Case Study 2

Innovative Solution to a Designers Problems

Background

Metal Spinners Group was approached by a USA customer who was assisting in the architecture and design of bespoke street furniture as part of an $8.5 billion project in Las Vegas. The items were planters for outside a new hotel. Designed by an award-winning architectural firm and hailed as a sophisticated sanctuary of modern elegance, all fixtures and fittings of the hotel were to be of the highest standard. The architect had designed an outside planter from formed stainless steel, curved both ways, which was impossible to produce in its initial design.

Metal Spinners Group's customer worked out that spinning the curve at the top of the planter corners was the best option, then welding cut spun sections onto a flat plate to form a fabrication. The customer sent the enquiry to numerous metal spinning companies worldwide, and the enquiry was rejected by all metal workers, except Metal Spinners Group, on the basis that at 3500mm diameter was too large and geometrically too complicated to spin in stainless steel.

The customer chose to pursue the project with Metal Spinners Group based on the detail and professional presentation of our proposal. The architect had designed several different sized planters, each with different corner radii, 18 off in total.  Each radius required its own spinning tool.  Discussions between Metal Spinners Group and our customer on the design specification reduced the number of corner radii required to 4; reducing the number of spinning tools from the initial design of 18 off tools to 4 tools.

Other project challenges included the matching of the polished finish of the spun components to the polished finish of plate stainless steel.  The design requirement stated it was imperative that the planter looked like a one piece construction as far as possible. As the planters were to be a permanent outside fixture, it was critical that there was no material contamination, which could lead to surface oxidation over time.  Metal Spinners Group designed the tooling and finishing process of the components with this in mind. The material blank for the largest spinnings was manufactured from welded plate.  This came with its own challenges as the overall spinnings then had to be cut into sections, and the areas with the weld avoided during the cutting process.

The corners of the planters were spun, cut into sections and polished at Metal Spinners Group, then shipped to our customer. The planters are now installed outside the luxury hotel. 

 Spinning before cutting

Corner segments cut from spinning

Corners in position

Final assembly fabrication