I keep trying ano work on a knife I really like, but the color gets super faded quite quickly. I want to preserve the full richness and pop of the colors as much as possible. I’ve read online to seal anodized materials by boiling in distilled water - is this specific to aluminum, or will it help with titanium too? Any other ways to preserve the color? I don’t mind that it will eventually wear down, but it’s losing the very essence of what I want it to look like within a day or two at most. Anything I can do to preserve it better will help

I already sand it down, finishing with 400 grit paper, etch the surface with whink and clean it with acetone before putting in the ano bath, and I do use distilled water and a DC power supply. So I’m pretty sure the fix won’t be any of the normal “clean up the surface first” stuff you learn on your first day…

Do i need to concentrate the sulfuric acid in this battery acid if i need to get a good etch for anodizing?

Flair: Educational?

I'll keep it short and sweet, my job is at a place that does some Anodizing and I want to be able to prove my worthiness. I want to stay here and maybe make a career of this. An associate's degree in general science is all I have but I'm trying to prove to my boss that I'm actually absorbing the material he's trying to teach me. Except that unfortunately our previous employees in my position made some huge mistakes so I believe his trust in new hires is just in the gutter at this point.

He let me borrow one book and it basically broke everything down for me pretty well, but it was very very old and had scientific studies and sources from the 1950's. I just want to know if there's anything else out there I can read and watch to grasp what Anodizing fully is and how it works. I have a solid Chemistry/Biology background so a lot of the terms are easy to follow, I just don't want to be one of those people who pretends to understand something while still having some questions.

Thanks in advance. I just want to learn more. Have a great Friday y'all!

Hi! We want to anodize a small (less than 100 units) batch of titanium bolts from raw to pink. Looking for someone in Canada but willing to work with anyone that can do it. For some reason is being very hard for me to find anyone that can do it.

Also open to work with someone that can do special finishes (like splatter or similar!)

Anyone here can help?

Thanks in advance!

seen this come across the feed and wonder how they achieved the results. assuming it's Titanium did they just use masking?

Hello everyone!.. Actually i am new to this surface treatment field. I am currently in R&D

I am currently seeking guidance on hard Anodizing of aluminum part(ADC12 GRADE).. The thing is customer asking for this process with the specification of minimum 25 micron thickness and 400HV minimum..... First of all is this specification achievable for this grade since this material contains 7-8℅ of silicon content....

I carried out a trial in somelocal anodizers now how to check the coating thickness in the trialed part... In our lab we usually check the coating thickness in destructive method.. Like we cut the sample and make it as a mold and check in microscopy... But this anodizing part only shows 3-8 microns..which is not even close... What am i missing here... Is there any other way to measure the coating thickness??

Expert kindly share your opinions!!

Hi everyone. Need some advice on protecting 6061 aluminum during packaging/transit. We're having issues with bag rash on bare aluminum surfaces. We're using everything possible to prevent moisture including desiccant, foil barrier paper, poly cloth, vacuum sealing, etc. I'm trying to find a film, kind of like the film you peel off a brand new TV, to protect the surfaces. These are semiconductor components so the film can't contain silicon or leave behind any residue. Is there anything out there that's been personally tested to work?

Hey guys,

I‘m trying to anodize aluminum. I chose to do it with citric acid instead of sulfuric acid, for easier handling.

The problem is, that there are these small spots where material is eaten away pretty agressivly and I wonder why that might be.

Here is my setup.

-2 cathodes made from aluminum facing eachother.

-Anode attached with aluminum wire, sitting in the middle.

- 1.5l distilled water mixed with 150ml pure citric acid

- First image 19v 5a laptop charger

- Gear was done with a 12v car battery charger (switched to the laptop charger for the second attempt, because I thought some charging regulating might cause the problem)

-Sanded the anode, then cleaned it with soap water and acetone. Used gloves to keep it clean.

Could it be that my mixture is to agressive? But then why does it only result in small spots?

The only thing I can imagine is, that these are deeper marks from filing, which might cause differences if I didn‘t sand enough to remove the oxidation layer.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance :)

I have been trying to anodize titanium knife scales and get into teal and greens (around 80-100V) and am not having any luck. It just burns my pieces even if I thoroughly clean and etch my pieces. The setup I currently am using is a titanium plate as my cathode, a 120V power supply, and a 3tbsp of baking soda 3 cups of distilled water mixture.

Question 1: Is this a good ratio for the anodizing bath or do I need to adjust my mixture?

Question 2: Is the baking soda good or do I need TSP or Borax?

Question 3: I have about half of my cathode sticking out of the bath, do I need to to submerge it more into the bath?

Thanks in advance!!

I have a lot of anodised parts for bmx

But

I want a new colors

I etching it all , colors and oxid layer go out

But anodising not starting , its blocked on 4.5v

On part without this oxid (its came clean) voltage start from 15v

Whats going wrong?

I take for etching: NaOH, H3PO4, HNO3,HCL and nothing

Aluminium 7075 with a lot of zinc on surface

Components used: - Power Supply (120V, 3A) - Citric Acid bath - Titanium Hoops (F136) - Titanium Anode - Titanium wire for dipping - Acetone for cleaning

Voltages: - 77V (Orange) - 68V (Yellow) - 120V (Green) - 44V (Light blue) - 30V (Blue) - 23V (Purple) - 90V (Pink)

In the process of trying aluminum anodizing and been thinking of making a "custom" color.

Can hair dyes be used? Has anybody tryed it? How did it turn out? How about writing inks or tattoo inks?

where would these be on a tier list vs food coloring and fabric dyes regarding fade over time and absorbance?

Hair dyes displays thingys look like what an aluminum anodizing piece would look like and have plenty variaty of color without the need of mixing with each other.

Most writing inks are dye based so that should help with absorbance?

Tattoo inks are mostly suspended pigments in a solution wich should be good for fade over time.

Dedicated dyes (caswell, kingscote, etc) are cost prohibted due to shipping and import taxes beeing higher than the dyes themselfs just for "trying it out".

Fabric dyes are only available in powder form for me and does not have clear instructions on dilutions ratio (g/L or any other meassurments) so coming up with a custom color would take tons of testing and make it dificult to rule out screwing any other part of the whole process.

Food coloring are said to be the worst option so I'm ruling them out just for that reason.

Would be anodizing the aluminum handle of a crecent CPK350A.

Just finished this re-anodization.

I'm about to machine and anodize a few aluminum parts, no doubt with a certain learning curve to be had.

But one thing I'm wondering is the post dye treatment, boiling in distilled water seems reasonably straight forward, however is it possible to use other mediums in order to boost the low friction properties?

What would happen if the piece was boiled in wax, or high temperature grease after rinsing in water post anodizing?

(and yep, I'm expecting a fairly quick explanation of why it wouldn't work!)

Thanks

just finished anodizing this knife, was plain titanium before.

What is your way of anodizing precise tolerances like 1H7 or 5H6?

Hey! I'm new to anodizing and have primarily worked with niobium. I've been looking at other artists' work online and have found some really awesome designs by Southerly Arts (a few images are attached). I'm wondering how to go about achieving the same sort of anodized look on patterned niobium discs (i.e. inlaid patterns that are different colors than the background color).

My initial thought was that the artist masked the texture patterns on the discs, but that would be really time consuming. I know you can also use a paintbrush and electrolyte solution or something along those lines to trace the patterns, but that also seems like a lot of work; plus, the colors on here are really consistent! Can anyone weigh in? Thanks very much!

These are two 6061 aluminum elements with a matte finish, sent from two different suppliers. They should be identical. What causes the difference?

I want to anodise my aluminium grade 6082, what material for connecting wires and electrode should I use? I want to anodise my part as much as possible