Letter 40035

Aluminum Etch Prep turning Aluminum Black [Indiana] 

March 23, 2006

I work for a small DoD contractor, and we do repair of various aircraft electronic assemblies and also paint shipboard antennas and the like. We are attempting to branch out into some simple Chemical Conversion Coating treatment of aluminum brackets and the like. We are using the old standby of Alodine 1201.

My plating line is as follows: Wash all parts with warm tap water and Dawn brand diswhashing detergent, and thouroughtly rinse off all traces of detergent, Alumiprep 33 at a 3:1 ratio with DI water, a rinse cycle of tap water (pH of about 6.5), Alodine 1201 at a 2:1 ratio with DI water, and two more rinse cycles with tap water, then blow dry with heated air (from a hair dryer).

All of the pieces have come out fine, with no problems except one type. There is a small standoff of 1/4" hex aluminum, about 3" long. It is drilled and tapped at both ends, however, does not have any sort of helicoil or steel insert. I am not sure of the exact aluminum alloy, I would suspect it is probably 6061 or something similar, as that is very common on Navy equipment.

When I process these particular parts through the Alumiprep 33, they come out with a dark, almost pewter finish on them. The finish does not rub off. If it is wetted, and a white paper towel is rubbed vigoursly on them, they will darkent the paper towel, slightly.

With the dark finish, then alodining the part makes it look real bad. These parts are going to be painted, so the appearance is not a big issue.

I know the Alumiprep solution is still good, because right after these parts were run, I ran some other parts, and they came out fine.

I did contact the manufacturer's tech support. He suggested that possibly for some reason the corrosion/oxidation etc. which Alumiprep is supposed to remove from aluminum is being deposited on these particular pieces. Almost like for some reasont the chemical reaction polarity is reversing. He suggested trying the parts in fresh, unused Alumiprep - that did not help.

I also prepared a very dilute solution of HF (5% in H2O, pH of about 3.0 on pHydrion paper) - this solution does not seem to be helping either. The aluminum in the HF appears to have some sort of whispy strands coming from it in the HF - something like whiskers - but more whispy.

As I said, I am not sure of the exact Aluminum alloy these are made from. One other point of interest (potentiall) is these parts were very heavily corroded and pitted - much more so than other parts from the very same antenna. In fact, I have never seen aluminum this badly corroded. When they parts were tumbled to remove the corrosion, the pitts looked very much more like rust on iron - like an old iron part from some old tractor which had been cleaned up. I could send photo's of the parts, if that would help.

Sorry for such a long post, but that is all my information.

Scott A. Wasmer
- Odon, IN, USA

Ed. note: Don't apologize for a detailed posting. The detail is what makes the inquiry interesting, as well as answerable.

All your other parts are likely 6061, however, alloys that turn dark in the deox or etch are most likely of the 2xxx series (i.e. high in copper) such as 2024. Since it sounds like you're doing mil spec or defense work, you should be running process control panels of 2024 and subjecting them to salt spray in order to qualify your process - do these 2024 panels turn the similar shade of dark? The fact that these parts are badly corroded as returned from the field should indicate that they're made of some low corrosion resistant alloy (again like the 2xxx series of alloys). If that is the case, you likely need a chromic based deoxidizer to treat 2024 without getting this "pewter" finish.

Milt Stevenson, Jr. Anoplate Corp Syracuse, NY, USA

Scott

I'd bet good money your hex stock is a 2000 series alloy.

Try immersing in the Alumiprep for shorter immersion times, until you start to pick up some color. Remove and water rinse. Examine in good lighting. 2024 will exhibit a pronounced green color; 2011 & 2017 will have a darker (darker than 6061 for the same immersion time) grey color, but if you let it dry, you should be able to see some green, red, and blue hues- very subtle.

Also... clean with wet scotchbrite and chromate immediately with a known 6061 part. You should see different deposition rates (color).

Willie Alexander
- Colorado Springs, CO

If you professional finishers are having a chuckle at my post - well, that is ok. I know I am not real smart in this area, as I said, I am just setting up my little line.

I did call one of my suppliers technical people - he gave me some ideas, and they did not work. Then he stated that he was absolutley certain that my material must not be aluminum. I guess he so much believes in his "do-all" product, that it HAD to work.

I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I do know what Aluminum is. So I went back to this web site, and contacted one of the sponsors here. What a great guy - told me to try some Nitric Acid to De-Smut. It worked great!!!

Just goes to show me that reading and talking to suppliers, who are in the business of selling and promoting product is not always the best resource. Thanks again for the help here... I have found very much great information, and surely will be back again.

Scott Wasmer
- Crane, IN, USA

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