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Polishing and finishing of Tantalum pieces

In our R&D department, we develop some half-finished products for esthetic applications, clockmaking and jewelry. We are interested in new applications for tantalum. Our questions are as followed:

- Is it easy to polish Ta ?
- How to have a good polishing and finishing of Ta ?
- What color shall we obtain at the end ? what grey ?
- How to clean the surface to avoid making our hands duty when touching it ?

Thanks for your help.

Lorent GERMAN
material supplier - Evry, FRANCE
2004
publicly reply to Lorent GERMAN

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First of two simultaneous responses --

There isn't a lot of special info necessary to explain this the processing of this metal. It is just a matter of selecting a proper media that will account for the hardness of the material and what kind of surface finish you require in the time period or production rate.

AF Kenton
retired business owner - Hatboro, Pennsylvania
publicly reply to AF Kenton

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Second of two simultaneous responses --

You can use the polishing paste to satisfy all the needs your want. Actually,the hardness of the grinded cannot be ground by ordinary abrasive paste,only the diamond polishing abrasive can success.

XiangRong
- Xi'an,Shannxi, P.R.C.
2004
publicly reply to XiangRong

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We have finally succeeded in electropolishing tantalum. Process requires 10-18 minutes to obtain good quality mirror finish. Also tantalum color anodizing process creates good quality durable colors similar to titanium color anodizing. Contact us if interested.

Anna Berkovich
Russamer Lab

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

2005
publicly reply to Anna Berkovich