News & Updates

The North American Copper Awards has recognized Zahner's copper metal-work for the Waipolu Gallery in Oahu, Hawaii.

Zahner completed the New Academic Building at Cooper Union in New York City. See the time-lapse construction video at Videos & Downloads.

President and CEO Bill Zahner is featured in the August Issue of Wired Magazine, where he has now been dubbed, the "Alpha Geek" of Metal. Read Article

The NASCAR Hall of Fame project reached 1,000,000 man-hours without a "lost-time" accident milestone recently. In recognition for Zahner's achievement TBEKD presented a plaque to Zahner
See more awards

Bill Zahner named an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects.

Introducing the Hands of the Artist™ division, where Zahner engineers and craftsmen produce projects for artists.

Solanum™ Steel

Weathering Steel, Preweathered

Solanum™ is our pre-oxidizeed weathering steel patina that provides artists, architects and designers with a range of resonant tones on an enduring surface. We produce this finish by accelerating the natural weathering process and stabilizing the result, Solanum™ Steel.

Zahner has more than 40 years of experience and over a hundred projects succesfully installed using weathering steel surfaces for architecture and art. We operate out of a facility that is clad in weathering steel, and there are no companies with as much experience and expertise in the use of weathering steel in the world.

The Science of Steel begins at our source

We work with the mill source to ensure that the raw steel ingot is derived from specific alloying components, base raw material is cast to exacting specifications. Next, we work with a rolling mill that understands the finesse required when working with bare weathering steel. They are careful to avoid scratching. If you don’t influence the base metal sources they will treat the material like basic steel: it will be heavily oiled, scratched, and scarred. These contaminants will show themselves in the final product as streaks, rings, and discolorations in the finished surface.

We inspect each and every plate surface. Each surface of the bare Solanum is cleaned and prepared to eliminate oxides, greases, and oils. If this step is not carefully followed the finish will not hold up. Once properly prepared, we force the surface to an initial ferric oxide. This finish is slightly orange in color and is characterized by a crusty texture.

An orange patina is not as permanent as a dark patina. A finish with yellow and orange will rub off if not properly finished, and it will continue to darken, bleed, and stain adjoining surfaces. Orange is soluble.

Within our facility, we allow this orange-toned oxide to grow to a point, and then remove most of it from the surface. The surface is then exposed to a proprietary solution and specific atmospheric conditions to develop a hydrated oxide form of ferrous oxide or ferrous hydroxide.

This is insoluble.

We cultivate the growth of the hydrated oxide form until it reaches a certain point. Then we arrest it with another proprietary solution that inhibits and slows oxidation to a standstill. The material is in its final stage of development.

This is Solanum™ Steel.

Our Steel Stains Less

The Solanum™ Finish does not come off when rubbed, nor does it come off and stain adjoining surfaces over time. Weathering steel is known for staining adjacent surfaces with iron oxide as the material continues to age. Our preweathering process reduces and often eliminates staining of surrounding surfaces.

We'll guarantee it.