A Bunch of Little Things That Add Up to Excellence in Stainless Steel Cabinets

While almost any shop with metal cutting, forming, welding equipment, and a basic knowledge can produce a stainless steel cabinet; doing so with precision, an eye to quality, and artistic flourish is another story altogether.

First, and to most homeowners, most important, is to use a high quality fingerprint-resistant steel. Human hands naturally carry oils and dirt that would eventually leave stains on the surface of any cabinet. You'll see these permanent stains in the wood doors of old-style kitchens. Using a Tủ giày inox fingerprint resistant finish on the better grades of stainless steel - i.e. ASTM 304 or ASTM 316 - will prevent this from ever happening on a quality stainless cabinet. In fact, with simple light maintenance a quality stainless steel cabinet will last for decades.

Next, a cabinet must be constructed with tight tolerances and fittings. For example the doors of most metal cabinets are made from two units mated together. Think of a flat sheet of steel with a raised C-shaped lip all-around of about 5/8". Its backside is attached to a similar front side to form the cabinet door. Economy cabinets do exactly that - spot weld the inner and outer doors, attach some hinges, screw the door to the box that has been cookie cutter stamped out, and the cabinet is done.

Now for the quality cabinet... using a CAD/CAM computer system, instructions are sent to the metal cutting laser and the parts of each cabinet - sized precisely - are cut from the sheets of steel. For a simple wall cabinet this may be up to 30 individual units to complete the whole. The cutting laser is able to maintain accurate cutting up to 1/1000" and it can do this for each and every cabinet regardless of its size or position in the kitchen. Also the computer system and laser cutter don't care if the cabinet is a standard 30" wide or custom sized to 34 ¼" to fill in that nasty space in the corner of your kitchen. Each piece is the joined to its proper place using laser welding equipment. In a quality cabinet door spaces between the inner and outer door sections are filled with an eco-friendly green sound deadening insulation. In fact, one of the easy ways to recognize a quality cabinet, without getting into its guts is to listen for the sound of the door when it shuts. A dull thud indicates quality - any echo the opposite. Another simple solution is to remember - the quality is in the details - the silkiness of the drawer movement, the hinges, the smoothness of the corners and edges, the strength of the cabinet walls and shelves - all show a manufacturers' attitude towards their product.

The entire project is treated as one unit; rather than a jigsaw puzzle when you use off-the-shelf units. Your installer can just attach the cabinets knowing that no fillers or extensions will be needed. One installed, with some easy maintenance, the quality stainless steel cabinet installation with last longer than the house around it.