A: It depends on the conditions they are kept in.

If you need a product for a use which requires durability, then a Millennium Photo or a Stainless Photo is recommended.

Since these products use SUS316 (equivalent to UNS S31600 or SAE316 in the US), which is a stainless steel for marine facilities and medical use, and they rust less than ordinary stainless steel, they will almost never change if left in doors. Unless these products are exposed to strong winds or strong chemical reagents, there are no factors which will cause them to weaken.

If placed outdoors in inland areas, such as on a gravestone, it is considered that these products will last for several hundred years. Accelerated wear testing is currently being performed.

If these products are installed outdoors where they are continuously exposed to salt, such as in coastal areas, there is a possibility that fine rust will occur in several decades. In order to keep these products for long period of time, regular cleaning and maintenance are required.

For details on durability, please see here.

Color stainless photos can be kept for very long periods of time in doors. Since it is possible that the surface processing will peel after a long period of time outdoors, such as several decades, these are not designed for very long-term use outdoors.

A: If you really would like to keep the product for 1,000 years, please select a Millennium Photo or a Stainless Photo. They will definitely last for 1,000 years if they are kept in an indoor normal environment.

A: There is more than one type of stainless steel.

A stainless steel kitchen sink at an apartment will quickly rust if left wet; however, stainless steel cutlery seldom rusts. This difference is due to different metal components. For details please see here.

The material used for Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos is SUS316, which is austenitic stainless steel. This is a type of stainless steel used for sea water pumps, pipes for chemicals and items for medical purposes. We cannot guarantee that this type of stainless steel will never rust; however, it rarely rusts.

A: Parts in black are stainless steel itself; therefore, they will never peel off. Since they are extremely strong, they rarely wear and will retain their color for a long period of time.

Stainless steel is a collectively name for iron alloys which contain chromium (Cr) at approximately 10% or greater. Chromium forms an extremely thin passive layer on the surface of stainless steel, with a thickness of several millimeters, and this layer works as a barrier to prevent rust. This passive layer is extremely robust and harder than normal stainless steel itself. If this layer is destroyed, it will be immediately recreated once it comes in contact with air, and will continue to protect the stainless steel base.

We apply our unique technology to develop this passive layer on Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos to create a black color. This color is created by changing the surface condition of the stainless steel; therefore, peeling or color fading will never happen, unlike with painting or plating. For details, please see the durability of Millennium Photos.

A: Please select a Millennium Photo flat type or a Stainless Photo flat type for outdoor use. Moreover, please always use stainless bolts for fixation. If iron bolts are used, rust will also develop on the stainless steel part due to contact with iron. As such our Millennium Photo and Stainless Photo products may rust due to the effect of other materials; however, the original appearance can be maintained for a considerably long period of time as long as this aspect is taken into consideration.

We cannot guarantee that a Millennium Photo and Stainless Photo product will never wear; however, they wear extremely slowly.

Towns have many stainless steel signboards, information displays and door plates; however, black paint displays peel off on some of them. Paint will definitely come off at one point. Since Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos do not use paint, their black parts will never peel off, unlike paint on a signboard.

That said, if these products are used outdoors, although it depends on the usage condition, the front surface may become slightly blurred and may have a large number of fine scratches due to dust blown by the wind. This is the same as what happens to sculptures displayed outdoors. However, Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos are stronger against acid rain than sculptures displayed outdoors made of other materials such as marble, and they seldom lose their surfacing due to abrasion or have their external appearance changed. For details, please see here for the durability of Millennium Photos.

A: Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos use SUS316, a type of stainless steel with higher corrosion-resistant than that of general stainless steel materials; therefore, these products are relatively strong against rust. However, if they are put at the coast with a constant sea breeze, or if they are placed in an industrial zone and are exposed to sulfide gases, hydrochloric acid gases and other types of gases, they may develop slight rust. In order to prevent such rust, it is necessary to regularly wash products with pure water.

Please avoid placing brass material products outdoors in coastal areas.

A: The white parts are the stainless base and are strong. The black parts have more solid stainless steel; therefore, they are stronger than the white parts. Neither the white nor the black parts will scratch due to impacts such as scratching with fingernails.

However, scratching the products with solid materials will leave scratch marks on them. Despite the stainless steel being solid, it can be ground down if rubbed with a stainless steel material with the same strength. Products may dent if a forces is applied using a solid stone.

Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos are strong; however, these are not materials on which scratches will never appear. They may have slight scratches depending on how they are treated.

A: If a product of the white frame type or the double-sided J-shaped frame type is scratched on its circumference white part, we can replace the product.

Please consult with us. In many cases it is difficult to repair the image on the main part; however, it is sometimes possible to repair it, so please ask us.

A: Titanium alloy Millennium Photos are currently under development.

Also, we can create prototypes with many different materials depending on the purpose of use, such as SUS440 and SUS630 which are types of burnt steel with high hardness and high abrasion resistance, as well as various types of silicolloy which contain silicon instead of carbon.

However, in principle, we limit materials for prototypes to iron or copper alloys. We do not handle special-type alloys such as cobalt-group Stellite and nickel-group Inconel and Hastelloy and Tungsten carbide.

Prototype creation requires a certain amount of time and cost. Moreover, depending on the results of testing, we may not be able to create the requested prototype. For details, please ask us.

A: Konica, a Japanese photo material manufacturer, used to sell their full color photo printing with its product name of 100-Year Print. The message with this product is that if these products are kept in an ideal condition the color density will be retained at approximately 70% of the density of the color of products will be retained 1,000 years later. This means that the products will still wear.

We do not mean that our Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos will not change at all for 1,000 years; however, they are still much more durable than paper photographs. Changes occurring on Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos are so slight that normal naked eyes cannot usually find them.

For further details, please see “Do these products really last for 1,000 years?”

Brass photos tend to change more than Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos. However, changes on Brass photos create patina, like on Buddha statues made of bronze, and such changes create a sophisticated atmosphere so you can enjoy Brass photo products with such changes.

A: Of course no one knows what will happen in 1,000 years.

We cannot guarantee what Millennium Photos will be like in 1,000 years; however, Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos are 100% stainless steel which does not tend to wear out with time. Unless someone tries to destroy a Millennium Photo or Stainless Photo, for example by applying a force to bend it, or using heat and chemicals to melt/dissolve it, there is no reason for the product to break or wear out as long as it is preserved in a normal environment.

To this extent, we believe that Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos will last for 1,000 years or longer. While they are sufficiently durable, whether they can actually last or not depends on how they are handled by their owners and this is a separate issue.

A: We assume that some people think that there is no point in keeping an image of themselves after they die, and we think that it is normal to think in this way.

However, those who think in this way an idea may happen to have the following type of feeling.

The president of a mail-order company was making advertisement for their video cameras, and commented as follows.

“When I was little my father took a video of me using his 8mm film camera. I now watch the video on this film. The reason is not because I want to view myself, but because I want to view my father of an age around the same as I am now. I recommend all moms and dads to take as much video as possible. This is not for you to view the videos later but to have your children view how you were like in the future.”

I do not have a child but I think I do understand what the message wants to say.

Although it is my personal story, my father passed away last year and I am often told that I look very similar to my father when he was young. Even our voice is similar. Due to certain reasons, I have not seen my father for a long time and I do not know almost anything about how he lived towards the end of his life; however, when I need to make a decision I would like to refer to what my father, grandfather and my older ancestors with similar characteristics to mine were doing when they were the same age as I am currently. I also assume that knowing how my father was like in his late life would be helpful for me to estimate how my life will be.

Moreover, I enjoy wondering whether my ancestors looked like me or whether, when they were around my age, were living happily.

I think that maintaining an image of what you are like will be helpful for your descendants in finding inspiration when they get stuck in their lives. Moreover, handing an image of yourself over to subsequent generations will be a symbol for a hope that your family will last for a long time in the future.

This is not only for families consisting of only genetically-related members but also in organizations such as companies, keeping the image of all past presidents means that the head of the company is celebrated and is a way of recognizing the long history of the company.

Regardless of whether the subject is a family or a company, the fact that a single group will last for a long period of time indicates that it has some kind of significance. Therefore, with the aim of handing over old history, keeping the image of the family line and those at the top of the organization as a symbol of management philosophy and the company’s objectives in the community shows that the family or the company strongly hopes that the group to which they belong, and the development of which they are devoted to, will enjoy prosperity for a long time. We believe that such an idea is wonderful.

We always hope that Millennium Photos and Stainless Photos can play an important role for our customers to realize such hopes.