Stainless Steel: The Distant Past & The Faraway Future!
The myriad properties that stainless steel has, such as its strength, durability and resistance to corrosion, make it an ideal protective material. In addition to common uses like protecting insulation, stainless steel has also been used for a number of one-of-a-kind projects. This edition of our blog showcases two such projects, one aimed at protecting the past and another which could secure the future of humankind.
The first project we're going to look at takes us to Egypt, where St. Catherine's monastery occupies a prominent position at the base of Mount Sinai. The structure, which was built more than 1,700 years ago and has been in constant usage ever since, was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2002.
An extensive collection of ancient documents and manuscripts are housed at the monastery. Seeking a method of protecting and preserving the treasured artifacts, The Saint Catherine Foundation reached out to experts at the Ligatus Research Centre in London. Researchers there chose precision-engineered stainless steel to design and manufacture bespoke protective cases for the documents and manuscripts.
Stainless steel was the perfect material from which to create the cases thanks to its strength and resistance to impacts and corrosion. In addition, other materials are likely to be negatively affected by the high temperatures and low humidity levels of the challenging desert environment where the monastery is located.
Our next project takes us over 6,000 miles from Egypt to Guam, an island territory of the USA in the Pacific Ocean. Off the coast of Guam lies the Mariana Trench, which reaches a maximum depth of nearly 11,000 metres. At this depth, the pressure is intense at more than 1,000 times that of pressure at sea level. It was into this vast depth that Kristian von Hornsleth, an artist from Denmark, dropped two massive sculptures made from nano-engineered stainless steel.
The sculptures, each of which measures a voluminous ten cubic metres, are undoubtedly impressive in and of themselves but what is even more interesting is that one of them contains samples of human DNA sourced from thousands of volunteers. Stainless steel's strength and corrosion resistance {in addition to the fact that it will not contaminate the underwater environment) were once again the qualities that prompted the artist to choose this material. The sculpture is expected to preserve and protect the DNA for 10,000 years or more.
It is truly thrilling to see stainless steel being used to facilitate such amazing projects. To find out more about the multitude of applications this miracle material is used for and to browse our own collection of products (including stainless steel wire, stainless steel banding and stainless steel strip coil), please browse our website.