Design Material Development Center (www.dmdcenter.com, CEO Choi Gong-beom, hereinafter referred to as DMDC), a company specializing in new materials for construction, has entered the elevator design market with a new material that is different from the materials used in the interior design of elevators.

Until now, most of the materials for the interior of elevators have been imported or modified from existing materials with limited patterns. In addition, except for a few companies, the industry has focused on 'meeting the unit price' and neglected the development of design materials. Therefore, it was difficult to find a company that developed new materials. In response, DMD is leading the way with its own domestic brand in a new market that no one else has entered with new materials such as Metal Plus and Nexteel 3D.

Currently, only three or four companies, including DMD, are producing and delivering Metal Plus materials worldwide. Embossed stainless steel panels have also been monopolized and sold by the British company Remex for over 20 years. Recently, there have been suppliers in Europe and China, but they have not been able to surpass the technology of existing companies. DMD aims to develop 'design materials that do not exist on earth' and plans to freely develop materials imagined by designers and apply new materials to various fields such as architectural interior materials and elevator interior materials.

The embossed stainless steel panel 'Necksteel' material that DMD has developed is a product produced by the HMFP (Half Molding Forming Press) method, which is a next-generation new material that can be produced in extra-large sizes at a third of the cost of existing molds. In particular, it is easy to maintain because it does not leave handprints, and its high rigidity contributes to lightweighting with a thinner thickness (0.6~1.2mm) than the thickness (1.2~1.5mm) normally applied to elevators.

"Necksteel is a product that enhances design while being lightweight," said Park Yoon-gyu, Director of Design Development. "Especially when applied to elevators used by an unspecified number of people of various ages, it is far superior to existing products in terms of durability and light weight, and various patterns and textures can be expressed." In addition, if it is made of stainless steel alone, it can be designed in titanium gold, bronze, blue, brown, black, etc. depending on the surface treatment technique.

Metal Plus is a material that has been universally applied to the interior of elevators through the import and sale of several domestic companies. DMD plans to develop and sell Metal Plus that does not show banding or warping phenomena without composite panels or MDF plywood processed together on the back of the material.

"It is a new metal composite material with polymer properties, which is about 1/5 of the weight of ordinary metal, and can naturally express the beauty of metal," said Park Yoon-gyu. "The flexibility of the material allows free design by site, and the sensuous surface treatment can multiply the interior effect, so it is especially popular in hotels, residential buildings, and high-end skyscrapers." Currently, Metal Plus materials are supplied directly to elevator companies and construction companies at prices 30 to 40 percent lower than other companies, and the company is currently building a network of more than 10 national distributors in the building materials sector.

Another design material that DMD is ambitiously developing is Nexform, which is made from recycled materials. The product, which is designed for duty-free shops and airport interiors, is 95 percent complete and is in the process of being made available for sale.

All of DMD's products are standardized to a size of 1,200mm×2,400mm, and the main processes are digested in-house. As a result, the optimization of the process enables mass production, enabling the company to respond quickly to the demands of the construction and elevator industries, according to Park Yoon-gyu.

DMD is currently planning to create an offline cafe that will not only showcase new materials in the Namyangju factory, but also create 'imaginative and dreamy materials' by gathering materials from all over the world. It is also determined to improve the problems of the past by applying differentiated elevator designs with new materials, and apply new materials to myriad fields such as home appliance doors and building exterior remodeling.