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Coloring Steel without Painting

We make a series of small punch and die sets of hardened tool steel, and need to be able to allow the end user to distinguish between sets with different clearances. Is there a process for coloring hardened steel, similar to the coloring of anodized aluminum, without going to something like chrome plating.

Dan Conner
- Monett, Missouri
2002

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The least expensive process I can think of would be to give a light zinc plating, then chromate them and dye the chromate. Green and metric blue dyes are applied this way, and there's probably no reason you couldn't get reds and other colors. The coloring will be pastel or faded looking rather than saturated and brilliant, but it may be fine.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2002