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How to remove electrochemical etched marking

Can anyone suggest the process to remove the electrochemical etched marking from ground finished SS 316 part outer diameter. I know it can be removed by grinding but this may result in OD roundness and straightness deviation. Is there any chemical process which do not hamper the finish and remove the etching? URGENT please. Thanks.

Biren Desai
Metallurgist - Bangalore, India
2007

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2007

Electropolishing is the most likely candidate, but you would lose a lot of O.D. I think more careful grinding may be a better solution. Hopefully you'll get helpful answers here, Biren, but contact a consultant for urgent problems please. The most qualified readers may not even see your inquiry until next week or next month, and how much you are willing to pay for a solution is a good measure of the urgency of a problem :-)

Good luck with it.

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

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2007

If the marking is deeper than the allowable tolerance, the only way to conceal (erase) such marking without altering dimensions is to selectively fill it up with more metal (application only over the engraved area). At least four options come to mind.
1- selective plating (nickel-cobalt matches 316 SS color)
2- spark deposition (316 SS anode)
3- micro TIG welding (316 SS wire)
4- conventional TIG welding (316 SS rod)
Manual grinding (bench work) after machine grinding or alone, if quantities are low, will be required.

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico