Painting art on stainless steel has a different approach as compared to regular painting. Stainless steel are known to have rust resistance due to it’s coating of a passivation film, therefore it has a long lifespan of 20 years. Artworks on a stainless steel surface has to last as long as it’s surface. A typical mural lasts about 5 years according to industrial paint supplier standards but we need to ensure the mural has a lifespan of at least 7 to 10 years and beyond.

Gloss painting typically only have a lifespan of 2 years until you will start noticing the cracks and peels on the surface of the steel. Therefore to ensure long lasting paint works, Polyurethane (PU) paint is used. As mentioned in the previous post, PU paint is used instead of Epoxy paint due to it’s colour fading resistance.

We have been commissioned to paint murals on stainless steel panels from a large company campus. Our client is requesting that their new walkway should be painted in a bright cheerful manner instead of a dull uninspiring walkway.

Our scope includes painting of shade panels, and gutter.

Notice that there’s a fire hydrant (red and round) on the bottom left of the panel. There is also a steel column at the left side.

There are 2 challenges on stainless steel painting: Not having a smooth surface eliminates all possibility to blend colours on the steel surface and PU paint dries rapidly due to it’s hardening agent being added into the paint mixture. When PU paint is left over time, it gets solidified hence, the paint mixture gets thicker and stickier making it notorious to paint with. Therefore, the artwork selected and being executed could not be blended and toned nicely into a 3d perspective. If you would try to blend the colours in a curve, your lines will be broken throughout the entire stroke, delivering a messy and inconsistent finish.

The entire row of stainless steel gutters shall be painted as well. Notice how this is at a slope level that is 2 to 3 storeys high. Prior starting works, a layer of primer is painted on all the surface of the stainless steel panels. This is to ensure the PU paint adhere to the stainless steel surface. PU paint colours are then mixed mostly off site and some on-site. Once the primer has been cured for at least 24 hours, the stainless steel painting works have commenced.

A lot of time is spent on angle revisiting and correction. Not only the paint dries fast and hard, but we also have to keep on ensuring the paint stays solvent for us to paint it by diluting it with a thinning solution. Strokes and lines are refined at each stripe panel taking up hours just on the detailing process.

We went with the depiction of glasses (shades) because the function of this panels is to shade the sunlight for the walkway.

This is our finished works for the large panel. A giant hornbill can be seen picking berries for food above high ground. We selected a bird species due to the campus being next to a forest area that would naturally habitat birds. Red berries are painted to blend with the red fire hose. The column is painted a wooden tree texture to represent a tree figure. A depiction of a hornbill is painted standing on the handrail taking berries. The handrail is also painted with wooden textures to depict it standing on a branch. The effect is more apparent if standing next to the handrail. Even at the bottom, notice how the handrails layer panel is painted to incorporate the hornbill’s tail and the berries. Layers of paint are painted on the background. As you can see, the colours are not able to blend smoothly, and can only be painted as explained above. This is the limitation of stainless steel painting on a stainless steel panel surface using PU Paint.

This is the back side of the panel. Thin steel columns are depicted as coconut tree stump and our shades characters are chilling and see as if they are having fun at the beach. Many variations have been made that consisting of painting 2 walls top to bottom side by side. above the roofing, the coconut trees can be seen extended out into the sky. Our design philosophy includes every element and flaw as an opportunity to enhance the artwork.

Art is our highest priority then comes safety. Our artists are all required to wear safety harness when working on painting the gutters. Our gutters all have a limited surface area for paint, therefore we designed it so that from a far, it still looks as if the artwork is flowing from top to bottom. Everything is measured and aligned correctly.

Painting on stainless steel also applies on painting with containers. Here is a 2 storey container block that was painted using PU paint.

Painting on stainless steel or any steel surface is not difficult if the right methods are followed. It is to be reminded to never use gloss paint for such painting of large surfaces. Not only your works will deteriorate within 2 years, the cost of the gloss paint with customised colours are nowhere cheaper in terms of costing. There are also no appropriate primer for gloss paints because gloss paints are designed to have mild adhere capabilities suitable for small and less harsh conditions. For condition that should be under the sun for at least 12 hours a day would be considered harsh and a strong solution such as PU paint is needed. We should strive for the best quality of works when it comes to mural or any artworks in general.

Hope you have found some insights useful for stainless steel painting. If you do have any questions regarding stainless steel painting or mural services you may whatsapp us personally at 0166850069.

Caveman One