Stainless Steel

Chromium is used to make tool steel or stainless steel, and it’s thought to have been invented around the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Archaeologists have now discovered that Persians were mixing chromium into steel way back in the 11th century.

​As many a fancy-refrigerator-owner will know, fingerprints tend to be highly visible on stainless steel. A new transparent coating could help, however, as it goes about reducing the appearance of prints in three ways.

​The scratches that form on stainless steel may seem minuscule to us, but they provide a haven for microscopic bacteria. Scientists at the University of Toronto have developed a method of making those scratches less hospitable to the microbes, using a surprisingly simple substance – cooking oil.

​Back in 2015, we heard about how Dutch 3D-printing firm MX3D was planning on printing a steel footbridge that would go across Amsterdam's Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal. Well, construction of that bridge is now complete – although it still has to be placed over the water.

Aluminum is nice and light, but that comes at the cost of strength. By introducing faults into the metal’s crystalline structure, researchers at Purdue University have now developed new aluminum alloys that are about as strong as stainless steel, and they could make for corrosion-resistant coatings.

It’s not every day that an architectural firm gets to design a building that closely represents a company’s end product. But that’s exactly what Austrian firm Coop Himmleb(l)au did with the design of a new building appropriately titled “House of Bread” for international baking brand Backaldrin.

A team of students at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands has created the world's first stainless steel bike made via a welding-based 3D-printing technique.

The amount of kit needed to go camping in the great outdoors can soon add up. Which means multi-purpose products can be an absolute godsend. The VSSL Flask is one such item, combining a flashlight, compass and a flask for discreetly storing a beverage of your choice.

In 2013, Estonian designer Indrek Narusk introduced the Viks, a limited-edition stainless steel fixed-gear commuter bike. Now, to celebrate the line's second anniversary, he's rolled out a carbon fiber version.

As we approach the fifth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists are still trying to develop better ways of removing oil from water. Now, researchers believe that they may be onto something. They've developed a steel mesh that allows water to pass through, but that stops oil.

As a child, Brooklyn-based metal sculptor Adrian Landon played with Lego a lot. He also learned about horses from his polo-playing dad. That background set the stage for Landon's latest work of art, a stainless steel life-size Mechanical Horse that gallops in slow motion at the press of a button.

Belgian industrial designer Tobias Knockaert recently told us about his stainless steel Erembald bike, that he's producing along with partner Karel Vincke. In order to keep prices down, its frame is cut by lasers and put together like a puzzle.