Materials

Aisi304 and other stainless steels

Aisi304, commercially known as 18/10, is the stainless steel “par excellence”. It’s the best material for resistance to wear and corrosion, caused by aggressive agents like chlorides (common salt). It’s not by accident that it’s mandatory for our products, from surgical instruments to dishwasher drums, from ship 40’ containers to kitchen sinks.

It should not be confused with stainless steel from the Aisi200 series: a cheap steel similar in the look but with an inferior performance. This steel has existed for a very long time, but it became widespread in Europe only after the arrival of globalization. Aisi200 found its first popularity for products apt for food contact in India in the 80s. Until then, cheap products were made with Aisi430, but they were easily recognized by customers because they were magnetic: a simple magnet was enough to spot them. Aisi200 steel, which is not magnetic, replaced Aisi430 and spread rapidly. And yet magnetism has nothing to do with resistance to corrosion, decisively inferior to that of high quality steel like Aisi304. The flaw exists because, contrary to Aisi304, steel from the Aisi200 series has a low nickel content, up to 10 times less.

Inox Macel only uses Aisi304: the only stainless steel capable to guarantee peace of mind and quality to the end user.

Polycarbonate

Polycarbonate is a very versatile plastic with extremely high performance, to the point that it has found an incredibly high range of uses. For example:

Extremely hard and robust, it’s used in the construction of bulletproof glass.
Transparent almost like glass, it’s used to produce lenses for glasses and car headlights.
Light and impact resistant, it replaced glass in many every day uses, from water cooler bottles to smartphone shells.
Highly tolerant to high temperatures and versatile, it’s a component in many products, from microwave containers to hair dryers.
100% recyclable, thanks to its light weight it helps reduce the environmental costs of transport.

A meticulous production protocol and pure raw material are fundamental to guaranteeing a product that is safe, something that is not always respected: not all polycarbonates are apt for food contact. Inox Macel only uses high-quality, non-recycled raw materials. That’s why our products pass the food contact tests with flying colours: migration under 60 times the law limit, and in line with the latest findings from EFSA (European Authority for Food Safety).

Polypropylene

Polypropylene is the second most used plastic in the world, after polyethylene, and it’s use is constantly expanding. With a moderate price, it’s very light and impact resistant, slightly opaque and semitransparent. It has a good heat resistance, with a melting point of 130°C, and it’s durable versus chemicals and other external agents like scratches, solvents, acids and humidity. Very malleable and easy to colour, it doesn’t like UV sun rays, but with the right additives in can be adapted to all uses. It’s 100% recyclable.

Inox Macel uses only high quality, high purity polypropylene; this choice improves transparency and raises its resistance to external agents, to the point that it can be used in the microwave. It’s a plastic that is especially innocuous and nontoxic; completely free of Bisphenol A, an organic compound suspected of interfering with the human endocrine system. Inox Macel avails itself of the same polypropylene commonly used to produce baby bottles and the like.