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Looking for surface finish

Hi

I am looking for information about surface finishes

I want to take six Al (or steel) plates 0.25 thick by 2' x 4' and treat the surface (one side) such that the surface is uniform and resembles:

Perfectly smooth, 800 grit sandpaper, 400 grit, 200 grit, 100 grit and 80 grit.

This is for a wind tunnel experiment on surface condition of airfoils Don

don greer
nasa - Edwards, California
1999

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I'm not sure if I understand, but you have 6 panels with the different finishes and want them plated? Probably the most uniform coating would be Electroless Nickel. With panels that size most other finishes would give you a buildup on the edges. Also, Al would be much lighter to handle and not that much harder to plate. Hope that was what you were looking for.

Jim Conner
Mabank, Texas USA
1999

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As Jim says, electroless nickel is a good choice for you. Aluminum panels will have to be zincated to take the Ni coating. You can suspend various grit sizes of carborundum, or whatever(as long as it's inert to the solution) in the solution and they will be embedded in the deposit. That's the way they make certain types of abrasive wheels. It may be necessary to pretreat the particles in some way so that they will accept the plating.

Dave Wichern
Consultant - The Bronx, New York
1999

I read your question differently, to me it sounds like you need more depth on some of the plates. To simulate the different grits you could chemically etch (texture) the plates. The less aggressive grits could be done with different blast media, I.E. glass bead, aluminum oxide

Joe Boddkin
Texas
1999

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