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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
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for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Anodizing Aluminium LM24, A1060 -- is it possible?
Q. I am trying to anodize die cast Aluminum LM24, A1060 is it possible to get it to look good and if not what other types of finishes will work? It needs to be scratch resistant, and so far paint isn't strong enough.
Brad Adamsproduct designer - Carlsbad, California, USA
June 29, 2010
A. That depends mostly on your definition of looks good. Anodized cast will never look as good as a machined wrought alloy. - Navarre, Florida July 1, 2010
"The Surface
July 1, 2010Treatment & Finishing of Aluminium and Its Alloys" by Wernick, Pinner & Sheasby (note: this book is two volumes) on eBay or AbeBooks or Amazon (affil links) A. Sheasby and Pinner show LM24 as: 8% silicon, 3% copper, and 1.3 % iron. They say it is recommended for protective anodizing as "moderate", not good, not very good. They say not recommended for dyeing except darker colors. They say unsuitable for bright anodizing. End of S & P. Since you anodize aluminum and not the silicon on the surface, it is important that your preparation removes as much silicon as possible before anodizing - you must use a fluoride, maybe not HF but ammonium bifluoride. In my book, for die cast I recommend 50% nitric with one pound per gallon ammonium bifluoride. Try the process in a small way before setting up. And be aware , that the cooling rate and the recipe range of the LM24 affects the amount of silicon on the surface. Robert H Probert Robert H Probert Technical Services Garner, North Carolina |
Q. We have HPDC aluminum part weighing 1.2 Kgs and made in LM24.
After anodizing, we observe yellow patches on anodized surface and which are random in nature. We do hard anodizing at our supplier. Need to know the reason of this as aesthetics become poor with these patches.
(Click graphics for higher rez photos)
filters - Pune, Maharashtra , India
January 16, 2017
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