Creative light design for home appliances

Fürth/Germany, 12 October 2017: At this year's Fakuma, from 17-21 October in Friedrichshafen, Leonhard Kurz will be showing how home appliances are being turned into designer items. The specialist for decorative and functional surface coatings will present designer refrigerators with novel backlit front panels at Fakuma. There is an increasing trend towards integrating kitchens into living areas. As a result, the visual appearance of the kitchen interior is becoming ever more important. Kurz is responding to this trend with front panel designs for home appliances that are eye-catching in daylight and when backlit.

One of the appliances that will be shown at the Kurz booth exhibits a solid decorative surface in daylight. When the backlighting is activated, an attractive light design with changing and vibrantly interacting colors appears. A second appliance showcases an exciting day/night design. In daylight, a distinctive abstract element on a light background catches the eye, with a depth effect that is accentuated by the different matte finishes on the surface. Under backlighting, the color scheme reverses: the design element is brightly illuminated, and the background is tastefully darkened. The distinctiveness of this elaborate design feature is reinforced by a stunning 3-dimensional effect. Alerts for example, about the contents of the appliance or any necessary purchases, appear in illuminated lettering.

Michael Otto Ucke, Head of Visionary Design at Kurz's Austrian subsidiary Burg Design, explains the design concept: "The refrigerator, frequently staged as a stand-alone unit, historically takes a special role in the kitchen. In this process, it has been available in classic white, silver or black for decades, with monochrome trend colors having been introduced more recently. We stage it as an individual work of art and carrier of information thanks to a striking interaction of colors and lighting."

 

Print mold design technology for exceptional design effects

The surface designs for home appliances on display at Fakuma are produced by Burg Design, by means of PMD (Print Mold Design) technology. The design is first printed onto foil using a special screen printing technique, then the foil is formed to match the part geometry, punched out, and back-injected. This process creates exciting single-image designs and fascinating 3D effects that are especially striking when backlit. Appliances with the so-called dead front effect utilize a specialized coating technology from Kurz. Foils of different layer thickness are produced, which create an opaque surface design in daylight, while being partially translucent when backlit. All designs can be combined with the sensor technology from Kurz subsidiary PolyIC, thereby enabling control panels and displays to be equipped with touch and gesture control functionality. This technology will also be demonstrated at the Kurz Fakuma booth A4-4122.