Designing the Perfect Railings with Custom Aluminum Extrusions

Custom aluminum extrusions are more than just a manufacturing component. Used across various industries and in a variety of applications, extrusions are key features in some of the most standard structures and tools that appear in our everyday lives. One of the most seemingly innocuous but essential uses of custom aluminum extrusions is in railings. Whether you’re constructing a home or designing a retail store, a hospital, or even a boat, railings are an essential stability and safety feature. As a result, their design must be reliable and high-quality. With a custom aluminum extrusions supplier like OD Metals, you can exceed the industry standards for your railings. 

Customizing Your Handrails with Extrusions

To the average person, every metal handrail may look alike, but the truth is most applications require different qualities, shapes, and sizes. In a daycare, you may need railings to be smaller and shorter to better fit the hands of young children, while on boats, your railings may need to be curved to neatly line the edges of the ship. The aluminum extrusion supplier you choose for your project must understand the importance of tailoring the extrusions to your industry standards and specific application. At OD Metals, we will work with you to ensure quality and precision in all your custom aluminum extrusions. 

Qualities of Good Aluminum Handrails 

The key to designing the best handrails is prioritizing important qualities and characteristics of your materials, component parts, and design. Our custom aluminum extrusion suppliers at OD Metals ensure your railings check every box. 

Durability: When installed completely, handrails must be able to withstand everyday use as well as a wide range of body weight as people move through passageways and stairs. The custom aluminum extrusions used for your railings should be secure and stable even if a heavy object falls on it or a person pulls against it. In general, global handrails should be able to stand up against 200lbs of weight or 90 kgs. 

Custom extrusions made with aluminum are inherently durable. Aluminum is an exceptionally strong metal that is not easily chipped or bent. 

Corrosion Resistance: Water, oxygen, and metal can usually be a bad combination. Commonly used metals in construction like steel, iron, and copper easily rust when exposed to the elements. When used in outdoor applications like parks, schools, and marine environments, rusting and corrosion are quickly accelerated, leaving railings looking old and unappealing. Aluminum railings built with extrusions are naturally corrosion-resistant. Aluminum develops a protective layer that makes them perfect for any type of climate or space. 

Flexibility: Railings are not always simple in the way they look. Depending on where they are being installed and their primary purpose, the design elements will differ. More and more in modern buildings, architectures opt for curved edges rather than perfectly straight lines. Aluminum is a flexible but sturdy metal, which means that we can design your custom aluminum extrusions precisely to your specifications for a perfect fit at OD Metals. 

Custom Dies for Aluminum Handrails

Prior to manufacturing, aluminum extrusion suppliers use dies as a template for the extrusion process. Aluminum is pushed through one side of the flat discs to the opening on the other to extrude the metal. Some aluminum extrusion suppliers will have a limited selection of dies to fit more common extrusion uses. At OD Metals, we will develop custom dies for aluminum extrusion to meet your specific project needs. When you come to us, the options are virtually limitless. To learn more about custom dies and extrusions, contact one of our experts today. 

Choosing the Right Finish for Your Custom Extrusions

You can apply a range of finishes to your custom aluminum extrusions, each with different benefits. Based on the use of your extrusions, coatings are meant to enhance the performance of your custom aluminum extrusions. The most common finishes offered by aluminum extrusion suppliers include: 

Mechanical Finishes: This is used to improve the final appearance of aluminum extrusions for a smooth, clear, and clean finish. Mechanical finishes include buffing, abrasive/sand blasting, grinding, and polishing. 

Pretreatment: Preattreatment includes chemical etching which occurs prior to coating. This pretreatment process helps any additional finish to better adhere.

Bright Dripping: Want a mirror effect to your aluminum extrusions? Bright dripping is a reflective coating that leaves aluminum shiny and bright.

Anodizing: Available to any type of aluminum alloy. Anodized aluminum coatings can be transparent or colorful, depending on what application you have in mind. Anodized finishes add an extra layer of protection through an electrochemical process. 

Liquid Paint: A popular choice among manufacturers, designers, and architects, liquid paint finishes over a seamless colored coating to aluminum extrusions, even in thickness and long-lasting.

Powder Coating: The high-performance powder coating is a dry finish option that is applied directly to the aluminum and then processed with heat. 

Sublimation: Add specially curated patterns to your custom aluminum extrusions for the look of wood with the durability of aluminum. 

Your Custom Aluminum Extrusion Supplier

Offshore Direct Metals is one of the leading aluminum extrusion suppliers in the United States. We provide high-quality custom aluminum solutions for all your projects.

To learn more about ordering aluminum extrusions, contact us today. 

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