.

•   Five lines of aluminum, glass and cable railing
•    Ultra-Tec Stainless Steel cable fittings and hardware
•    1.66” & 1.9” Schd. 40 Extruded aluminum grab rail
•    Four styles of Aluminum dock and walkway canopies
•    Welded Aluminum frame awnings
•    Extruded aluminum and glass patio covers
•    Aluminum Window awning & door hoods

Take a look at all of our products.

We’re not stopping here; American Structures & Design, Inc is launching a client campaign. Along with the addition of the blog, American Structures & Design, Inc will be sending our customers newsletters, company updates and special offers weekly.

Thank you for reading this article. Although not necessary, we appreciate any feedback you may have to offer. American Structures looks forward to the future of this blog, we are eager to make your life in construction a little bit easier.
American Structures & Design, Inc respects your privacy and would never share your personal information with anyone.

Blog master
Darius Luciano

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1 minute railing installation

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