OTG stained a handmade designer rug made of copper rings before presenting it in a New York gallery. The "Copper Rug" had darkened during manual production in Latvia.
The valuable "Copper Rug" consists of thousands of interwoven copper rings. During manual production, the material turned dark and required an elaborate cleaning process The artist Ania Bauer has a soft spot for objects made from unusual materials. She accompanied the production of a copper carpet for her London designer friend Philippe Malouin. He designed the unusual work of art for a New York gallery. The manual production was carried out by a social business project in Riga: employees hand-knotted thousands of copper rings to create a 3.50 x 2.50 meter carpet. The material oxidized in the process. Ania Bauer looked for a professional surface specialist to carry out the necessary basic cleaning - and came across OTG Gronau, a subsidiary of OTH Hagen. The service provider pickles titanium, aluminum, brass, polishes, deburrs, coats, etc. - and also pickles copper products. Normally mainly for the gas and sanitary sector: pipe connectors, flanges, etc. "Staining a carpet was a first for us too. But the complex task appealed to us," says Managing Director Udo Gensowski.
Special rinses for an object weighing 350 kilograms
The dimensions and weight alone required sophisticated logistics - the art object weighs 350 kilograms and required correspondingly large equipment. The treatment process was also complex. During treatment, it became apparent that the carpet "carried over" the process chemistry from one process bath to the next to an extraordinary extent - this made cleaning more difficult and made special rinsing necessary. "We know the material and the reaction of the substances. Based on this experience, we have developed an effective multi-stage process sequence," says Udo Gensowski. Twelve process steps were necessary to achieve a uniform, shadow-free result. A final tarnish protection ensures that the noble work of art remains so flawless at its current appearance in New York.
