Alzak, still available? Any alternatives?

A. The company that used the trade name "Alzak" was bought into another company. I cannot give commercial names here but you can contact finishing.com direct and they can tell you who NOW has Alzak.

Hi. Actually, if you know who currently owns the trademark, Robert, I see nothing wrong with answering -- especially because I don't happen to know :-)
But if it's not Alcoa, may I guess Albright & Wilson? :-)

Regards,

"The Surface
Treatment &
Finishing of
Aluminium and
Its Alloys"
by Wernick, Pinner
& Sheasby

on AbeBooks

or eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. My 1957 Georgia Tech Professor would say, Bob, you have been weighed and found "wanting", for Alcoa surely is not out of business, but they did shut down the new Kensington Research Station which did some work on ALZAK which they mention in their 1956 Aluminite booklet, but do not give a formula.

I have found the formula in Sheasby/Pinner's book and will be glad to copy and FAX that page to your correspondent.

A. For the record, Albright & Wilson had no involvement in Alzak.
A&W sold their business to Rhodia who in turn sold the surfactant business to Huntsman. Part of the metal finishing business went to Atotech and the aluminium finishing to Thermphos.
Bob, would you mind outlining the Alzak process please?

May 23, 2014 Did Rhodia purchase Albright & Wilson in 2001, and its website is www.rhodia.com? Best regards, Alex Alex Au - Hong Kong China ---- Ed. note: As you see, Alex, we appended your question to a thread where Harry Parkes "pre-answerd" it :-)

A. The S & P book has one page on Alzak, printed out over two pages in the book. I will copy and FAX to anyone who sends their FAX number (no charge in the USA, otherwise, you pay my FAX expense) Quoting directly from part of the data:

"The standard fluoborate method employed a 2.5% solution of fluoboric acid which could be make up by mixing 40 gm of boric acid with 100 gm hydrofluoric acid (48%) and allowing to cool. this mixture which contains 37.5% fluoboric acid (HBF4) with an excess of 7.5% boric acid, was then diluted by 20:1 to reach the working concentration. ammonium bifluoride could be added to improve conductivity. The electrolyte was operated for 5 - 10 minutes at 15-30 volts at approximately 30 °C (85 °F), the current density being 1 - 2 A/dm2 (10-20 amps/sq ft).

Reflectors brightened by the Alzak process were normally anodized by the sulfuric acid process, e.g. in 7 -12% (vol) sulfuric acid at 25 °C and 16-22 volts for 10 minutes, followed by sealing in boiling water for 10 minutes. "