Art or aggro? No question for public transport operators and the owners of private and public buildings: graffiti is a nuisance and expensive to remove. The German Association of Towns and Cities (Deutscher Städtetag) puts the damage caused by graffiti artists each year at some 200 million euros and rising. German parliament is currently debating draft legislation aimed at making it easier to prosecute illegal sprayers. ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG is now launching a new product which should help ease the problem: coated steel strip to which graffiti cannot permanently adhere. ThyssenKrupp Hoesch Bausysteme GmbH uses the strip to make products such as facade elements.

The anti-graffiti effect is provided by a clear lacquer coating with a special additive which prevents the spray paint from reacting with the surface and forming a permanent bond. Initially, graffiti artists will not notice any difference. The benefits of the new surface emerge when it comes to cleaning: the graffiti can be washed off quickly and easily using nothing more than water. Expensive pretreatment with solvent-containing chemicals is no longer necessary - if need be, the graffiti could even be scratched off using your fingernails.

The steel strip with anti-graffiti effect was developed by the Color profit center, part of ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG`s Industry division. On lines at the Duisburg-Beeckerwerth plant as well as the Eichen and Ferndorf facilities (both in Germany`s Siegerland region) this unit produces coil-coated steel strip for a variety of applications in the appliance, automotive and construction sectors. These coated steels are ready to use, allowing customers to dispense with their own painting lines.

Produced in the Siegerland, the steel strip with the new anti-graffiti surface passes through the coil-coating line twice - the first time to apply a primer and a colored top coat to the hot-dip galvanized steel, and the second time to apply the outer clear lacquer coating with the anti-graffiti additive. ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG is the first producer of coil-coated steel to market this innovation.

The first customer for this new product is the German city of Troisdorf, near Cologne, which is currently building a multi-purpose hall for school sports and cultural events. Type W18/76 corrugated steel profiles from ThyssenKrupp Hoesch Bausysteme GmbH with the anti-graffiti coating are being used as facade elements covering an area of 450 square meters which will make life tough for graffiti artists in the future: on-site spraying and cleaning tests proved just as successful as those carried out previously in the laboratories of ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG`s Color profit center.

There is another reason why the new hall will keep looking good for many years to come: the special additive in the clear lacquer surface is not only resistant to graffiti, it also has hydrophobic properties, i.e. it is water-repellent. This will stop the facade from getting dirty so quickly and make it easier to clean than conventional steel facades. And then there`s the high-quality colored top coat beneath the clear lacquer layer: the PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride)-base coating is particularly weatherproof, insensitive to ultraviolet radiation and resistant to industrial and exhaust emissions.

An up-to-date picture for the text is available on the internet at http://www.thyssenkrupp-steel.com/en/presse/bildergalerie, where journalists can use our online facility to obtain quick and easy accreditation to our Press Photo and Graphics Service.

Contact:

ThyssenKrupp Steel
Bernd Overmaat
Tel.: +49 203 / 52 - 4 51 85
Fax: +49 203 / 52 - 2 57 07
e-mail: bernd.overmaat@tks.thyssenkrupp.com

Dietmar Stamm
Tel.: +49 203 / 52 - 2 62 67
Fax: +49 203 / 52 - 2 57 07
e-mail: dietmar.stamm@tks.thyssenkrupp.com