ASM Metals Handbook Vol. 5: Surface Cleaning, Finishing, and Coating

Surface Finishing Book Details

ASM Metals Handbook Vol. 5: Surface Cleaning, Finishing, and Coating is a substantial surface finishing book from the ninth edition of the ASM Metals Handbook series. It is listed as a 1982 American Society for Metals volume with ISBN 9993981532, and Ted Mooney describes the illustrated edition as 715 oversized pages. For readers interested in metal finishing, this is not a narrow process booklet. It is a broad technical reference covering surface preparation, cleaning, finishing, coating, plating, and related treatment processes across many metals and industrial applications.

Ted Mooney calls this one of Finishing.com’s must-have books, and the reason is clear from the scope of coverage. The review highlights two areas where the book goes deeper than many other references: the science of how plating solutions work, and the cleaning and finishing of metals beyond the usual steel and aluminum examples. That second point matters because finishing problems often become more difficult when the substrate changes. Magnesium, nickel alloys, refractory metals, and other less-common materials can require different preparation, activation, coating, and process-control thinking than standard carbon steel work.

As a surface finishing book, this volume appears especially useful for readers who want context across multiple finishing families rather than a single bath formula. It covers cleaning, mechanical preparation, plating of common plateable metals, electropolishing, and treatment of plating waste. Those subjects belong together because surface finishing usually succeeds or fails as a sequence. A coating process can be technically correct and still fail if cleaning, activation, rinsing, current distribution, waste handling, or post-treatment is misunderstood. A reference that keeps those topics in one volume can help a reader see the complete process chain.

The book also reaches beyond electroplating. Approximately 100 pages are devoted to metallic coating processes other than plating, including galvanizing, aluminizing, hot dip tinning, thermal spray coating, chemical vapor deposition, vacuum coating, sputtering, ion plating, and ion implantation. That makes the book valuable for comparing finishing options, especially when the right answer is not automatically electroplating. Engineers, consultants, buyers, and shop personnel often need to decide whether a component needs sacrificial protection, barrier protection, wear resistance, solderability, decorative appearance, high-temperature behavior, or some other surface property.

Non-metallic processes are also part of the picture. The review lists phosphating, chromating, painting, enameling, and ceramic coating among the covered processes. That matters because the finishing industry does not divide cleanly into isolated process silos. A real part may be cleaned, mechanically prepared, chemically treated, coated, painted, sealed, tested, packaged, and exposed to service conditions where every prior step affects performance. A practical handbook helps readers recognize how those finishing systems interact.

This older ASM volume has also become a historical reference. It is out of print and was replaced by ASM Metals Handbook Vol. 5: Surface Engineering. Even so, older editions can remain useful because they preserve technical explanations, process categories, and shop-oriented knowledge from their period. They can help readers understand older specifications, inherited processes, and the reasoning behind practices that may still appear in plants, archives, and customer requirements.

Because this is an out-of-print technical handbook, this page is also a buying guide. If you are searching for this ASM Metals Handbook volume 5 surface finishing book, confirm the title, ninth edition status, publication year, page count, publisher, and condition before buying. Marketplace listings for older handbooks can be inconsistent, and similar ASM Volume 5 titles may refer to different editions. Buyers should compare the title Surface Cleaning, Finishing, and Coating against the later Surface Engineering volume before ordering.

Many industrial finishing references are not promoted like ordinary consumer books, and older titles may appear under inconsistent marketplace descriptions. A fuller entry gives readers more clues before they click away: what the book seems to cover, why it may matter to a finishing shop or engineer, and how it fits into the broader world of surface finishing. That extra context also helps the page naturally support the focus phrase surface finishing book without awkward repetition.

Related Finishing.com Resources

• Finishing.com search: surface finishing book – Search Finishing.com for related archive discussions and technical context.
• Stainless Steel Passivation FAQ – Finishing.com page that references ASM Volume 5 in a passivation discussion.
• Finishing.com Library – Technical articles related to metal finishing, coatings, and surface preparation.

External Resources

• WorldCat search for ASM Metals Handbook Volume 5 Surface Cleaning Finishing Coating – Library catalog search for matching records and editions.
• Google Books search for ASM Metals Handbook Volume 5 Surface Cleaning Finishing Coating – Book search for alternate bibliographic records.