Anodizing
New Mexico School Features Eco-Friendly Anodized Walls
Bernalillo Elementary School achieves sustainable design goals using products by Linetec
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Cyklos Building a Better Finishing Machine
Tornos rolls out its turnkey surface finishing machine, Cyklos, a self-contained apparatus that enables machining shops to integrate wet electrochemical or chemical surface processing into their manufacturing line. SEE THE VIDEO
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NASF REPORT: Is EPA Playing Dirty With Chromium Data?
NASF’s Jeff Hannapel and Christian Richter point to major flaws, bad precedent in EPA chromium air rule. NASF leaders have submitted a 100-page package of comments to the EPA in response to the agency’s proposed rule for chromium finishing operations.
Read MoreAlkaline Etching
What should be the maximum aluminum content in alkaline etching to avoid galvanized appearance (also known as spangling) in anodized (type II, natural, 10u) 6063 T6 extrusions? Do you think complexed aluminum helps to attain micrograin matte finishes? All in all, it seems that while free aluminum may promote spangling, chelated aluminum does the opposite (enhances matt finish). Is this right?
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Redneck Jokes and Finishing
At the ECOAT 2012 Conference in Orlando, Fla., last month, we addressed the topic “What Underperforming Finishers Don’t Know (That Good Ones Do).”
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Finding Lost Profits In Your Finishing Line
The finishing division of White Castle restaurants teamed with Profit Finders, a continuous improvement company specializing in data collection and analysis, to look at ways to increase process efficiencies.
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Sand + Snow Makes Pretreatment Essential
Polaris' finishing department made sure its cleaning and pretreatment process was doing the job right before they electrocoated and powder coated popular off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, motorcycles and military vehicles. SEE THE VIDEO
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Aerospace Drives More Calls for Non-Chrome Passivate Finishes
More finishers are warming up to using non-chrome passivation as a way to satisfy customers who don’t want to use hexavalent chromium for corrosion treatment.
Read MoreAerospace Sector Plans Rebound
Aerospace is our featured topic this month in Products Finishing magazine, and one of the pressing issues facing those who make their living off of contracts from the military and aerospace companies is the health of the industry. Last fall, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers wrote to President Obama in order to help preserve the aerospace and defense industry and its workforce from the substantial downsizing that defense budget cuts would bring. But Craig Hanriot, president of leading aerospace metal finisher Technical Metal Finishing in Burbank, Calif., says the plea to maintain defense spending may have been too little, too late. He says the culmination of the Iraq war, Afghanistan military activities winding down and a huge national debt were enough for the U.S. Congress to cut military spending by $350 billion over the next 10 years.
Read MoreInk Printing on Anodized Aluminum
We anodize small sheets and then digitally print on them. The time between anodizing and printing can be weeks. After 2–3 weeks, the anodic layer does not seem to absorb the solvent dye as well as it does after 1 or 2 days. How can we prolong the time between anodizing and printing?
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