If you’re a buyer of outdoor furniture for your organization, or have found this blog post through a search, you’re already aware of some of the benefits of using expanded metal outdoor picnic tables. There are myriad reasons this material can make sense for your outdoor furniture needs, especially in spaces that see high visitor traffic and consistent daily use of the furniture.
Sometimes we find that our new customers don’t know why they want expanded metal furniture, but they are already knowledgeable about the long-lasting, durable nature of the material when used in outdoor furniture properly. This article seeks to go a bit more in-depth as to why expanded metal can be such a good choice for the industry’s needs. It will also talk about how a manufacturer can utilize this material in a way that enhances its attributes even more.
As the manufacturer of products that have a track record of being durable, long-lasting and highly used by large numbers of users – and as a manufacturer that incorporates expanded metal into many of our products – we feel uniquely qualified to give some thoughts on the matter.
This article is designed to help a purchaser, administrator or facilities team to understand how or if expanded metal is the right choice for their space, regarding the build out of the furniture they intend to use on a daily basis. It will speak to the material properties, the good and bad of expanded metal materials, and how you as a procurement or management specialist overseeing a purchase of outdoor furniture, can best incorporate this type of material into your space.
Because space design, pre-planning for big infrastructure purchases, and outdoor furniture needs can be a bit more complex than a single aspect, like we are detailing in this article, we do encourage those who need qualified professional assistance in making an outdoor furniture plan or purchase to contact our team of industry specialists.
We’ve worked with thousands of customers and outfitted many thousands of outdoor spaces. We are also considered to be a premium provider of outdoor furniture.
Expanded metal is generally steel, and is a machine created material that takes a sheet of raw metal material and makes cuts into the structure and pulls it apart to expand the footprint of the sheet. At the same time, strategically engineered angles and sophisticated profiles are locked into place to provide enhanced structural stability and improve the material’s ability to hold a load over the surface of the end product.
Similar to corrugated cardboard, a difference in structure and design, improves the overall load-carrying capacity and structural rigidity of the product (in this case, ordinary sheet metal and ordinary cardboard, respectively). It should be noted that expanded aluminum materials are not as strong as steel.
Sheet metal is a lower cost item than thick plate metals because of lowered transport and manufacturing costs (as well as a lower quantity of raw materials used), therefore, this innovative process of turning sheet material into more structurally rigid and usable material can be very cost efficient. Of course, expanded metal has its use cases, and it isn’t perfect for everything.
That said, expanded metal can be very good for outdoor furniture if used properly.
When properly protected against rust, and made to a stringent standard of appropriate material thickness, and reinforced adequately, expanded metal retains high strength, improves on structural integrity, and can be a durable material for heavy use items which have some load bearing need or outdoor service requirements.
Generally, expanded metal materials used in other manufacturer’s products are coated in galvanizing. The process of galvanization essentially coats a steel material in a thin layer of zinc which protects against rust as long as the coating is not disturbed. Galvanizing does oxidize, but it does so without the typical red/orange rust of steel, and it maintains a silver to gray complexion over time.
The problem with galvanized expanded metal is that it is not very durable from a surface finish perspective. The moment that the surface finish has been worn down by abrasion or other factors, it is susceptible to rust like any other uncoated steel product.
Another concern with expanded metal is that it is sharp on the edges if it is unfinished at the factory. In order to be used in outdoor furniture, an extensive deburring and edge removal process must be implemented to ensure no sharp edges make it through to the end product, exposed.
We’ll talk a little bit more about how Premier Polysteel expanded metal tables are made to be safer thanks to an extensive treatment at our manufacturing site that includes removal of sharp edges and the addition of a thick plastisol coating that protects against bare metal contact, sharp metal surfaces and rust. For now – it’s sufficient to say that we are among the industry leaders in expanded metal picnic tables and benches, among other products and our products have been proven to be rust proof under general conditions and free from safety concerns that normal expanded metal products may not be able to protect against.
Premier Polysteel also feels very confident in the product we sell. It is backed by a 20 year best in class warranty.
We offer a dozen colors of plastisol coated steel outdoor furniture. Our designs ensure the tabletops and seating surfaces won’t bend or sag. Water drains easily, so the furniture stays usable longer and looks great as it stays in normal condition more often.
We also offer a significant catalog of designs, shapes and even ADA-compliant outdoor furniture.
Expanded metal can’t be damaged easily without power tools, and it is lightweight relative to other steel structures, but still heavy enough to deter movement. When combined with a strong steel tube frame and proper anti-theft accessories like mounting options we provide, our outdoor furniture is an excellent solution for public spaces.
The uneven, non-flat surface reduces the incidence of vandalism and makes overall defacement and alterations difficult. We also offer stainless steel, tamper resistant hardware to aid in retaining placement and avoiding theft.
We put a car on top of our picnic table. It’s made of expanded metal. We engineer our products to be balanced and stable. We also reinforce our products with strong steel tubing that supports extreme loads. Together, this structure is coated in plastisol, and made to be weather, UV and mildew resistant, and outperforms other types of outdoor furniture made with expanded metal.
The seating surfaces are strong enough to be comfortable and stable for users of all sizes and do not have a statutory weight limit for normal use. Expanded metal, combined with good weight and balance improves wind resistance even for unmounted furniture.
We build our products in the USA, using state of the art facilities and equipment, and highly qualified employees from our engineers, to our fabrication specialists, to our finishing team.
See why we think we have an advantage in the outdoor furniture market.
We make more than just expanded metal outdoor furniture, and we would love it if you’d have a look to see what we sell. We do make a lot of outdoor furniture that incorporates expanded metal too, and we are confident that our offering is an industry leading product. We invite you to see why premier Polysteel is so popular throughout the United states in high traffic areas that cater to user comfort, like hospitality installations, public spaces like parks and recreational centers, and in commercial applications like campuses, universities and employment facilities. We even have many private residential customers!
If you have questions we’d love to hear from you. Our staff can help you find exactly what you need and help you determine if our outdoor furniture is a good fit for your project.
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