Solidteknics was founded in 2014 by a real mechanical engineer and keen cook, Mark Henry. Tired of disposable, synthetic-coated pans piling up in our landfills, Mark envisioned a whole new era in cookware—one that was better for our health and planet. It took decades of R&D to launch the first of Solidteknics’ many world-first kitchenware innovations—a seamless one-piece pan wrought from a single sheet of iron. Cookware free from toxins, heavy metals, and synthetic coatings and durable enough to last centuries.
Today, Solidteknics' range of AUS-ION™ wrought iron and nöni™ ferritic stainless steel cookware is used in professional kitchens and home kitchens worldwide, and continues to be manufactured in Sydney, Australia.
What makes Solidteknics different?
Solidteknics designs and manufactures its own patented cookware in Australia, rather than importing and rebranding pans made overseas. Most cookware brands are importers or marketers first. Solidteknics' team holds over 12 years of combined experience in chef product design and has spent over a decade in production, developing patented manufacturing methods including seamless, one-piece pans.
No coatings, rivets, or loose parts.
What Patents does Solidteknics hold?
We hold strong patents for our world-first manufacturing methods and even more trade secrets, ensuring our pans would be very difficult to copy. That’s why we’re still the only manufacturer of our new category of wrought seamless cookware.
Yes, other manufacturers have made basic one-piece steel pans or beautiful, expensive, artisanal hand-forged wrought iron pans (the way they have been made for 3,500 years, since the dawn of the Iron Age), but none have the same methods of manufacture. We hold the patents for a reason, and none have our combination of superior conductive materials, quality of finish, and long, comfortable vented handles that stay cool.
We also patented a whole new way to season iron that heavily reduces pollution by instantly dropping a very hot pan into a vat of the right oil: Quenched and ready to cook right out of the bag!
Is nöni™ the world's only solid stainless steel cookware?
Yes. We are the first, and still the only, manufacturer of solid one-piece stainless steel cookware. It has never been done before because nobody thought it was possible.
We made it possible with our launch of nöni™ seamless one-piece stainless cookware, a high-performance game-changer with more conductivity and centuries more durability than any clad stainless cookware with rivets/welds/screws for handle joins.
All other brands of stainless steel cookware have joined handles that may last decades but not centuries. Yes, we hold the patents for this method of manufacturing, but why was our little engineering company the first? Simply because the ‘experts’ have always said (like they’ve been saying to us all throughout our careers in engineering) that you can’t make solid stainless steel cookware because stainless steel doesn’t conduct heat. It’s almost an insulator relative to ‘good’ cookware materials. That is true of nickel stainless steels or cheap ferritic stainless steels.
Why is nöni™ stainless steel more conductive than typical stainless cookware?
nöni™ uses a ferritic, non-nickel stainless steel that conducts heat far more efficiently than the nickel stainless steel used in most clad cookware, so it doesn't need aluminium or copper layers to perform.
Most stainless cookware is made from nickel stainless steel because it's easier to press and polish to a shiny finish, but nickel stainless conducts heat poorly, which is why other brands sandwich it around a layer of aluminium or copper. Solidteknics' ferritic stainless steel conducts heat efficiently on its own. It also has no rivets, welds, or screws, using the same seamless one-piece method as the AUS-ION™ range, which removes the weak point where handles typically fail on clad cookware over time.
How durable is Solidteknics cookware?
Because Solidteknics cookware is wrought from one piece of a material that will never crack, the only way to destroy our cookware is to physically wear through it. That’s obvious to any mechanical engineer. It’s also obvious that it will take more than a century, and potentially many centuries or millennia … so your descendants will be cooking on your Solidteknics pans you invested in and used your whole life for many generations to come. That’s free, healthy, sustainable cookware as a gift for future generations instead of the old cycle of disposable cookware.
But isn’t cast iron also one piece of iron?
Yes! Cast iron seems strong because it is cast in one heavy piece, but cast iron cookware regularly cracks because it is ‘crystalline’, not wrought to make iron ductile (the origin of the term ‘wrought iron’ just means iron that has been worked into shape, and that work squashes the iron crystals into overlapping platelets, so cracks can’t propagate through the grain boundaries the way they easily do along crystal boundaries). Have you ever wondered why there aren’t many cast iron cooking vessels in museums around the world, and the ones you see are usually cracked?
At the same time, there are many wrought iron pans that are still in perfectly useable condition after 2,000+ years. Our AUS-ION™ wrought iron cookware is also half the weight of cast iron.
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Why should synthetic non-stick cookware be avoided?
Our cookware isn’t just sustainable because it costs close to zero per year over the long run of many generations, but it is regenerating a highly destructive industry that has been dominated for two generations by toxic and disposable synthetic nonstick cookware. Synthetic nonstick pans have been proven toxic to manufacture, toxic to heat, and toxic to dispose of.
Every year, Australians throw more than 1.2 million nonstick pans in our landfills. They are all imported because we are the only real production manufacturer of cookware in Australia, and we would never use their toxic coatings. Don’t be fooled by greenwashing of synthetic nonsticks by marketeers who claim the new plastic coatings are safer than the old versions. It is only a matter of time before their polymer chains are proven at least as toxic, just as it took decades of health problems from the old polymer coatings to be proven toxic. That’s an industry we don’t want to sustain!
Instead, for our healthy, non-toxic nonstick, we modernised the ancient art of seasoned iron by patenting our ‘Quenched’ seasoning method, which we use to pre-season all our AUS-ION wrought iron cookware with non-GMO rice bran oil, so you can get cooking ‘right out of the bag’, and build your own forever-renewable non-toxic nonstick simply by cooking with fats/oils and some simple cleaning maintenance. Far less harmful to people and the planet than synthetic nonsticks, and far less wasteful and damaging than the new buzz in nonstick: ceramic coatings.
But aren’t ceramic non-stick coatings non-toxic?
Yes, good quality ceramic coatings from the top manufacturers won’t be toxic (avoid unknown brands and their heavy metal contaminants), but they are rapidly disposable.
Most only last a year (or less), and then they go into the landfill along with their aluminium cores and often plastic handles. Why would you still do that when you know there’s a multi-century-durable, non-toxic, natural nonstick pan made in Australia from clean Australian iron that also costs a lot less over a lifetime than constant purchasing of replacement disposable pans?
The bottom line.
This will all be common knowledge in a decade. We, and you, are just ahead of the curve.
We are committed to continuing to launch world-class cookware innovations that are better for you and for our planet. Cookware that will become treasured heirlooms passed down for generations to come.
At Solidteknics, we are at the forefront of innovation and aren't afraid to say we are the world leaders in healthy, durable cookware! Some might say that is a bold claim from a small Australian cookware manufacturer, but only if they don’t know us and the background behind our world-leading innovations.
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FAQ
Who founded Solidteknics? Solidteknics was founded in 2014 by mechanical engineer Mark Henry, who developed the brand's patented one-piece cookware manufacturing methods.
What is the difference between wrought iron and cast iron cookware? Wrought iron is worked into shape, giving it a layered structure that resists cracking, while cast iron is poured into a mould and has a crystalline structure prone to cracking over time.
Is nöni™ stainless steel cookware more conductive than regular stainless steel? Yes. nöni™ uses a ferritic, non-nickel stainless steel that conducts heat efficiently on its own, unlike standard nickel stainless steel, which typically requires added layers of aluminium or copper to conduct heat.
Why doesn't Solidteknics use synthetic non-stick coatings? Synthetic non-stick coatings are typically made with PFAS/PFOA/PTFE compounds, wear out within a year or two, and are difficult to dispose of sustainably. Solidteknics uses a patented seasoning process instead, which creates a natural, renewable non-stick surface.
Where is Solidteknics cookware made? Solidteknics cookware is designed and manufactured in Sydney, Australia.
