Patination

The same thing the air does over decades, only under conditions that can be guided, and stopped exactly where the tone is right.

Why not simply wait

Time is one thing, evenness the other

A copper surface outdoors needs eight to fifteen years to reach a strong green, depending on its location. In the meantime it passes through every stage from red gold through brown to anthracite, and nobody can say in advance when it will be where. Planning the final state means planning more than a decade of intermediate states with it.

The second point weighs more heavily on large surfaces: evenness. Rain does not fall equally everywhere, canopies cast shadows, water runs in channels. A surface that ages by itself ages patchy. In the workshop the tone forms under the same conditions on every sheet.

Not on site

Why this belongs in the workshop

Chemical colourants for copper exist, and within their intended scope they work. That scope is small items indoors. On a facade or a roof under site conditions neither temperature nor contact time nor quantity applied can be guided evenly, and the result is usually patchy.

Then there is durability. Artificial layers of this kind are mostly not weather resistant, and the natural process removes them again after some time. For both reasons the German Copper Institute advises against colouring on site.

Assessment of colouring under site conditions according to information print i.30 of the German Copper Institute.

By hand

Why two sheets are never quite alike

Every surface passes through hands here, not through a machine. That has a price and a gain. The price: two sheets look similar, but never identical down to the last detail. The gain: that is exactly what separates them from a printed film repeating every thirty centimetres.

Within one project we match the batches to each other. What is binding is always the sample you approve, never the image on a screen.

Sequence

What is settled on the project

Material and toneWhich metal, which colour range, how quiet or lively the marking should be.

SamplesWe send sample surfaces. Look at them under the light the surface will stand in later.

ApprovalThe approved sample is the benchmark for production.

Order of workCutting and folding come before the surface, because a clean edge cannot be made afterwards.

DeliveryThe component leaves us fully finished. Installation is done by your specialist firm.

What is possible in an individual case depends on the component. Binding are the details in the quotation from ZinCuTec GmbH.

Next step

Any questions? Get in touch with us.

Request samples See the materials