Summary for anodizing hot-dipped aluminized steel Discussion
Anodizing hot-dipped aluminized steel proved difficult for Omid Shafiee, who had already tried conventional hard anodizing and two patents without success. He asked whether sealing the aluminum first or switching to PEO might help. Geoff Smith advised against moving to PEO, saying it is significantly more difficult than conventional anodizing. His practical recommendation was to first learn to anodize plain aluminum successfully, then apply that knowledge to the aluminized steel surface. He also cautioned that patents are poor tutorials for process development and suggested using an anodizing textbook or the Metal Finishing Guidebook instead. The thread’s main takeaway is that the problem should be approached step by step, starting with standard aluminum anodizing before tackling the more challenging aluminized substrate.
Q. Hello everyone. I am MSc student from Iran, studying material science and engineering. I am working on my thesis. Last step of my thesis is to anodize hot-dipped aluminized steel. At first I thought it’s the easiest part of my research and I can easily anodize the aluminium but I have stuck on it.
1st of all I tried conventional hard anodizing (low temp) and it was unsuccessful.
Then I tried U.S. patent 3650910 “www.google.com/patents/US3650910?printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false” and then U.S. patent 2839455 “www.google.com/patents/US2839455?printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false”. I have tried both patents with no results.
I have also found 2 non-accessible articles about this “eprints.nmlindia.org/2177/index.html” and “trove.nla.gov.au/work/117896262?q=anodize+aluminize&c=article&versionId=131371689”
Can anyone help me what should I do?
Maybe sealing the aluminium before anodizing? Or even trying PEO instead of anodizing?
Omid Shafiee
– Tehran ,Iran
A. Hi Omid. PEO is significantly more difficult than conventional anodizing, so I don’t think you should do that. I think you should try anodizing some plain aluminum first, and after you have achieved anodizing on that, then move on to the aluminized surface. Patents are not the best tutorials. I suggest trying to find an anodizing textbook, or at least a copy of the Metal Finishing Guidebook.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com – Pine Beach, New Jersey
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November 19, 2012
A. Hi Omid
Patents are written for many reasons but almost never intended to give clear production details.
Why start with hard anodising? Conventional room temperature sulfuric anodising is much simpler for a beginner. 10-15% sulfuric and 25v could be a good place to start. There are many complex voltage profiles etc for specific purposes but they will only confuse your experiments.
It would be useful to mask the edges of your sheets if any steel is exposed; mixed metals can do strange things in an anodise tank. Start with plain Al sheets until you have that part of the process working well.
Geoff Smith
Hampshire, England
November 28, 2012