Architectural Hardware

Patient care healthcare environments are helping patients and families cope better with illness, accelerate healing process and increase patient satisfaction. Hospital signage has been approached from many directions, most are quite elaborate and expensive. Our philosophy is that if a patient centered care product requires training - it is overdesigned!

When you have heavy objects to hang, be it large paintings, framed mirrors, or large wall objects, your hooks have a heavy load to carry. The correct hook to support an item you wish to display may be determined by the type of object, as well as its weight. AS Hanging Display Systems offers several hooks capable of providing the needed support. Note, while we refer to these as hooks, some refer to such hardware fittings as wall hangers, while others refer to them as grippers. Let's review our strongest hook(s) compatible with cables and again with rod hooks.

It can be quite tedious setting up a clean and efficient visual merchandising system such as those needed in real estate offices. Following a few basic steps and implementing the right hanging hardware can provide simple solutions. We’ll show you how to create smart-looking and perfectly proportioned displays that also offer ease of frequent listing updates and changes.

Readers and visitors have their own reasons to consider using hanging system hardware in their building, residence or project. However, most of these reasons fall into a small number of categories, the main one most likely is overcoming the challenges of placing objects on difficult walls. Difficult wall applications may include curved walls, walls made of masonry or glass, or simply walls with an elaborate finish that are impossible, or extremely costly, to repair if damaged. In this blog entry, we will explore the first of these: curved walls. Depending on the radius of the curve, hanging art on such walls may be problematic. There could be a large gap behind the center of a framed piece when hanging from a concave surface, or one that bows inward. This could be further exaggerated by a small wall-radius, a wide frame or conventional hanging hardware.

The Cork Display Rail Also called an art rail or map rail, the cork rail was introduced in the 1940s and was well established in the educational setting by the 1960s. Today it can be found in K-12 classrooms everywhere as designers and architects continue to specify cork rails for new school construction. Cork display rails have survived in the classroom for over a half-century because of their sheer simplicity and unmatched versatility, the same reasons why they're so difficult to replace. So any new display technology that isn't as simple or versatile as cork rail doesn't stand a chance in today's classrooms. And to finally end cork rail's reign, it would also have to excel in areas where cork rails fail!

Our Grid Ceiling Wall Hanger brings new decorating and display options to those areas of office spaces, home basements, and retail spaces where grid ceilings, also known as acoustic ceilings, suspended ceilings or drop ceilings, are installed. The Grid Ceiling Wall Hanger is designed to create a wall hanging system along the perimeter of these afore mentioned areas, replacing the often used unfolded paperclip fastener. You know what I'm talking about, right? We've all jerry-rigged a paperclip, s-hook, or other hangers to display a calendar, office art, employee notifications, or bulletin board items. No longer do we have to deal with an unprofessional look and fiddle with hazardous and complicated display changes. With this easy to install little hanger, your display space can be as professional, or creative, as the items being shared.

In a previous post we discussed how to determine the proper track selection for weight limits involved in a hanging application. This brings us to another important factor applicable and related to track selection, cables vs. rods. So how does one decide which hanging application is right for the job?

Knowing the correct weight capacity of your hanging system is critical to creating a proper design, but also to ensuring that your beautiful display will remain beautiful where you place it. In this photo, four popular tracks are shown. From left to right they are referred to as Classic Wall Track, Classic Ceiling Track, Click Rail Track, Contempo Track®.

A Frame Stabilizer becomes a useful tool when the top of a frame hangs away from the wall, and the bottom of the frame tilts inward towards the wall. This is caused by the way in which the average framed art piece is prepared with a hang wire on the rear side of the art. To easily solve this problem, place a frame stabilizer on our hanging cable (or rod, pictured) and hide it behind the lower rail of the offending frame.

Understanding our basic system elements and their most advantageous applications can play an important part in your design solution. By knowing your options, and how they behave, you will be able to create the hanging system that can also become a design feature, allowing you to best show off your brag wall, art display, or creative showcase display. There are three basic elements to consider. In this entry we will explore each element in more detail. These include: the Horizontal Element (track or stand-off), the vertical element (rod or cable) and the hooks and fittings:

Most hanging systems are "suspended" systems. This means the weight of the object is suspended from the upper track, allowing the cable or rod to hang freely with gravity. The alternate type of hanging system is a "tensioned" system. Using this type of installation, the cable is also attached at a lower point, allowing the cable to be held taught, or tensioned, between the upper and lower points. This makes for a very stable display. While a suspended cable system is the most discrete, many think the engineered appearance of tensioned cable systems is what they prefer.