New steel alloy for eyewear

The study on nickel-free metal alloys carried out by Certottica as part of the Interreg IIIA Italy - Austria 2000-2006 the European Community initiative in partnership with Tech Tirol Technologietransfer und Standortmarketing Gmbh in Innsbruck, meets one of the program's main objectives of fostering innovation at European level and bringing about genuine integration and cooperation between the two countries.

The project has contributed to strengthening cross-border research activities through the profitable synergism of the centers, laboratories, universities and companies which have been involved in the creation of a specific steel for the eyewear sector.

The research was prompted by the European Directive which establishes that alloys which release more than a certain amount of nickel cannot be used in production processes; it therefore became necessary to create new stainless steels which maintained the material's extraordinary properties, but which contained nickel only as an impurity.

The innovative material made by Certottica is different from those currently on the market, it costs considerably less, its resistance to corrosion is even better than that of conventional steel, and it has the appearance of a one-millimeter-thick wire, which makes it excellent for the production of components for fine frames.