Hard anodic coating on magnesium alloys

A. There are a number of companies that have developed anodic coatings for magnesium using conventional and newer micro-arc oxidation processes. For general information, try:

Anomag
Tagnite
Keronite

For more technical information, go to Metalast, then click on The Technology, then Research, then Technical Bulletins, and then either Micro Arc Oxidation or Mg Anodizing.

Another great place to obtain detailed technical information is from the patents of these various coatings. You can access US patents free-of-charge from the US Patent Office website http://www.uspto.gov/

European and other patents can be obtained from the European Patent Office website http://ep.espacenet.com/

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Ed. note: You may also want to contact some shops which do anodizing of magnesium, as listed in the banner at the top of the page.

A. Check out the FAQ on Mg finishing. FYI, the DOW anodizing treatments are quite porous, and not as good as the newer generation coatings like Tagnite or Anomag. Norsk Hydro has published some work on the use of permanganate pretreatments as replacements for chromates, including an article in the October 1995 issue of Metal Finishing. Henkel Surface Technologies has an Alodine product specifically developed for magnesium.

A. I have not seen any product made of magnesium that I like except for a camping tool that you scrape off the surface and emit sparks on it to start a camp fire magnesium deteriorates so rapidly compared to most metals, you could try a really fine coating, maybe bronze, but I would recommend looking for a replacement for the magnesium!

A. Magoxid-Coat(r) is a patented, hard anodic coating for magnesium. It is very corrosion and wear resistant.

A. I agree that you should investigate magnesium oxide coatings produced by anodic treatments. Luke Engineering & Mfg. Co., Inc [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] MAGOXID-COAT and MAGPASS-COAT may be suitable. Other coatings like Keronite (UK), Tagnite (US), and Anomag (NZ, USA) are available as well.

A. Hi Asrith.

Hopefully the thread we attached your inquiry to will give you a good start. Best of luck.

Regards,

Q. Can you tell me whether we can use Anomag for Aluminium alloys ?

A. Hi again, Asrith. Anomag is a proprietary process for anodizing of magnesium, so it's hard to learn much about it without being a licensee, and I'm not.

I'm not quite sure what it really means when you are interested in applying a magnesium coating process to aluminum, because while you could perhaps get good quality aluminum anodizing in the same tank used for magnesium (maybe) by re-adjusting every parameter, as soon as you are not processing magnesium, you are not doing Anomag. So what do you really mean?

I would suggest contacting IHC (International Hardcoat) [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] , as they are both an Anomag licensee and a hardcoat aluminum anodizing shop, and they can doubtless answer your questions if they can clearly understand it. Best of luck.

Regards,