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Anodising the dark art of making aluminium things look shiny and expensive .
We sent Spanner Man to find out how it works
I had a rough idea about how Anodising works but wanted to know more. On a cold and snowy Monday afternoon I paid a visit to Steve Barry (aka Steve the Anodiser) to see the process working step by step on my brake levers and get the full low down from someone who knows what they are talking about!
I was greeted by Steve who took me through to the workshop floor where everything happens. There were tanks of liquid everywhere some were bubbling others had clouds in them?! Also the smell of chemicals hits you a bit but Steve assured me it wouldnt kill me.
The first part of the process is to degrease the parts so they are totally clean for the rest of the process. This is done using trichloroethelene vapour. This is basically a chemical cloud confined to a tank. Steve simply put the levers on a bit of wire and dangled them in the tank for a minute of so.
Next you need to strip the old anodising to make way for the new. This is done by dipping them in caustic soda solution or Amonium Bi-flouride.
Now Steve grabbed this jig that looked like a giant aggressive bog brush and proceeded to attach my levers. This needs to be done in the best way to ensure good electrical conductivity and so they dont fall off.
Next the levers were brightened in phosphoric and cleaned with a mild acid cleaner to achieve the right surface look.
After Steve got the correct surface look he put them in the sulphuric anodising vat with agitation (bubbles in simple terms) at a certain voltage and temperature. This creates and anodic film which you dye the colour of your choice. The levers had to stay in there for an hour so it was time for a cup of tea and a look at the other things they work on.
A lot of you will know of BETD Engineering and Goldtec and the lovely bits and pieces they manufacture up in Newcastle Under Lyme. Well Acorn Plating carries out all the anodising work for them. So chances are if you have a BETD linkage plates of a Goldtec Boxxer stoke they were probably anodised by Steve! There was a batch of stokes, mech hangers, bar end caps and linkage plates just being finished off when I was there...
Steve said they are also doing a lot of work with paintball gun manufacturers, doing them in various different colours but also with fade effects from one colour into another, some of the pictures were mad! Here are some of the colours available:
Now it was time to remove my levers from the sulphuric anodising vat and dye the anodic film black, the colour I wanted the levers to be. This is done quite simply by dunking the levers in a vat of dye. The longer you leave it in the dye the better it takes the colour. Steve dunked mine briefly then pulled them out to show how quickly the dye will take they were already a light grey colour! My levers were left in there for about 15 minutes.
Finally the levers are transferred to the final vat where the dye is sealed in using Boiling Nickel Accetate for at least 20 minutes After that all they need is a quick clean with an air line and they are done!
Between each step of the process the levers were rinsed in clean water to make sure the next vat used wouldnt be contaminated.
So there you have it, the mysteries of the Anodising process explained.
Anything that is aluminium can be anodised (within reason) and Steve can help you. If you want a part anodised you can contact Steve on 07971424757 or [email protected] for a quote on prices and more information.
Hatte mir das immer wesentlich unkomplizierter vorgestellt. Das dazu so viele unterschiedliche Prozesse nötig sind und dann auch noch diese ganzen Chemiekalien
Wollte immer so gerne selber mal was eloxieren, so nach dem Motto "Oliver the Anodizer", aber mit meinem alten Chemiekasten aus´m Keller, kann ich das ganze jetzt wohl eher vergessen
