Articles
Electroless Nickel Coatings: Appearance, Gloss and Surface Morphology
For decorative coatings, appearance is the essential purpose for application, but also for functional surface finishes it becomes increasingly relevant as an added value on top of specified technical requirements. Appearance is affected by spectrum and intensity of incident light, roughness and morphology of the coating surface, optical properties of the coating material, eventual superficial oxide films, and individual perception. The predominant factor is surface roughness, which in turn depends on base material roughness, quality of substrate pretreatment, and nucleation and growth kinetics of the electroless nickel (EN) deposit. Interdependency of gloss measurements with roughness measurements and with chemical composition of coatings was investigated for new generation mid-P EN processes and compared to traditional ones.
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Nanostructures by Anodization of Alumina in Phosphoric Acid at Low Potential
Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) has been investigated, in terms of influence of the process time, anodizing potential and methanol addition on the structural features of porous anodic alumina formed in 0.1M H3PO4 solution by two-step self-organized anodizing for potentials ranging from 100-150 V. The structural features of the porous structures, including pore diameter and interpore distance, were evaluated from FE-SEM top-view images for samples anodized in the presence and absence of methanol.
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CCAI Twin Cities Hosts Minnesota Paint & Powder Expo
The 2018 Minnesota Paint & Powder Coating Expo and related symposium will take place March 14-15, at Century College in White Bear Lake, near St. Paul. The Minnesota Technical Assistance Program (MnTAP) at the University of Minnesota is a co-host.
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No Building? No Problem for Protech Metal Finishing's Nadcap Certification
Although a fire completely destroyed its facilities, the company and its employees banded together to assemble a makeshift plating operation and prepare for the certification process, which Protech then passed.
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Tru-Tone Finishing Plans Ecoating Facility in Kentucky
The family-owned provider of industrial electrocoating plans to create 120 jobs and have the ecoat line operational this summer in Lexington.
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Process Technology Acquires Dynatronix
Process Technology makes thermal solutions for surface finishing, high-purity and aquaculture applications; Dynatronix manufactures direct-current, pulse and pulse-reverse power supplies.
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Automotive Coatings Manufacturers Helping Autonomous Cars ‘See’
Paint makers are coming up with ways in which autonomous vehicles could use their coatings to detect where they are on the road.
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CCAI Accepting National Scholarship Applications
The objective of the scholarship program is to encourage advanced education in finishing technologies. The application deadline is April 2. Awards will be announced in June at CCAI’s annual meeting in Sarasota, Florida.
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Advanced Plating Technologies Names Matthew Lindstedt as President
The family-owned Milwaukee, Wisconsin, finishing company’s former president, John Lindstedt, has been named CEO.
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Decc Co. Posts Record Sales for 2017
The company reached $9.4 million in sales for the year, besting its previous record of $9.17 million set in 2007. After taking into account programs set to launch this year and forecasted sales to current customers, it expects to be over the $10 million mark at the end of 2018.
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Tech Talk: Functional Zinc Plating
While offering sacrificial corrosion protection based upon its larger negative electro-potential than iron, zinc is not used without subsequent treatment.
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2018 Hall of Fame Inductees
Abner Brenner, Dr. George E.F. Brewer, Daniel Brockman, Richard Crain, Pieter de Lange, Ronald Duncan, Dr. Erwin Gemmer, David Marsh and Blair Vandivier were picked by an independent panel of industry executives.
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