Made in America – Changing Designs

As the global supply chain challenges are still with us we, like many, are finding ways to re-tool some hardware designs so that we are not reliant on overseas suppliers.  All of our work, meaning our castings are made locally by us here in Los Angeles. From the initial creation of the pattern to mold development, to pouring wax and then bronze or steel the process is local and the materials if not local are certainly American made.

There is one area though where we have relied on LED components in our illuminated door handles and so are transitioning away from lighting our handles to finding more creative and less high-tech ways of adding a dash of sparkle to designs, which in their own right, do not actually need embellishing. Simply put we are phasing out colored LED and replacing this with powder coating.

Benefits of new direction

The main advantage is the flexibility with which a piece can be powder coated. Powder coating can be applied to almost any part of a handle which allow for color to be integrated in a much more artistic and organic way. This is especially the case with the Morphic pieces.

When we created the LED pieces we had assumed that eventually we could move away from direct wired electric power to  long life batteries that would be small enough to fit inside the fixture. This did not occur and the resulting market was very small.

By moving away from LED products we are able to lower the consumer price just a little as we no longer will be buying the components and we will no longer be paying the costly testing and regulatory fees charged by UL.

Color by Light or Powder - the different types of colored door handles

We have a variety of door handles that are illuminated, and these are often ordered by those in the hospitality industry looking for accent piece for public areas. This was the case when we were commissioned to create custom large door handles based on our Morphic door pull design.
The client chose a very specific shade of blue which was their brand color, and which reflected the watery environment of their resort. Sea creatures were the inspirational basis for the custom Serpentine and Scroll pulls we designed and fabricated for the resort. The blue background of this piece is created by skillfully powder coating just the interior and by careful masking the face.

Our Coral and Fish illuminated pulls are colored by color diodes that are contained inside the LED light strips that are housed behind the face of the design. The advantage of this form of color is that the different color diodes allow the panel to be programmed for a variety of different color cycles. While the LED panels offer a wide range of color the door must be one that has been constructed with a hollow channel so that wire can be passed along the channel and connected to the panels wiring.

The photos below show these two methods for adding color. The Scroll pulls on the left were treated with an adhesive on the inside only, the face of the handle was masked with a releasing agent and the powdered handle was baked at a high temperature. The coral and fish pulls have color changing diodes and can be set for a specific color or programmed to go through color cycles.

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